Location: Heavenly
Date: 3/27/2010
Conditions: variable
Groomer day at Heavenly. Lots of business travel. Nicely groomed in the morning, slushy in spots.
Last Years Road Trip
6 years ago
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
2010 Ski Season: Day 19-Heavenly
2010 Ski Season: Day 18-Northstar (Show Some Respect)
First run down, Jodi and I are hitting Lookout Mountain, making slow turns on a groomer day and I get bored. I decide to start maching down the mountain as fast as I can on Martis. I reach terminal velocity right at the bottom of the run and see some rollers that could spell trouble. I turn around the first, negotiate the second, and completely miss the third roller.
Whoops.
Airborne.
SLAM.
Ski falls off.
Knee in my chest?
Helmet on the snow?
Goggles crash into my face.
Skier who witnesses all of this as I fly by him and proceed to destroy myself at the flat part of the run brings my ski along.
"Now that's what I call a yardsale."
me: I thought I had it
skier: "Ya, you tried to bring it back in."
Click back in, go up, little tender in my chest.
Next run. Two skiers buzz by me and shout epithets. I'm not for that so I get on my horse to chase them down.
Boom.
Down again.
Sliding.
Sliding.
Sliding.
Trying to stop.
Still sliding.
Finally stop. My right ski is about 30 yards up the mountain. Picture Jodi, on her 152's, skiing the steepest part of the run, carrying my lone 184.
Click back in, ski to the bottom, wonder WTF?
Lunchtime, "Hey honey, is my eye all red here?"
Jodi: Yep.
How about under my eye
Jodi: Yea, you've got a bit of a black eye going.
Ski the rest of the day, no issues.
Last run, skiing a lonely blue. Boom, ski pops off. I'm on one ski. I'm turning dragging a boot for good measure. I go down. She brings my ski down to me for the second time. I look at the binding. WTF.
Ahh, that explains the second and third falls. Two of the three screws holding in my toe piece were ripped out on the first run of the day.
Next day, ouch, my rib hurts.
End result: busted binding, busted rib, black eye
Lesson learned, show some respect for the mountain, at least on the first run of the day.
2010 Ski Season: Day 17-Alpine
Location: Alpine Meadows
Date: 3/13/2010
Conditions: Variable
Jodi and I took the Summit Six lift and traversed/hiked along the high traverse to Sun Bowl. While the cornice getting into the bowl was a bit dicey for one of us, the skiing was fantastic.
That night, we headed to our favorite bankrupt casino straddling the California/Nevada border and rested up for Day 2 on the overnight Bay Area Ski Bus trip.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
2010 Ski Season: Day 16-Kirkwood
Date: 3/7/2010
Location: Kirkwood
Conditions: Bluebird morning, snow showers afternoon.
I love Kirkwood. Of all the resorts at Tahoe, given my choice, I would ski Kirkwood any day. The terrain, the people, the mountain, the attitude, all of it seems to fit with me.
Thanks to our bat-outta-hell bus driver, we arrived at Kirkwood at 7:55 AM, over an hour before the lifts were scheduled to start. That earned us first chair on Solitude. First chair is the best way to start out the day, try it, you'll like it.
The morning was absolutely perfect weather, bluebird skies and nice temps all around the mountain. Kirkowwd hosted day 1 of the Freeskiing World Tour in the "permanently closed" Cirque between the frontside and backside of the mountain. We got close, but not too close to the action. As we hit the Caples Crest link, we spied a dude ski BASE jumping and doing flips as he hurled down the cliff-infested face. Other skiers competed by jumping 40 footers and riding away clean.
As I've said before,Kirkwood's backside is a mini-resort unto itself. We rode all four of those lifts covering the Fawn Ridge, Wave, Happiness Is, and Vista areas. I hucked the Cornice atop the Wave about 4 feet or so and landed it. To round out the backside tour, we hit my favorite, Thunder Saddle and traversed out past the World Tour as the flurries started coming down and new snow filled in our tracks.
I took a few park runs and managed to stay upright in the Timber Creek area. We hit Cornice Express and went over to Sentinel Bowl for some steep and deep to round out the early afternoon. I wanted one more shot at the backside, so we did that too.
Bell to bell skiing, blue skies, fresh powder, park, steeps, and a pro competition all in one day? Yup. Kirkwood.
Stats
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
2010 Ski Season: Day 15-Squaw
Location: Squaw
Date: 2/28/2010
Conditions: Pow pow
I have probably skied 20 days at Squaw but this was my first verified powder day. With 18" overnight and snow falling most of the day, conditions were primo. Step 1, funitel. Then over to Gold Coast. Hit the Shirley Lake/Solitude area, then over to Red Dog and Squaw Creek.
Lunch was at Squaw Creek, great food, hidden gem.
We hit a few blacks near Red Dog and then cruised back town by around 4 PM. Great mountain, great snow, great day.
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