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The original thread is here: Kirkwood -- Holy 
Holy Fucking Shit!!! In my mind, Saturday at Kirkweed would definitely make the "Best-Of-KW" mental movie compilation. I've replayed the entire day over and over again.
9am. I pull into the lot....Appetite for Destruction blaring to set the mood for the day..... Head up to 6. Can't find anyone. Over to funnel...straightline.....trees...pow. Light dry powder billowing.
Ripping through a foot of fresh in the Wagon Wheel trees with "Welcome to the Jungle" in my head was as good as it gets. I had this all to myself for 2 runs.
3rd run- Found Hardrider and Divegirl at the bottom of 6. "Funnel's going off!!!" Divegirl bravely tags along. Hardrider launches off the funnel launch and airs into an untouched LZ. I follow in his tracks with Axl screaming in my head
"Loaded like a freight train!!!! Flying like an aeroplane"
***WHOOOOOOMPH***
"Feeling like a spacebrain one more time tonight!!!!"
That air was SWEEEET! Divegirl charges the steep pow lines. We bomb the trees for more untracked and make a beeline for Wall, which just opened.
On the ride up We're giggling like schoolgirls picking and scoping lines. Ridge was getting DESTROYED. straighlines, huckfest, pure madness everywhere. The stoke and energy was off the scale. We spot Shoe straighlining the face heading into his usual stashes. We found Nightpanda but lost him shortly after, then Len and Greydon adopted him for the rest of the day.
Got into the trees for more pow. Met up with Mr & Mrs Shoe at the bottom. Found Legoskier. Head out to Norm's, straightline the usual chute into pow. OOORRRGHH!!! Each run gets better than before!!!
Pic: (L-R) Mr and Mrs Shoe, Hardrider with icicle fang
At around the same time Clack is being silly off of Little Jim's, doing it for Len's camera.
Backside is OPEN! WHOOOOOOO!!! FUCK YEAAAAHH!!!! There's 5 feet of new snow there and it was closed for the past 2 days.
Pic: Kirkweed's Cirque and Thunder Saddle
I had one line in my head...Monster Dump's one that keeps him awake at night:
Pic: Soulsearcher, Seen from the top.
We bomb the traverse to Thunder Saddle. I am scoping a virginal line...obvious Clack, er, Mr. Dump is still on the other side of the mountain.
Mr. Shoelaces and Mr Hardrider at the top of soulsearcher
3....2...1.....DROPPING!!!!!
"I'm on the Nighttrain bottoms up...I'm on the nighttrain fill my cup I'm on the night train, ready to crash and burn I never learn...."
The line was a blur. I remember the weightless feeling of the drop, sketchy rocks, terminal velocity into a sweeping right hand arc into bottomless pow, cranking another turn to burn the speed and then getting a momentary adrenaline overload. I think that was Nate and Legoskier spotting from below.
Over to Maggot chute. Did that one for Splat who's not around today.
We found Kellie at the bottom then back up to TS we go. I hit the same line again. Damn that shit's so addictive. Shoe bags a line in one-man and instead of the usual dogled line he goes to the left and LAUNCHES off the thing at full speed. I was way below, too far to see what was happening, but judging from the hoots and screams, he obviously went nuts.
Shoe sickquence. pic 1: Top of one man
Shoe sickquence, pic 2: Shoe takes the drop
Shoe sickquence, pic 3: powder speed burn
Again! Same line again! We're back on the 2-4 lap. Hardrider charges soulsearcher, which is getting straightline trenches carved into it by now. I hit that up for the 3rd time. We found Arty at the base.
I can't believe how few people there are and how long it took to track shit up today. Complete opposite of Mammoth yesterday. Most of the crew hike Vista while me and Arty go back to the top.
Looking down one-man. a little used up by now. The straightline runout was getting chewed up, but the Shoe line only had his bombhole in it.
Pic: Punani-Eye view of One Man before launching into the Shoe air.
With Arty spotting below he gives me the take off signal. A crowd of weekend skier types congregate above. I launch into the chute, check my speed then point it off the rock, aiming to the left of Shoe's Bombhole.....
The thing spat me out like a cannonball into what felt like bottomless powder. HOLY SHIT!!! I STUCK IT!!!! HAAAAAA!!!!!!1 Fucking stoked!!!! Thanks for being my wingman Arty. I still owe you a beer
We regrouped with the gang.
