Ski Kirkwood

Opening Day for the 2007/2008 Season

2007-11-25T16:50:00.000-08:00

Sunday, November 25 and it's opening day at Kirkwood! Ok, so only one run was open on chair 5, and it's all artificial snow. But kudos to the snowmaking team at Kirkwood for getting a run open with no help from Mother Nature.

The forecast calls for some snow showers later this week. Let's hope for a big season this year.

September Snow

2007-09-20T10:11:00.000-07:00

Thursday morning, September 20: 34 degrees and two inches of snow on the ground with a bit more to come throughout the day.

After hearing the weather forecast yesterday I did what I thought would be my last mountain bike climb up to the top of chair 2 and found a great new singletrack for the descent.

Opening day is scheduled for Nov. 24 - let's hope for a big 2007/2008 season!

The 2007 Season Ends With a Bang

2007-04-22T11:11:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday morning at 11:15 and the Carson Spur is closed due to heavy snow. That's a great way to end a low snow year. Kirkwood has received close to three feet of new snow in the last week. Unfortunately I've been stuck in my study hacking together a prototype for a new startup idea. Hmmm... - PHP coding or skiing in fresh powder.

The last two summer seasons had trouble getting going on the traditional Kirkwood "start of summer" July 4th date, but there should be no problem this year. There's still some great backcountry skiing at the higher elevations and hopefully I'll make it up there once more in the next couple of weeks to give a first hand report.

Craig Garbiel Wins the Extremes!

2007-04-01T10:47:00.000-07:00

Local Kirkwood skier Craig Garbiel won the Subaru North American Freeskiing Finals on the Cirque at Kirkwood yesterday. I went out to the Backside in the morning and watched some of the woman drop down into the Cirque from the ridge above Thunder Saddle. I then dropped down the Saddle into the Devil's Corral to watch the all day competition. You can see more photos of the event on altamontstudios.com.

A low snow year meant that skiers had to stay on the Looker's Left part of the Cirque, so many of the normal cliffs and chutes were not skiable this year. That didn't stop the competitors from pulling off some incredible runs. My favorite of the day was seeing Drew Tabkes (aka "The Flyin Hawaiian") pull off a flawless 50 foot backflip.

Another local Kirkwood skier, Josh Daiek, crashed and didn't make into the Men's final 12 run. Josh was sixth on the tour coming into the Kirkwood leg.

Last year I made a DVD of several years of Extremes video footage I had shot. Nate, a Kirkwood ski patroller I know was doing some remodeling of the house next door to mine, so I gave him a copy of the DVD. He mentioned that he knew the guy who won the Kirkwood event, Craig Garbiel, so I gave him a another copy of the DVD to give to Craig. Nate then mentioned that Craig was getting married in a few weeks, and he didn't know what to get him for a wedding present, so the DVD was going to do the trick.

Congratulations Craig Garbiel and go Kirkwood!

Extremes Finals at Kirkwood this Saturday

2007-03-29T10:29:00.000-07:00

The finals of the North American Freeskiing Championships are happening at Kirkwood this weekend. Drop down from Thunder Saddle into the meadow and Devil's Corral and check them out. Check out this promotional video of the event.

Also check out this amazing run from local Kirkwood big mountain skier Josh Daiek at last year's Extremes.

Spring Backcountry Skiing

2007-03-24T18:15:00.000-07:00

It's a low snow year and we've had lots of warm sunny weather lately - perfect conditions for backcountry skiing up in Kirkwood! My old friend DB and I drove out to Red Lake this morning, put on our Alpine Touring gear, and climbed up Forestdale Bowl. We decided to turn around at the 9000 feet level - that was 1200 vertical feet of climbing! I just uploaded some photos from the trip onto the Altamont Studios Web site.

