168 Hours Later: Trimmer Peak (24 March 2012)

Spark Notes:

Saturday: Trimmer Peak, somewhere between 7 and 8 miles and about 4k feet

Sunday: Heavenly, trees, rocks, and parks

Song of the Weekend: You Never Know Who You're Gonna Meet - Jacob Bain & Publish the Quest (Spotify)

A week after the only real dumping of the '11-12 season in Tahoe, and you could barely tell that it had snowed.  Eric was feeling a bit under the weather, so we got a bit of a late start on Saturday morning.  Nonetheless, we were at the trailhead by 9:30 or so and walking our way in.  Yup, skis on our backs.  In March.  (After about a half a mile, we were able to start skiing.)

Route Map

Eric and I weren't really on the same page all day.  That'll happen when energy, stoke, and health levels aren't lining up.  I had my eyes on Freel Peak, and for sure that's on the tick list for next season (take a look off the back of Heavenly and you'll see the inviting upper snowfield and couloirs).  After Eric called a lunchtime nap, we changed tack and climbed Trimmer Peak instead.  We took a few turns down junk snow on the east side of trimmer, then skinned back up and headed down the north face.  According to the book, the parallel avalanche slides down the face are known as "The Elevens."  We figured it would make more sense to call them "the ones" or "the eleven" but maybe we read the book wrong.  Not important anyway.

Elevens (Trimmer Peak, North Face)

The skiing was mediocre, and it was a bit of a slog, but the day was more about getting out than shredding turns, and that was just fine.  I'm looking forward to getting back to Freel next year.  Other highlights of the weekend including running into a high school friend on a lift at Heavenly, getting into the terrain park for a bit, and seeing possibly the coolest rainbow I've ever seen.

Tahoe from Trimmer

Booting up

No leprechauns in sight.

Powder Weekend (17-18 March 2012)

Spark Notes:

100" of powder at Kirkwood throughout the storm

Saturday - skied Heavenly

Sunday - backountry, 3 laps and 5k vert at Waterhouse Peak

Song Of The Weekend: The Boondock Saints (YouTube) It was St Patrick's Day, after all.

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.)

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.

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.

Waterhouse topo. Credit: www.aboutlaketahoe.com

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.

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.

Sometimes low angle, but always awesome.