The powder frenzy continued onto gaper-shaker trail for some sweet powder lines and hucks off of lower cirque. Kellie's charging as hard, if not harder than the boys and is getting into the hucks too.
Pic: Kellie aka Wonder Woman gittin sum at LC
Hardrider "Moto-turn" on pow
Lapped LC a few times and then the usual Palisades / OB runs of top to bottom pow. This was insane....while the crew head off to Bubs ofr the beers I had to gather up my last remaining energy for another OB lap.......
Pic: Punani-Eye view of Kirkweed, seen from Outside the Boundary
We ended the day with beers and nachos at Bubs. Nothing but big smiles, stories and laughter from what was one of the best days I've had at Kirkweed.
Sunday 1/4
Ouch. The krew is in a world of hurt.
Bruised and battered bodies congregated on Sunday morning.
Clack aka Zoolander tweaked his knee yesterday and can't turn right. It felt like Arnold rammed his fist into my stomach, and hardriders. Every turn hurt, but we had to keep skiing. Not the powder frenzy yesterday, just a low key day of skiing. Wall, Norms, tree stashes were all good. Kellie, lph and Nate head OB to bag CA chute while Shoe and Hardrider nail season first lines on Pencil and Asscrack chutes.
Pic: Pencil chute and asscrack chute
Greydon Clark and I met up with Crazy Aussies 1 and 2. These guys are the most fun nutballs to watch. They did upper Cham in the sketchiest conditions I've ever seen- windscoured hardpack and rock to intant death if you fuck up. Lapped the stuff we didn;t ski yesterday. Even the tracked up stuff was still nice and soft.
Pic: Crazy Aussies 1 and 2, in uniform, prepare to drop upper Cham
Pic: The view of Upper Cham
Caught up with Hardrider and Shoe. We spotted a slide that took out CA chute and hoped our crew was OK....sure enough they were at Bub's having beers and watching lph's footage at the end of the day.
1 day surfing perfect little barrels, 1 day at Mammy, 2 at Kirkweed, all pow......so far 2004 has been The Shit.
Holy Fucking Shit!!! In my mind, Saturday at Kirkweed would definitely make the "Best-Of-KW" mental movie compilation. I've replayed the entire day over and over again.
9am. I pull into the lot....Appetite for Destruction blaring to set the mood for the day..... Head up to 6. Can't find anyone. Over to funnel...straightline.....trees...pow. Light dry powder billowing.
Ripping through a foot of fresh in the Wagon Wheel trees with "Welcome to the Jungle" in my head was as good as it gets. I had this all to myself for 2 runs.
3rd run- Found Hardrider and Divegirl at the bottom of 6. "Funnel's going off!!!" Divegirl bravely tags along. Hardrider launches off the funnel launch and airs into an untouched LZ. I follow in his tracks with Axl screaming in my head
"Loaded like a freight train!!!! Flying like an aeroplane"
***WHOOOOOOMPH***
"Feeling like a spacebrain one more time tonight!!!!"
That air was SWEEEET! Divegirl charges the steep pow lines. We bomb the trees for more untracked and make a beeline for Wall, which just opened.
On the ride up We're giggling like schoolgirls picking and scoping lines. Ridge was getting DESTROYED. straighlines, huckfest, pure madness everywhere. The stoke and energy was off the scale. We spot Shoe straighlining the face heading into his usual stashes. We found Nightpanda but lost him shortly after, then Len and Greydon adopted him for the rest of the day.
Got into the trees for more pow. Met up with Mr & Mrs Shoe at the bottom. Found Legoskier. Head out to Norm's, straightline the usual chute into pow. OOORRRGHH!!! Each run gets better than before!!!
Pic: (L-R) Mr and Mrs Shoe, Hardrider with icicle fang
At around the same time Clack is being silly off of Little Jim's, doing it for Len's camera.
Backside is OPEN! WHOOOOOOO!!! FUCK YEAAAAHH!!!! There's 5 feet of new snow there and it was closed for the past 2 days.
Pic: Kirkweed's Cirque and Thunder Saddle
I had one line in my head...Monster Dump's one that keeps him awake at night:
Pic: Soulsearcher, Seen from the top.
