Kirkwood -- Holy crap

These past 4 days are a complete blur of powder, smiling faces, more powder, speed, laughter, airs, sketchy lines, etc. etc. I can't remember having so much fun in successive days on the mountain. Some highlights before SP decides to write a book on the extended weekend:

Thurs -- Deep over the head & shoulders trees skiing at Sierra with 60 mph wind gusts until they shut the lifts down.

Fri -- Super rippin powder day at KW. Charged all day with Kellie and Hardrider. More high winds continually covered our tracks with blower. Every run was pow pow. Every run was fast and chargin. Every run was fun, fun, fun.

Sat. -- 3 day storm finally breaks and its bluebird....and there's another foot or so overnight. Complete powder frenzy. 10th chair on wall...straightline it down to Waterfall with cheers from Punani on the lift. Backside opens....thunder saddle is buried and we spend nearly all day back there in the white room. Heart Chute got bagged today by some locals.....one skier double ejected after the what is now a 50 footer...the other, a snowboarder, lawn darted it and stuck it....siiiiiick.

Sun -- Bit more of a mellow day spent pecking around for freshies in Palisades and lower Cirque...still lots of untracked pow left in stashes. Highlights were finally bagging the Broccoli Chute and Pencil Chute on the backside of Vista with Hardrider while lph, Telenater, and Kellie went OB and bagged Calirfornia Chute...hopefully lph will have some vi/pics of their run.

Thanks guys for making the weekend so fun.....see y'all in 2 weeks.

Great report, Ty. Definetely a super fun weekend, thanks for pushing me. I would like to correct something though. On saturday I was also chearing you on from the lift. Thanks for noticing.;)
________
Kawasaki MT1

Stoke, stoke, stoke, stoke....

Sick and ashamed and happy (and hoping for a repeat, oh, I don't know, beginning of March?),
d.

woohoo!

Powder heaven. Goddamn.

Great to hang with the crew Thursday and Friday. Thanks for keeping a big fat smiile on my face all day. Makes coming back to work today easier...and harder.

Hope to get rip around the hill a bit more in January with the Kwood crew.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. powder.

(oh, and lph, we're still waiting for your write up of the deck jumping TR ;) )

I can only echo what tyrone and others have said.

Thursday at sierra was DEEP and Blower. We get there at 9 and the place is empty. People scared away by blizzard conditions, Hah! Mere Mortals! ;) We head straight for our favorite stash of trees, but as kellie and I are heading up the lift we see NO ONE on the wide open groomer below us, although today it is a wide open powder field. Finally, about 2/3 way up we look down to see Shoe and Mrs. Shoe ripping it up. We exit lift and proceed to bomb down this 'groomer'. After that it is one after the other of high speed tree runs (to stay out of the wind). They close that lift, we go to the main slow double and ski some pretty steep trees where the snow is even deeper, probably mid thigh to waist in spots, all of us grinning from ear to ear. We get some bad directional advice from one of the crew, :rolleyes: and have to push out of the bottom of the trees. Back to the bottom the wind is gusting to 60 and they close all the lifts.

That afternoon, myself, kellie and WSD go back to my place for a bit of 'Deck Jumping' ala bad_roo. First round goes without a hitch. All of us performing the standard "Nestea Plunge". Round 2, we move to a different deck, opposite side of the house. After deciding not to get a running start, and swan diving over the rail to the snow, I climb up the rail, launch sideways and land on solid ice with about a 1" of dust on top. The sound it made was a sickening thud. I look up to see WSD and Kellie looking down at me, triing not to laugh, but not coming even close to succeeding. :D That leads to the monumental task of attempting to spend more time in the hot tub, than we had skiing. I am pretty sure we succeeded. :D

I missed friday. Stupid patients at the hospital....some of my favorites, "I hurt my back snowboarding, I think it is broken, I can't feel my legs!" "I got knocked out when I hit a tree and I am bleeding from my ears!" Friggin tourist pussies!!:mad: ;)

Saturday is a blur. I met up with Monster Dump in the parking lot and we proceed to simply lap chair 6, because for some reason, everyone decides to ski 10 and the backside, BEFORE tracking all the goods off 6. :eek: After several hi speed powder runs, Monster decides he wants Little Jims, about a 25 huck from the Top cat walk, sort of a partially snow covered cliff. He hits it twice. We then proceed to bomb around and meet up with Nightpanda and Greydon. Greydon skis a sketch line that ends in a nice 10 footer, Clack is hitting soul searcher at the same time. Finally find Shoe and Mrs Shoe and at the end of the day traverse to the boundary and proceed to get more face shots in some of the sweetest late day pow I have ever seen at Kirkwood.

