November 28th and 29th, 2009
More Early Season Touring and Turning at Carson Pass and Kirkwood
Joe, Todd, Matt, Toby & Ollie and Buddy
The second real storm of the year was a bit of a pleasant surprise when it dumped a massive 8"-12" of snow on the Carson Pass area. Then the dastardly easterlies sent the new snow off the slopes with a base and onto the west faces where the shallow rocks were just covered, but still lurking and hungry for P-tex.
On Saturday Matt, Todd, Ollie and I headed out into the remnants of the Black Friday storm and did a little bargain hunting for some good 'ol fun snow. Times are hard, we had to settle for scraps. But there were a few jewels in there too.
Loaded at the Pass:
And it was dumping while skins were stuck:
Skin track was punched, we were fine with that.
And then the skies broke up over Hope Valley and the Carson Range to the East.
I could skin no farther so I walked off toward the horizon:
We skied this diagonal number that often delivers in the early season. Mac and Ollie:
Now Matt:
Some nice simul-skiing going on here. Mac on the apron, Matt flying around high above him.
Matt found a deep spot on the apron. This turn probably didn't sound as good as it looked:
After a gnarly boulder field crossing we found deep and light pow in the hippy trees and gullies above the old carson grade. Mac:
Good day out there.
Sunday - Toby and I tooled around Kirkwood before the lifts were bumping to ski some of the nooks and crannies that the wind didn't strip. The wind nearly stripped us this day as it blasted full speed out of the east. We manged to find some nice snow out there - without anyone in sight.
Skinning under chairlifts isn't quite as core as skinning up mountains without chairlifts - just saying.
The Wall looked ferocious!
After skiing Buckboard we headed over to the glowing NW facing slopes of chair 2. Then we spotted this jewel near Vista:
More skinning under chairlifts.
Coverage on the Cirque and Norms was lacking a little bit.
Turns in the Sun under chair 2!
Then we hiked up under the Vista T-Bar and across the windiest ridge of the year to the sumptuous chute.
Buddy nearly got blown all the way to the bottom of Eagle Bowl:
Then we found where all of that blowing snow had landed. Toby and Budrick:
The chute looked yummy, but we weren't sure if there was enough coverage. So we took it slow...
And then after a few clean turns, turned it up:
Not bad for early season in Tahoe.
I skied the whole line and then shot the boys coming down the lower section.
And on the way out we looked back and could kinda see our tracks:
Nice Turkey weekend skiing sessions.