We bomb the traverse to Thunder Saddle. I am scoping a virginal line...obvious Clack, er, Mr. Dump is still on the other side of the mountain.
Mr. Shoelaces and Mr Hardrider at the top of soulsearcher
3....2...1.....DROPPING!!!!!
"I'm on the Nighttrain bottoms up...I'm on the nighttrain fill my cup I'm on the night train, ready to crash and burn I never learn...."
The line was a blur. I remember the weightless feeling of the drop, sketchy rocks, terminal velocity into a sweeping right hand arc into bottomless pow, cranking another turn to burn the speed and then getting a momentary adrenaline overload. I think that was Nate and Legoskier spotting from below.
Over to Maggot chute. Did that one for Splat who's not around today.
We found Kellie at the bottom then back up to TS we go. I hit the same line again. Damn that shit's so addictive. Shoe bags a line in one-man and instead of the usual dogled line he goes to the left and LAUNCHES off the thing at full speed. I was way below, too far to see what was happening, but judging from the hoots and screams, he obviously went nuts.
Shoe sickquence. pic 1: Top of one man
Shoe sickquence, pic 2: Shoe takes the drop
Shoe sickquence, pic 3: powder speed burn
Again! Same line again! We're back on the 2-4 lap. Hardrider charges soulsearcher, which is getting straightline trenches carved into it by now. I hit that up for the 3rd time. We found Arty at the base.
I can't believe how few people there are and how long it took to track shit up today. Complete opposite of Mammoth yesterday. Most of the crew hike Vista while me and Arty go back to the top.
Looking down one-man. a little used up by now. The straightline runout was getting chewed up, but the Shoe line only had his bombhole in it.
Pic: Punani-Eye view of One Man before launching into the Shoe air.
With Arty spotting below he gives me the take off signal. A crowd of weekend skier types congregate above. I launch into the chute, check my speed then point it off the rock, aiming to the left of Shoe's Bombhole.....
The thing spat me out like a cannonball into what felt like bottomless powder. HOLY SHIT!!! I STUCK IT!!!! HAAAAAA!!!!!!1 Fucking stoked!!!! Thanks for being my wingman Arty. I still owe you a beer
We regrouped with the gang.
The powder frenzy continued onto gaper-shaker trail for some sweet powder lines and hucks off of lower cirque. Kellie's charging as hard, if not harder than the boys and is getting into the hucks too.
Pic: Kellie aka Wonder Woman gittin sum at LC
Hardrider "Moto-turn" on pow
Lapped LC a few times and then the usual Palisades / OB runs of top to bottom pow. This was insane....while the crew head off to Bubs ofr the beers I had to gather up my last remaining energy for another OB lap.......
Pic: Punani-Eye view of Kirkweed, seen from Outside the Boundary
We ended the day with beers and nachos at Bubs. Nothing but big smiles, stories and laughter from what was one of the best days I've had at Kirkweed.
Sunday 1/4
Ouch. The krew is in a world of hurt.
Bruised and battered bodies congregated on Sunday morning.
Clack aka Zoolander tweaked his knee yesterday and can't turn right. It felt like Arnold rammed his fist into my stomach, and hardriders. Every turn hurt, but we had to keep skiing. Not the powder frenzy yesterday, just a low key day of skiing. Wall, Norms, tree stashes were all good. Kellie, lph and Nate head OB to bag CA chute while Shoe and Hardrider nail season first lines on Pencil and Asscrack chutes.
Pic: Pencil chute and asscrack chute
Greydon Clark and I met up with Crazy Aussies 1 and 2. These guys are the most fun nutballs to watch. They did upper Cham in the sketchiest conditions I've ever seen- windscoured hardpack and rock to intant death if you fuck up. Lapped the stuff we didn;t ski yesterday. Even the tracked up stuff was still nice and soft.
Pic: Crazy Aussies 1 and 2, in uniform, prepare to drop upper Cham
Pic: The view of Upper Cham
Caught up with Hardrider and Shoe. We spotted a slide that took out CA chute and hoped our crew was OK....sure enough they were at Bub's having beers and watching lph's footage at the end of the day.
1 day surfing perfect little barrels, 1 day at Mammy, 2 at Kirkweed, all pow......so far 2004 has been The Shit.
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