From Rinse to Spin cycle, the knob finished on BASE! – 02/10/07

BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

Date:

February 10th-11th, 2007 (WINTER – DAY ONE)

Location:

Clusterfuckwood, CA, US EY?

Weather:

Temps held steady at 28 F to 32 F, total snowfall at around 5 feet with some deeper windrifted areas.

Riders of the Storm:

666, Mrs. 666, ridefree, Zippy, Shugs, Tyrone, Jrosen32, Mishap, Jmetzler, Slim, Mrs. Slim, Casey H of Moment, SuPu, Seanyob, serge, mc_roon, Haskins, lph, AKA, skimoore, Big Blue, lhs, watersnowdirt, BASOM, kidwoo, and others.

Music: The Rakes – ‘Retreat’

Synopsis:

Saturday skied as if you were swimming laps at your local YMCA. Although it was 99% snowing top to bottom, it still soaked most skiers who refuse to pay full retail on Goretex clothing. Our only ride up the Wall chair took about an hour to reach the summit. (Yes, its 2007, but at Kirkwood its 1907) The snow was smooth but started to get pretty mank on the last 100 meters.

Sunday skied like a great winter pow day. Well, that’s if the chair you were riding actually made it to the top. Even better the parking attendants were telling people to park in unplowed lots. Huge lift-lines on Chair 6….opened late and basically the only chair running until noon. The Wall and the backside eventually opened but the most fun was had on 6 at the end of the day. Ultimately, hucks, SG pow turns, and untracked at 3 pm created immense gratification that was SEVERELY lacking the first couple of hours.

DAY ONE: The RINSE cycle….

7:00 AM – "….the snow level is hovering just above the base of Kirkwood." Mrs. 666 immediately retreats to a dream state of kittens and proposals. I grab my trusty Glad ski suit and head out with Seanyob and his brother.

"…Do you have chains?…..Do you have chains?…….Do you have chains?…..hello, do you have chains?….I wonder why there was a line-up before Red Lake?

Looking better on Carson Pass?

Hmmmm…even better on Chair 666.

Seanyob likes skiing in a washing machine…

Although his bro would rather be smoking cigs and spanking people…

Shugs and I roll the Wall, where we had ONE HELL OF A TIME sitting on it for an hour…..Thanks Kirkwood, did I say bankruptcy? No, he did not just say that….??????

At the summit, bluebird and no wind. EPIC!

After that stellar experience, I found ridefree hucking by himself near Waterfall, but that’s nothing new. Supu and I head to WagonWheel and lapped endless untracked sierra cement.

Here’s the definition of Sierra Cement….courtesy of SuPu

As you can see, my camera doesn’t have an underwater feature….but little Supu gets some chest deep.

Zippy takes a Maytag air….

SuPu preferes the Westinghouse powerturn….Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Then I saw this in the corner of my eye….ballet skiers love powder!

Skimoore takes a lap with us, and complains about everything.

The camera had enough but Slim manages to air it out in Oops…

Day TWO: Spin cycle…getting drier

We woke up to an inch at lake level. Here’s the shot of Tallac for Sierra Cement, bcrider & gimpy…

Caltrans madneSS! There’s a mini-cooper in that spray…

Super tight photog-driving skillz….

At this point, I threw Shugs’s PDA phone in front of that thing…sadly, it didn’t survive.

Serenity at Caples….

This is where the day started off really well. They finally open it around 10 am, and open it they did! From Olympic to Monte’s. It stayed untracked for a whole 2.8 secs.

I wonder who rides…er rode those skis?

Billy Christmas decided to come for a ski…

ZiPpY airs it in Oops alternate….

…and then ollies over Team Bulletproof’s training ground.

Tyrone having some needed fun….man, he sure looks dry in that coat!

They managed to open the Wagon Wheel ridge for the first time of the year…the weather getting nasty, and the funnel lookin’ tasty!

Zippy drops in for first tracks….

…he makes a remarkable right-hander…

And then lets gravity take hold…

Jrosen32 follows his little bro’s line….

….only to backslap but stick the glacier landing that Zippy uncovered.

Evil Mentholman decides against a backslap and decides to land in a minefield…and thereafter straightlines into avy-debris…fun times.

Back to the ChROnIc lift – ZipPy on the main terminal of Oops…

…and the lemmings followed. AKA in a babysitter air…

Lph getting a technical itch….

…Then back to wait at the W A L L !!!! EXTREME EXTREME EXTREME!

Casey H, CEO of Moment Skis and I roll solo over to the lower cirque. Killer avy debris led to some untracked cliff drops.

Casey again, taking it to Extreme III in the Sisters…

To which he earns some flat-light flight time…

Jrosen32 SOARS LIKE AN EAGLE!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG!

…AND TURNS LIKE A SIDEWINDER!

Captain Xmas, after eating a bowl of spaghetti and syrup….

Milliment Manny finds some pillowed poetic justice…

He had fun, he told me so…

Then back over to little Jimzzzzzz as the opened Sentinel Ridge. I took off to make 4 turns down to the cave (Comis are too much fun, sorry)….but I guess Jrosen32 found a cliff.

Casey gets into the Moment on his skis….

Excellent Viz, and ZippY’s awesome compressing skills create this scary look of Casey on Ski School…

BASOM….the awesomeness is hurting the ccd.

Casey again, Schmidtting-it’

Man, he sure has a license to thrill.

At this point, its 3 pm, we’re all tired and we decide to hit Palisades for a cut-up pow run. Well, we get the ridge and they open up the rest of Pali to the boundary….just for us. Mrs. 666 was granted first tracks with smiles…but Casey shows how to ski the Comis….