Quite possibly heading up to Kwood tomorrow

 

Pls tell me you made it up to The Wood on Fri! Cuz Sierra was ridiculously amazing! The groomers were in awesome shape w/ the fresh cold dry overnite snow. My nephew was trippin' how "silent" it was as he cruised along the runs.

Half a foot & more of freshies were plentiful off-piste. We also got scattered snow showers throughout the day. We were greeted w/ about 2 inches on our cars at the end of the day. I had loads of fun hucking boulders in the Avalanche Bowl & along the El Dorado chair. Also, just offtrail halfway down Lower Main was a fun log slide "Hollywood" hit. After boardsliding or 50-50'ing a good 15 feet on the log, you drop down right onto the run.

Too bad I'll be in SD this wknd cuz these cold temps have really kept the snow nice & consistent. But man was it freezing! On my last ride up Grandview, my hand went numb during the 2 minutes I had my glove off to use my walkie & adjust its shoulder harness. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....

I hear we'll be back to a stormy pattern by the end of next week.

 

Those should work for me, but I was thinking for yours & Justin's sakes that we should hold off til after your kids' parties. I thought late-Feb/early March was tough since Jack & Thorelei's bdays had y'all busy w/ honey-do lists in that timeframe.

 

Yea we're back to thinking St. Paddy's Day weekend like last year.

 

Hell ya we did. The wood was amazing. We hit just about every part of the mountain. Powder every where. It was so good we went back up Sunday. Sunday we decided to hike up Thimble Peak and hit all the untouched powder up there. For those that don't know where Thimble peak is, it's to the right of Chair 4 (sunrise) on the backside. It was hella of a hike but so worth it. Had the biggest on my face the whole way down lol

Not my pic, but this is the hike to the top of Thimble Peak

 

Sucks there's no snow coming in. I'm trying to get up this weekend for at least 1 day but hopefully 2. But if conditions stay like this I might just go up there to do some groomer smashing and beer drinking.

Worse possible conditions right now. Been sunny during the day... cold and sunny. Windy. Toss in insanely cold nights and it's brick time.

You guys got lucky.

 

Bear Valley has been partially or completely closed for 2 days in a row now due to winds. I think they closed down some lifts on Sunday too.

And no snow on the horizon for a week. Not stoked on the way January is starting to go. Not stoked at all.

 

Yea they closed completely for today. Winds of 50mph and gusts up to 80.

It'd be nice just to get the days in. The lazy days, get up there at 10, ride for a little while, drink some beers, ride a little more, drink some more.

 

Sounds like every time I hit the mtn, am I doing it wrong? Lol

 

LOL.... man when the snow is good I don't stop. Open to close. Drink after.

 

Well we drink on the lifts, but it's not hitting the bar.

 

^Sounds pretty good to me too. I've been up to Heavenly and Kirkwood so far but not Bear yet cause of current conditions.

 

Nice! Man, last time I did "99 Steps" (FYI: that's the unofficial name of the hike.) was just about 4 years ago to the day. I got maybe over half a dozen schweeeeeet turns in by the time I had gotten to the point where I crossed the traverse toward Thunder Saddle.

Hell, I think it was 7 or 8 seasons ago that I hiked it 3 or 4 times on a random bluebird weekday. That year, I had done some serious pre-season conditioning followed by in-season workouts twice a week. Anyway, you're right, Steve. Those earned turns make for some serious some ear-to-ear grinning.

Those times whenever I have to put in a li'l effort for some untouched pow is probably when the stoke factor is the highest for me. Gone are the days when you had to hike most of the way to Fawn Ridge (past the Wave). But I do appreciate the help that the new tow ropes offer cuz the riding is so good on the backside! (That's what she said.)

Sheesh! I gotta get out to Kirkwood ASAP. It's in my crosshairs for my next powdah day! My prediction: Super Bowl wknd. Cuz, as Ray said...
We were real fortunate. Anyone who got to shred Thur, Fri and/or Sat got the goods!

You called it right... "brick time." All the ingredients came together for the Sierra cement recipe. By Sunday afternoon, the winds picked up. Then by Mon, the daytime high had gotten above freezing along w/ sustained winds. Repeat the same on Tues and today (fortunately, not as windy the 2 previous days). No bueno, amigos.

But even though we won't see any snow for the next week, at least the winds will be in check for the most part. So we'll definitely be in "smash the groomers" mode til our next significant snow. I'm w/ the forecasters who are calling for a couple weeks from now. We should get some spots showers in a week or so, but nothing serious.

I'm just happy I've gotten 3 days in so far. Last year, I hadn't even ridden yet by this time. I think I got my 1st day in w/ 04Impreza (Aaron) at Bear on something ridiculously late like in the 3rd week of Jan.

 

WTF?!? Boarder-X & Skier-X were dropped from the X-Games?

I was curious how soon the Winter X was upon us (in exactly ONE WEEK, btw) and come to find that my favorite event(s) got cut! I'm & at the same time. Grrrr... sniff sniff (wipes lonely tear).

Yeah, yeah... I understand it's all about what's more marketable, what's gonna drawn more revenue, etc. While I can appreciate the skillz & steez of the pipe and moreso slopestyle, boarder-X and skier-X have ZERO subjectivity.

 

Yea that sucks. I enjoyed boarder-x a lot.