Sunday was a mental letdown for me, none of the adrenalin or excitement of Saturday. Myself, kellie and Nater decide to hike out through the access gate to California Chute, the top was wind scoured but fun, middle was deeper and steep and the bottom pitch was simply DEEP, blower, mellow but high speed powder turns.

Back in bounds, straight to the bar for beers, stories and review of pics and video shot by myself and Nater.

One of the best 'stretches' of skiing I have ever had.:D :D

A very fun weekend, too much fun, as I feel some what hung-over today. Maybe skiing bell to bell with only a cup of tea as hydration isn't a good idea.
SP and Kellie, many thanks for helping me out with transportation, it was very much appreciated.

The four hours of skiing I was able to put in this weekend were easily the best of the year.

Deep. Ten feet in 7 days.

Cold. Don't think it ever broke 25 in direct sunlight at the hottest point of the day.

Unlimited visibility. Only thing blocking your sight was other peaks and the curvature of the earth.

Tried to pull into a spot and some guy in a big truck is trying to snag my spot and is waving crazy directions to me. Ends up it's lph in his new monster. Skied with him Saturday morning until a submerged rock gave me a pimp limp. He was riding on those spatulas and man am I sold on em. I mean he was COOKING on those suckers. (get it, cooking?) Tackled a line and an air I've been wanting for a while just to be upstaged by a 17 year old from Carson City on the same air. We skied with that kid for a little while as well.

Was hoping the ankle and knee would be ready to ski hard again Sunday. Wasn't the case but I was able to get one long hike and virgin run in. Every boundery was open. An hour hike over the palasades and we had 1600 or so vertical of untouched waist deep turns, a small cliff band to the softest landing ever followed by glade skiing at the bottom. Doesn't get much better.



Ron/Hardrider - Pencil chute eh? Did it have the wind lip at the bottom as advertised? Broccoli chute??? You had to make this up.

Telenator - I hope you all had your peeps, shovels, and probes or I'm holding you responsible. ;)

Kellie - Thunder bowl was open. Only about 4 people had hit it by the time I finished hiking over palasades.

Rest of the crew - More turns with you all next time. Way to be there and get it.

Quote:

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Originally posted by monster dump.

Ron/Hardrider - Pencil chute eh? Did it have the wind lip at the bottom as advertised? Broccoli chute??? You had to make this up.

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Who's this "Ron" character? ;)

Pencil -- It only had a slight windlip. It was super narrow in the middle....had to simultaneously lift right ski up & over a rock, duck to avoid the rock wall overhang on the left, and make yourself as skinny as possible to squeeze through, then hang on for speeeeeed. (I'm going to take this move to the dancefloors of the SLT clubs and become a millionaire for inventing the lates dance craze since the Macarena..."The Pencil" :D )Jacket and poles brush the rock wall on the left as you squeeze through.....I think its too early in the season for that burly windlip to form at the bottom.

Broccoli Chute -- Nope not made up. Patroller told us the name. He said its called that cause the rocks that the chute cuts through looks like stalks of broccoli....and they actually do :) This chute wasn't as fun as Pencil. It was pretty tame, except for the entrance which required some skier666-esque billygoating on rock to get in.

Quote:

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Originally posted by monster dump.
lph was riding on those spatulas and man am I sold on em. I mean he was COOKING on those suckers. (get it, cooking?)

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I am sold as well. It took me four days of riding them to get them dialed in, but that day with Monster, I have never skied untracked and chopped powder so fast, efficiently, so effortlessly and so fast. At the end of the day my legs were still fresh. Most efficient powder ski i have ever been on. :D

Doh! I still get mixed up between names and online personas I guess. I still prefer Clack. I'd change my name back but it won't let me. Oh well.

Got to hit up pencil chute. That sounds like a fun one. And one man looked like an L.A. Freeway. Didn't even bother with it.

Quote:

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Originally posted by monster dump.

And one man looked like an L.A. Freeway. Didn't even bother with it.