Five hours and 5 miles later we made it back to the Jeep. Conditions were fabulous! The drop down from 9000 feet to the Forestdale meadow was incredible. I'm still on an ancient pair of Volkl G2 skis with Diamir Fritchie AT bindings. DB was on a brand new pair of Karhu BC's with Dynafit bindings - a real state-of-the-art setup. Clearly it's time for me to do an upgrade here...

Kirkwood's White Robe Ski Team

2007-03-05T12:07:00.000-08:00

Kirkwood has a new elite ski/boarding team - the Men in White Robes! After receiving over 15 feet of new snow in the past couple of weeks BH and I hosted three skiers and one boarder for the weekend. Conditions were incredible, with plenty of fresh powder to be found across the entire mountain.

After a full day of doing much of the mountain we decided to ski back to the cabin. While the cabin doesn't offer ski-out, it is ski-in - as long as you're willing to do a 15 minute hike from the Palisades. Since we had a boarder with us I decided to guide the group up the climb behind Glove Rock that starts at Sentinel Bowl so we could have a high elevation start. We dropped in off of the ridge to the east of Martin Point and the journey began. Dropping into the trees we had incredible fresh powder conditions - the best skiing of the entire day.

JM, our lone boarder, couldn't keep as high a traverse as us skiers, so we gave him one of the two-way radios and he dropped down early. Now with four remaining skiers I was excited about a fast traverse through light powder back to the cabin. I saw RE fall a ridge behind me, and then he dropped out of sight. We started yelling for him and had no response, so I turned around and went back looking for him. It was past 5pm and getting dark, we're in the middle of the trees in an out of bounds area, and no sign of RE. At this point I was thinking about how fast could I get back to the house and call Kirkwood's Search & Rescue team. I've never lost a guest in the woods on the final run back to the cabin, but there's a first time for everything.

When I was sure RE was lying unconscious somewhere in the forest after going head first into a tree or falling off of a volcanic rock cliff I heard from JM that he hooked up with RE. I later drove up to the end of Danberg to pick them up. JM reports that when he found RE his face was completely white, and he looked severely disoriented. Next time we'll be sure to give RE the other radio on any journeys through out of bounds forests. :)

The 2007 Season is Here!

2007-02-27T16:36:00.000-08:00

It's been a really dry January and early February, but the ski season has finally kicked into gear up at the 'Wood. Kirkwood has received over 13 feet of snow since Feb. 8 and it keeps coming.

I was up over the weekend with my old ski buddy AF, and two of the Peerflix boys. On the morning shuttle drive to Timber Creek people were complaining about the previous day - too much deep, light powder to ski in. That's a high class problem to have.
Since RE understated his ski abilities on the last trip I thought I'd see what he could do by starting Saturday morning traversing into fresh powder in Wagon Wheel Bowl. Ten falls and 30 minutes later RE was asking why did I start the day on a double black diamond run instead of a nice green or blue run. Hey, this is Kirkwood, not Northstar. An hour later he got his mojo back skiing on groomed runs over on the backside.

On Sunday afternoon the Spur was closed and we gave up trying to get out via the Carson Pass, so we went back to the cabin and I introduced the boys to the sport of snowshoeing. At 10pm we were out in the backyard snowshoeing in several feet of light powder snow. 100 yards and 15 minutes later we decided to turn around and declare victory.

It looks like the weather will finally clear this Thursday and the weekend should be sunny and incredible. See you up there.

Weekend with the Peerflix Boys

2007-01-17T14:28:00.000-08:00

I finally got back up to Kirkwood this past weekend, hosting three of my former colleagues from Peerflix. Bingo and RE were on skis, JM on a snowboard. Pictured at left is Bingo after a highly entertaining jump and yardsale.

RE was much better a skier than he let on to - perhaps it was due to the new red Northface ski pants he had just purchased the day of the trip. While he skied better than expected RE did manage to mow into a 12 year old girl on a snowboard on the Reut and it took her a while to get back up.

