Kirkwood
Wednesday 28 March 2007

Weather

Conditions

Story of the Day

There was about 2" of fresh snow on our car overnight, promising somewhat more on the slopes at higher altitude.

The previous evening we decided to go to Kirkwood and bought discounted lift tickets for $58. We drove over Carson Pass to Kirkwood. At various places there were strong cross winds and drifting snow. When we turned into the road leading to Kirkwood this was so strong that visibility was almost zero.

On arrival we found that virtually all of the lifts were on wind hold and tickets were on sale at $54. So our discount turned out to be -$4.

07:42 Clearing the car of ice ready to go

09:14 Ready to start skiing

When we were ready to ski, there were in fact just 2 lifts open and one of those served only easy green runs. This meant that everyone was trying to ski from Solitude lift. Looking up the mountain the blowing snow at higher elevations explained why the other lifts could not run. We did three relatively short runs from Solitude. The first 2 were pretty good, with a few inches of silky powder on top of a groomed base. By the third run, the queue for the lift was building and not being very well managed and the snow was getting cut up.

09:14 Solitude Lift .. The only lift running at the start of the day	09:14 High winds blowing snow on the ridges
09:22 Chris skiing away from the top of Solitude	09:22 Snow blowing at the top of Mokelumne
09:23 Chris on Mokelumne	09:38 Chris on Lower Zachary
09:38 The track from the top of the lift to Lower Zachary	09:38 Lower Zachary
09:44 Just above the resort center from Solitude lift	09:44 Just above the resort center from Solitude lift
09:50 Snow blowing off the ridge	09:52 Lower Monte Wolfe run
09:52 Chris looking down Lower Monte Wolfe	09:52 Lower Monte Wolfe

With long queues on Solitude we crossed to the other lift Snowkirk. This proved to be an extremely slow triple chair gaining just a couple of hundred feet of altitude. After 3 very relaxing runs down, we stopped for coffee and to see whether any more lifts were open.

10:01 Snow covered tree by Snowkirk lift	10:01 Snow blowing off the top of "The Wall"
10:07 Snow blowing off the top of "The Wall"	10:15 Chris skiing along Hay Flat
10:26 Chris setting off along Snow Kirk

After coffee we discovered that more lifts were open in the Timber Creek area of the resort. To get there meant another extremely slow ride up Snowkirk and the scrum of people waiting for Solitude lift. At least the queue was being managed by this time.

11:05 Hay Flat	11:10 The 20 minute queue for Solitude
11:42 TC Express Lift	11:43 Rocks above Timber Creek

Timber Creek is the main ski school area of Kirkwood; not surprisingly, all of the runs are greens or easy views and there are ski school groups to avoid. 

11:54 The top of TC Express	11:54 The top of TC Express
11:54 The upper part of Hole 'n Wall	11:54 Chris on Hole 'n Wall

After 2 runs, Chris noticed that Caples Crest at the far side of the resort was open and carrying skiers, so we crossed over to it, involving another run from Solitude and another slow ride on Snowkirk to get to the bottom of Caples Crest.

12:02 Up 'N Over	12:14 The top of Solitude lift
12:29 Snowkirk Lift

First run from Caples Crest and it was my turn to choose and I got it wrong. Whiskey Slide didn't lead back to the bottom of Caples Crest but back to the main Lodge, so we needed to use Snowkirk yet again to get back for a couple more runs before we stopped for lunch.

12:31 The wind is still blowing on the ridge	12:31 Looking up Caples Crest lift
12:32 No easy runs from the ridge	12:32 Grooming machine
12:38 Ski patrol hut	12:39 Chris at the top of Whiskey Slide
12:59 The top of Caples Crest lift	13:12 The Ridge line
13:12 The Ridge line

After lunch, The Reut was open, giving a higher point from which to approach Caples Crest run. We then did 5 very similar runs from Caples Crest as the wind and the associated wind chill gradually increased.

13:57 Rocks above The Reut lift	13:57 Chris at the top of Shortspoke
14:11 The bottom of Juniper run	14:17 Rocks near the top of Caples Crest lift
14:20 The bowl below Thimble Peak	13:26 The bowl below Thimble Peak
13:26 Trees in the middle of Bark Shanty run	13:32 The runs to the Sunrise area are closed
13:32 Ski patrol area .. Complete with dog	13:33 Snow blowing over rocks at the top of Caples Crest
13:33 Rocks at the top of Caples Crest	13:40 Dead tree in the middle of Bark Shanty run
13:43 Rescue dog	13:48 Still windy

To finish the day, we decided to take the run from the top of Cornice Lift which opened in the early afternoon. That entailed using The Reut and Solitude to get across to Cornice.

As we approached the top of the lift we could see that snow was still blowing hard across the top of the lift. When we got off the lift conditions were really unpleasant with snow blowing hard into our faces. There was no question of stopping to take photographs.

The wind was actually blowing up the slope we wanted to take down. Getting started was hard work. After about 20 metres we were able to enjoy the run, with lots of fresh snow kicked up into very soft bumps on a pretty steep run. A satisfying way to end the day.

15:08 The top of Wagon Trail	15:37 Primitive conditions at the top of Cornice
15:37 The top of Cornice	15:41 The top of Zachary run
15:41 Chris on Zachary

Actually that wasn't quite the end of skiing for the day. Our car was a long walk from the lodge, so we collected our shoes and used Solitude to ski across to much nearer the car park.

Driving back to our hotel, conditions were much calmer.

Runs

Last updated: 1st April 2007