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oh it was....especially after I had my way with it....twice :D The second time I took the skier's left exit (rather than the typical dogleg right) and aired the rock ledge. It completely threw me in the backseat and I exploded upon touchdown. Punani then stuck it later in the day....bastardo! ;)

Quote:

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Originally posted by lph

The sound it made was a sickening thud. I look up to see WSD and Kellie looking down at me, triing not to laugh, but not coming even close to succeeding. :D :D

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lph: here I go! THUD! OW! did you just hear all my bones crack?
me & kellie: hee hee hee hee ha ha ha! Oh my god! Are you ok? did you really just crack all your bones?!?!? hee hee hee ha ha ha.....

damn. That was some good entertainment. Wish you'd had your helmet cam on though! Could have shared the fun here!

What a weekend!
I too echo those before me in saying this was one of the best 4-day stretches ever!

Started on Thursday at Sierra in the trees of blower during a storm which adequately started the year (and hopefully serves as an indication of what's to come!) with some great snow and fun trees. The West Bowl chair took us to our favorite trees, where I almost had a heart attack as I was at the bottom breaking trail back to the runs and lph came up behind me and scared the $#%* out of me! Have I mentioned my very real fear of the boogy man?!? I recovered, however, and went on to finish the operating hours before the storm raged too hard and the day ended with clam chowder, jumping off of lph's deck, and sitting in a hot tub (possibly the highlight of the weekend!)

Friday goes down as one of the best ski days ever . . . spent the day with hardrider and Tyrone getting the job done in our office: Kirkwood Ski Resort . . . and we certainly got it done! Spent the morning on 6, then went out to 10 when it opened and skied there until it was too brutal to ride the 11 minute chair any longer. Went back to 6, took a run where others had skied and realized how painful it is to ski the tracked-out when you've been skiing pow all day, and then went a bit further out to discover all of our earlier tracks had been magically filled in - hardrider and I finished out the day in the Palisades smiling in between face shots and disbelieving that it could be that good!

Saturday brought the bluebird that everyone has raved about, and they opened chair 6 early. I got on just after 8:30 and nobody was riding! It was incredible! I had tracks down wagon wheel, sentinel, and two runs in the trees where we had been the day before, and then headed over to 10 for tracks in the trees near waterfall. I saw they opened the backside, and headed over there, did two laps of fresh on Thunder Saddle, hiked 99 steps for some mellow angle freshies, and then ran into “the gang” and started skiing lower cirque where we had been harvesting the day before. I gave hardrider the mission to make me a “hucker” by the end of the season and he got right to work, starting with an ~8 footer that scared the #@!% out of me and then a more mellow one that I landed, got really excited about, and then hit a submerged rock, lost my ski, and got catapulted onto another rock with my left quad/femur! Ouch!!! Lamentably, however, I don’t even have a rockstar bruise to look cool . . . oh well, I guess.

Sunday was somewhat of an adrenaline letdown after the past 3 days had been so amazing, but the afternoon trip out to California Chute certainly remedied that one, and I was so happy to have skins under my skis again. I really do love hiking, especially on a sunny day! And the windblown snow up top, followed by the variable windbuff/cream cheese/pow on the descent reminded me a lot of the conditions in Argentina, bringing back amazing memories and great thoughts for the hike out! There was also the joy of riding up chair 4 and looking right to see two tracks out of buttcrack, i mean broccoli, and pencil chutes . . . shaking our heads knowing that our friends are completely nuts! I mean that in the most admirable of ways :-)

Overall, a 5 star weekend –thank you to all who were involved in making it wonderful cuz all that great snow would not have been nearly as fun without you!!!

Clack, still waiting to ski with ya, but super glad you found the freshies out in Palisades . . . maybe we shoulda gone, but whatever - California was great. I'll hit thunder bowl eventually as well . . . thank goodness it's only January!!!

(Edit: Pics added. If you're on dial-up you're SOL)

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
http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic16820.jpg




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
http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic16827.jpg

I had one line in my head...Monster Dump's one that keeps him awake at night:
http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic16500.jpg

Pic: Soulsearcher, Seen from the top.
http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic16823.jpg


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
http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic16822.jpg

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. :D

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
http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic16824.jpg

Shoe sickquence, pic 2: Shoe takes the drop
http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic16825.jpg

Shoe sickquence, pic 3: powder speed burn
http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic16826.jpg

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.
http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic16828.jpg

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 :D

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
http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic16829.jpg

Hardrider "Moto-turn" on pow
http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic16830.jpg

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 :D
http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic16831.jpg


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
http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic16821.jpg

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. :D

ok, you all need to shut the fuck up now.