The highlight of the weekend for me was taking RE to the cliff above Thunder Saddle that is on the side of the Cirque and tell him that the easiest drop in was off to the left - left or right, we were looking down over a 50 foot vertical drop of volcanic rock. It was great seeing the look of terror on RE's face not realizing I was goofing on him.

I introduced the boys to the Kirkwood Inn, where we had a great meal, as always. The snow depth is still way below average, but the groomed runs were in great shape, and Thunder Saddle had some great packed powder. The backside is in desperate need of a big dump of new snow, and we heard from skiers in line at chair 11 that The Wall was really rocky and to be avoided.

New Skis for the New Year

2006-12-31T14:09:00.000-08:00

I've been skiing on Volkl 188 G31's and G41's since 2001. That's a long time to go without an equipment upgrade. For the past several years I've been eyeing out the Salomon Pocket Rockets, which were a huge hit on the mountain here. Last year my friend VC bought a pair of Salomon 1080 Foils, a successor to the now discontinued Pocket Rocket. He bought them as a pair of backcountry skis, putting a Diamir Fritchie Alpine Touring binding on them, but wound up using them as an all mountain alpine ski as well.

Yesterday I stepped into Kirkwood's Sports Shop in the village to warm up and see what gear they had this season. I noticed they had last year's 1080 Foil in the size I wanted (174cm), and better yet they were 40% off due to being last year's model. So I couldn't help myself and got a pair, putting a set of Salomon 914 bindings on them. The shop mounted the bindings and did a new ski prep in 45 minutes and this morning I got to see what they could do.

I can now say that all the hype about this ski is well deserved. It's an amazing ski. The short length makes a huge difference in cutting rapid turns down mogul fields or kick turns on the steeps. They also held up incredibly well doing speed runs down the Reut. I flew down Thunder Saddle in a way I never could do with my aging Volkls. I like these guys so much I may need to go out and get a fair of 1080 Guns for deep powder days as well.

Snowshoeing by Moonlight

2006-12-31T08:47:00.000-08:00

Debbie Waldear runs the Kirkwood Cross-Country and Snowshoe Center. They maintain 85 kilometers of groomed trails for across two trail systems. The upper Schneider trail system has incredible views of Caples Lake, Round Top Mountain and Kirkwood Mountain.

Last night we went on one of their guided moonlight snowshoe tours. A group of 38 people showed up, which the guides claimed was a world record for a Kirkwood moonlight snowshoe event. We brought our own snowshoe gear, so after waiting for everyone to show up we went outside, geared up, and went with the pack on the tour. I bought a small LED headlamp from REI last year and was happy I had it on this tour - you never know when you might need one. :)

Our trip took us along the High Trail Extension, which goes behind Kirkwood Lake and has awesome views of the Carson Spur as well as the Sierra Crest. I thought this trip would take us on a fairly flat, easy hike, but the guides decided to have some fun and took the group up and down some really steep areas. At one point nearly everyone just sat down on their but and slided down an extremely steep part of the hike instead of trying to hike down on their snowshoes.

Overall the hike was a blast and well worth the $25/person charge. Total hike time was roughly 90 minutes. Make sure to bring warm gloves if you go.

Holiday Weekend

2006-12-30T17:23:00.000-08:00

Today wasn't that crowded considering it was a holiday weekend. Having spent a lot of time on the Backside yesterday I thought I'd try to find out where the rest of the powder from this week's windstorm went to. Sentinel Bowl was a combination of packed powder and hardpack snow, so I ventured over to the Rabbit Run chute that is skier's left of the top part of the bowl. Sure enough, there was plenty of packed powder in the chute, very few obstacles, and overall a great run. At the end of the run dropping down into one of the chutes that take you past the cave gave you some great packed powder as well. To end the day I went up Chair 11 (The Reut) and did some speed runs on Buckboard, which was the best groomed trail of the day.

