Spark Notes:
100" of powder at Kirkwood throughout the storm
Saturday - skied Heavenly
Sunday - backountry, 3 laps and 5k vert at Waterhouse Peak
It's been a dry winter for Tahoe, and while that meant climbing last weekend was excellent, it's been rough for skiing this season. Fortunately, it snowed in the Sierra all of last week, and the biggest dump was saved for Friday night through Saturday night: perfect for everyone from the Bay Area who might have skis, a snowboard, or a sled to make the drive up to Tahoe.
I left work late on Friday and arrived very late of Friday night, technically Saturday morning. This led to a late-ish (9:30am) start, so Eric and I opted to ski Heavenly. One false start later (Eric forgot his boots) and we were on the slopes by 10. Despite last season's spectacular ski conditions, I think this was my first for-real powder day. What a way to celebrate St. Patricks day. I, fortunately, plan my year around the holiday and proudly wore my green soft shell, boots, and skis. (Yeah, right.)
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| Heavenly...good skiing and great lake views. |
A few runs in and I was finally getting the technique and loving the feel of bottomless snow. Mott Canyon proved packed, but the Palisades gave us lap after lap of untracked runs, so we didn't see any need to really explore for the rest of the day.
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| Eric, shredding the Heavenly Palisades. |
On another note...skiing The Face (double diamond) last year, felt like a real accomplishment after a couple days at Heavenly. It was my first run this time around, with no hesitation. I was pretty happy with that.
I got a bit of work in on Saturday night, but mostly relaxed and watched
G.N.A.R. Sunday, we checked out the avalanche forecast (moderate on all aspects above and below treeline on slopes 35 degrees and greater) and opted to head to Kirkwood. On the way, though, both Eric and I were feeling the call of the backcountry. After driving past, I had to pull a U-turn to park at Luther Pass. We recalled that Waterhouse Peak was pretty low angle, and would be anchored very well by trees, plus neither of us had skied it before, so the choice was pretty much made.
Great decision on our part...the skin track was laid reasonably well, and we had spectacular, untracked conditions from top to bottom. We were even safer than at the resort,
where there was an in-bounds avalanche.
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| Eric skinning up among heavily loaded trees. |
I've never had quite that feeling of weightlessness and pure joy while skiing before. I finally understand all the hype about "blower pow" that all the ski movies talk about. The trees were just spaced out enough, with plenty of snow to let us go off of rocks and trees for a little added fun. The storm kept on all day, filling in our skin tracks a little between each lap. That was fine with us though, I don't think anything could have crushed the mood. Three laps later dark was falling, so we headed back to pick up the girls and begin the slog back home.
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| Sometimes low angle, but always awesome. |
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