Quote:

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Originally posted by tuffy109
ok, you all need to shut the fuck up now.

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Looks like someone has a case of the Mondays!

no snow during your trip back East eh? Too bad! ;) We had the best 3-4 days of the season so far :D

i skied 5 types of ice back east, on rental boots, with demo ski guys telling me to ski on 165s.

Met up with Hardrider and kush today did a couple laps on the front of the mountain, then hardrider gets smart and suggests the high T to palisades.

WOW, what a call, hardrider is THE MAN! 3 days since the storm and at 3pm we are scoring fresh, blower pow at the boundary line. We though this was our last run, but we did the traverse so fast we have time to squeak in one more. This time we go out through the gate and boot pack up around the cliffs above palisades and drop it above the boundary line. Sweet, sweet turns!!! (yup, in answer to your questions, we had no avy gear!).

We come to a small cliff band after 4-5 turns, hardrider hucks to what looks like bottomless pow and uncovers a huge volcanic rock destroying his edge and sidewall. I manage to huck a spot that lets me hot tub into bottomless powder. In the process finding a nice sized huck that needs to be done and likely will get sessioned by hardrider and kush tomorrow.

We ride out it out through the trees, where even at the bottom of the mountain the snow has only a really thin skin of crust on top. Easy to break through.

We get to lift 7 at about 4:30, patrol is a little surprised to see us coming out of palisades and even a little distraught to hear there are still some snowboarders up there. Apparently they thought they had completed there sweep.

Great day that almost wasn't, as I considered a couch day today.

:D :D

Quote:

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Originally posted by lph


We come to a small cliff band after 4-5 turns, hardrider hucks to what looks like bottomless pow and uncovers a huge volcanic rock destroying his edge and sidewall. I manage to huck a spot that lets me hot tub into bottomless powder. In the process finding a nice sized huck that needs to be done and likely will get sessioned by hardrider and kush tomorrow.

:D :D

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How far out past the palasades did you go? Were there about 4 tracks down a funnel to the small cliff band? If so, those were our lines and the landing was super sweet!! Then from the bottom I looked up and realied that the point was definately the way to take it. I've got this feeling I know EXACTLY where you came through and you're talking about the same air.

i hate you all.

i wish i could see the boarder lawn dart heart chute...

Quote:

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Originally posted by lph
Stupid patients at the hospital....some of my favorites, "I hurt my back snowboarding, I think it is broken, I can't feel my legs!" "I got knocked out when I hit a tree and I am bleeding from my ears!" Friggin tourist pussies!!:mad: ;)

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:D :D :D :D :D

LOL

:D :D :D :D :D

Quote:

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Originally posted by monster dump.
How far out past the palasades did you go? Were there about 4 tracks down a funnel to the small cliff band? If so, those were our lines and the landing was super sweet!! Then from the bottom I looked up and realied that the point was definately the way to take it. I've got this feeling I know EXACTLY where you came through and you're talking about the same air.

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We basically went all the way. Up around the cliffs, came to the cornice which looked unstable, walked out to the dead tree and didn't like the looks of that shot so backed up about 100 feet and then made those turns into a little funnel for the cliff band. The point looked like the place to hit, it was skiers right from the funnel with a steep plush landing. Is that where you are talking about??

Thanks GT40, glad someone could appreciate my attempt at medical humour.

:D

Yup that's it. RIght past the dead tree. I took the line over the small rocks just right of the point. There was a nice skinny line through the funnel to the left of the point against the large face too but the point was definately the way to take it. Too bad it takes a 45 min hike to find out. A perfect air.

btw- keep the patient humor coming :D

MD, we were on the cliffs 100 feet BEFORE the dead tree (the dead tree being the really dead grey tree right at the top of a little chute you can ski down to get into the trees). It is the first set of turns you can make after the shitty looking cornice. You can drop in right and go around the rocks or ski straight down to the rocks.

In any case, once your knee heals we will go out there and hit that stuff again and again and again.