Vegan Dining in a Stateline Steak House

2006-12-30T10:15:00.000-08:00

This fall I hosted a trip up to Kirkwood for some high school friends. We went into Stateline to check out the casinos and discovered that the former Caesar's Palace had been sold and was remodeled and opened as the Montbleu Casino. Compared to Harvey's and Harrah's (now owned by the same corporation) we thought the Montbleu was the nicest casino to hang out and lose money.

I checked their restaurant listings on their web site yesterday and saw that their steak and seafood restaurant, Ciera, featured vegetarian/vegan entrees. Since my wife, LS, is a strict vegetarian and vegan 90% of the time we made a reservation on OpenTable yesterday and gave it a try. I'm happy to report that we give Ciera high marks. They actually know what a vegan entree is and delivered on it, I had a great steak au poivre, and they served excellent martinis. Highly recommended.

The Entire Mountain is Open

2006-12-30T10:02:00.000-08:00

The winds died down yesterday and the entire mountain opened up with two feet of fresh powder. The high winds from the previous day did some serious rearrangment of the distribution of powder on the mountain - in some areas of the backside there were large sheets of ice - make sure you sharpen up your edges.

But if the powder is blown off a certain area of the mountain it has to wind up someplace else. And if you were on the backside yesterday and brave enough to venture out to the fence above Thunder Saddle you found where all of that powder settled.

Snowblowing at 2am

2006-12-28T11:57:00.000-08:00

We finally made it to Kirkwood this past Tuesday. The snow level was at 7000 feet and slowly dropped all day. Caltrans has a real challenge keeping the north-facing cliffs along the Carson Spur (highway 88 right before you drop into Kirkwood from the west) free from avalanche danger. So years ago they mounted two avalanche blasters along the cliffs that set off blasts from a mixture of oxygen and propane. On Tuesday night at 2am Caltrans closed 88 and set off their avalanche blasters, causing our entire house to shake and dog to go into a barking festival. I went out on the driveway and discovered the snow was getting too deep for my dog, BH, to do her business, so I rev'd up my trusty Honda HS1132 snowblower and cleared out a dog walking path on the driveway at 2am. But that's part of the excitement of living in Kirkwood.

I took the above photo last winter when some friends and I were backcountry skiing above Red Lake. Some big cornices built up on the cliffs above the Carson Pass so Caltrans brought in a military gun that they were going to shoot over highway 88 from Red Lake. It was fun watching them do some practice shots before we took off.

We got close to two feet of new snow yesterday. The snow depth is still shallow for this time of year, but there's plenty of good skiing. The groomed runs are all in great shape, and yesterday morning Sentinel Bowl was only partially tracked, and the Palisades was virtually untracked. If you go out to the Palisades make sure to use a pair of old rock skis. The new snow has covered all of the volcanic rock waiting to be exposed by skiers out there. Unless you know the area well and have a good idea of where the underlying rocks are you're better off staying on groomed trails for now. That said, I had some killer runs in great fresh powder conditions out there yesterday.

The entire mountain is on wind hold today. Kirkwood just recently was able to open chair 9, the bunny hill, but until the winds die down it's a good day to hang inside and watch a DVD or take your dog for a walk.

Welcome to SkiKirkwood.blogspot.com

2006-12-24T09:27:00.000-08:00

Welcome Kirkwood skiers, boarders and visitors. Kirkwood is not only a great ski resort but also a fantastic place to be all four seasons of the year.

As a homeowner in the West Meadows part of Kirkwood (at the end of Fremont) I thought I would start this blog to give people a local's view of "The 'Wood" and the surrounding area. The image above is from a Webcam I keep on my dining room table, looking out at the Red Cliffs.

This season has been off to a slow start and my day job (developing a new site for Peerflix) has prevented me from getting up to The 'Wood since early fall. The new site went live last week and it's looking good, so we'll be heading up to Kirkwood the morning after Christmas. Check back in for daily reports to find the best snow on the mountain.