Winter’s Warming Wrath Beckons Kirkwood Karnage – 03/19/07

Kirkwood, CA during the March Summer of 2007 (March 10-11th)

Skiers and ER Patients:

666, Shugs, Zippy, Jrosen32, Ridefree, and of course, Mrs. 666. Hell, even Sven from Jackson Hole made it to take a few Oops laps on Saturday.

CLIMATE: (temps in F)

Ranged from the high 20’s to the low 50’s….er….at 9,000 ft.

SYNOPSIS:

Hitch a flight with Shugs to South Tahoe, ride the OB with Shugs, Zippy, Jrosen32, and Ridefree on Saturday, and then take Mrs. 666 out for day in the sun on Sunday.

Winter snow holding on strong on the fierce North Facing aspects, with springtime slush everywhere else. Bluebird. No wind.

However, the Mrs. took a tumble on Sunday down an alluvial fan that lead to insertion of hardware into her right ankle/lower tib-fib. Hospital madnezz ensued.

MUSIC: Commix – ‘Call to Mind’

Day numero uno:

Shugs loads the Concorde for the quick space flight…

Eastern San Jose pastures…complete with happy cows.

Super spy shot of Iron Mountain/Kit Carson ski field (for sale for the right price)

A high alpine lake…

"Dude, I think the landing strip is more to our left"

We survive, and make it to Tahoe in 52 mins. Shugs gets a swell night of sleep and rips down Sentinel…

Why screw around on the piste?….the winter stashes are waiting in West Shore!

Jrosen32 gets the party started…

Ridefree makes an official appearance in a TR!!!!!!!!!

This particular off-piste adventure has a steep aspect…

Jrosen32 carves the turkey….

..and soon, the smell hits Shugs which leads him to carve some as well

…and seconds please…

Ridefree actually rides a snowboard. Its a device that slides like a pair of skis.

…I think its like skateboarding without the trucks and wheels.

666 goes for the sweetness right down the Turkey’s throat….gobble gobble mate’

Jrosen32 finds a line out on his skier’s right and finds some "winter firm packed wind blown powder"….

Ridefree gets hella aggressive….at downhill snowboarding.

Shugs gets his steep steeze on….

And through the exit…wonder what would happen if one would take a tumble at this point…..hmmmmmm.

Shugs gets worked by the hike out, so the skiers are left to take a look down "The Diagonal Chute"….OMG! Zippy on the face above "The Diagonal Chute."

Good thing he brought weapons for the upcoming slayfest…

OMG! He’s in it now, too late to turn around. He’s fucked!

Or is he????????????

He’s officially "The Diagonal Slayer"

He’s officially been knighted….

666, as usual, getting the sloppy seconds…of snow, and image quality.

Down at the cliff area near the bottom of Chair 4, Zippy finds some fresh…at 60 F.

I’d like to see Al Gore to explain the softness of this landing in the extreme heat…

Jrosen32 adds more facts to the argument…

Science is FUN!

Zippy on Hellz Bellz Core Shot Hellz Yeahz…

"Come closer next time jackass"…

…and day one comes to an end.

Day TWO: The day you wish never happened….

Cirque looks a little thin this year…at about 50% from last season.

On the backside, Shugs calls to let us know he’ll be doing a "fly-by"

Me and the Mrs hit up West Shore proper while Greydon, Ty, Mrs. Ty, and Walter ride down the skier’s left aspect…

A healthy Mrs. 666 skiing a healthy line…

Sadly this is the last turn of her 06-07 season….

As we pan out, the story starts to unfold….

The really bummer is that she basically fell at the exit of the chute. She slayed the whole chute, to the point that I had to hussle to get some shots of her coming down. The snow was awesome mid-winter packed pow, and as she made her last turn to the exit, then take the left-hander to the traverse out, she caught a tail and did a roll. She tried to get her feet underneath her body, but the snow changed to a very firm windpack surface, and momentum was gained. I think the injury happened when her right ski popped off as she tumbled on the firm pack. Both skis released, and then she went for slide to the lake. The good news is that her ankle is the only injury. Also, the good thing about where she fell is that there was absolutely nothing for her to run into. The injury was solely from the force/tweak of her ski releasing. Would it have been better for the skis to stay on? Don’t know, but I have a feeling that if her bindings were cranked, we’d have more chances of knee injury etc.

(she slid from the crux down to here)

Big thanks to Greydon, Walter, Ty, Mrs. Ty and the Kirkwood ski patrol for coming over, even in the immediate sidecountry to help us out. It sucked to have an old friend on patrol to see Halle injured, but its nice to see familiar people in that situation.

Perfect weather, people, and cell service made the recovery absolutely perfect. Her leg was elevated immediately after injury and up until surgery. Since we were in Alpine county, the easiest scenerio was for the CHP to fly right down to the lake and pick her up. So, also props to the CHP, they were awesome, super friendly, and most helpful.

All in all, after injury she was at the hospital in two hours. I could not imagine a better scenerio.

That is, until I got to the hospital to see her scans/x-rays…

Something seems off….maybe a fracture distal tibia and fibula, with subluxation?

Surgery took 3 hours, but lph made sure he knew that she was an EXTREME athlete. From half-ironmans to shopping the yearly sale at Saks, he told him that it may be worth the extra effort to get her as close to normal as possible. The surgery came out like this…..

(joint looks good…bonegraft was taken from below her knee to supply the "missing bone")

Its been a week. Its been tough. She’s pretty bummed, but everyday gets better. Thanks for the positive vibes, it was extremely thoughtful and delightful to show the Mrs. pre and post surgery.

Thanks again,

666, the skier