Conditions Report
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I have a special place in my heart for a chairlift better known as Chair 6 aka ‘Cornice’ at Kirkwood Mountain Resort. Why you may ask? Well, for starters, the lift starts at the base and tops out on a ridge line full of cornices (hence the name.) The options include everything from steep groomers, straightlines in the fingers, 100 footers like Big Jims, wide open bowls, classic California moguls, to impeccable storm tree skiing.
On December 20th, the last ‘bigger’ storm rolled through and Kirkwood opened up with about a foot of dense Sierra wet pow. The backside was slated for the next day but one could access everything from the Palisades above Timber Creek to the Wall (Chair 10) and over to Chair 2. While most of the traffic decided to take one lap on Chair 6 then run over to Chair 10, I stayed put and just lapped my usual favorites like Chamoix, Oops n Poops, Dan Cliffs, and the Ski School Chute zone. Lap after lap, I was amazed of the lack of tracks, so I just skied variations of the same run. I did manage to check out Chair 10, but that ended up messing up my rythym as I lost my phone on the next run. However, by tracing my steps from the previous run, I found it in the gully below Dan Cliffs….oh joy!
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The roads looking more like winter…
Its a Saturday before Xmas and on cue, the people are ready…
The big question is always ‘where to go first?’…
Look Out Janek needs some tracks…
Chamoix will do…
The air out has decreased in size…
Dan Cliffs with many perfect landings below…
I looked for some alternate airs…
Now the only question is that rock in the landing…
Ski School Zone was definitely wind-loaded…
So I did my skier’s duty of eliminating the risk…
So I went to Dan Cliffs again…
Chair 6 on a snowy day…
Pete Mayer decided to join in on a lap in Oops…
I continued to get funky near Dan Cliffs…
I wondered off to do some recon in the Fingers…
With limited visibility, I rolled over the Wall to check out the coverage…
It’s actually skiing quite well…
Casey, you have posted a lot about Kirkwood. I have to ask if you have any connection to the resort aside from skiing there and the nearby region? You wrote a little bio-note, no mention.
No connection other than being my favorite place to ski, grew up skiing there, and having a house in South Lake Tahoe…so its still my main place to ride. 🙂