Sidecountry Wife to Old Oakleys Strife – 04/17/05

March 14, 2005

Kirkwood – Amador and Alpine County – California

1) Load the car…check!
2) Forget Mrs. 666’s jacket…check!
3) Mrs. 666 hits up West Shore and Thunder Bowl KW BC for the first time….PRICELESS!!

MUSIC: Rymetyme & Trace – ‘Move Vip’

The snow on Sunday was, according to Greydon Clark….MANKAAAAAY. In and out sunshine in the morning to complete flat-light in the afternoon coupled with a "minimal breeze" created a glorious skiing experience.

It was slush pretty much everywhere from the first groomer. However, the Wall groomer early on had to be the iciest thing I have ever "attempted" to carve on….so Mrs. 666 and I decide to hit up West Shore.

By the time we approached to top of chair 4, the wind was howlin’. Blowing your skis off your shoulders and the skin off your face while we hiked up to the top of Fawn Ridge.

Mrs. 666 a little nervous dropping into West Shore, but KILLED it all the way to the lake…if it wasn’t for the pesky wind, we would have lapped this all day.

Thunder Bowl was really wet…surprising since its mostly north facing down the gut from the summit. Also, lots of wet-slide clumps were showing up. If we were there any later, it probably would have been better to be at the bar drinking a Fat Tire.

Mrs. 666 hit up TB from the very top down the main section, and I hit up skier’s right of V-tree. I was setting off some massive wet slide slough, enough where I had to stop and let it run by.

Mrs. 666 – "I’m going to air that cliff, and then straightline to the bottom"

Thunder Bowl…we waited for about 10 minutes for the sun to come out…this was as good as it got.

For the ultimate last run, we decided hit up the OB past Palisades. This had to be some of the slowest snow ever! You could basically straightline from the top and still be going 2 mph….albeit with your quads literally popping out of your ski pants.

Big ups go to Mrs. 666 throwing down the gauntlet on Sunday…she really rinsed it proper , and boy am I proud.

Reports say it snowed a couple inches last night and was around 19 F on the upper elevations….did I hear anyone say "Dust on Crust?"

OLD OAKLEY SEARCH – SPRING 2005

After searching the web, scouring forums, a fellow soldier sent me a pair of these bad boys for the price of ZERO. Yep. The only requirement was to take pics of me actually wearing them in public or on the hill…..DONE!

Look what I got in the mail:

OMG….they CAME!!!