My trip to Lake Tahoe for skiing – 04/02/06

Dates: March 30th-April 2nd, 2006

Locations: Thunderbowl, Carson Spur, Kirkwood, Alpine Ghettos, Chamois, and many Starbucks.

Players: 666, Mrs. 666, Woody of nzski.com ad fame, Charlie – little kid from NZ, Basom (WTF?), Zippy, Greydon Clark, and others.

Gameplan: To show some KW BC gnar to Basom & Woody…and ski fresh mid-winter conditions for four days.

Synopsis: Long hikes on Thursday at KW, pretty chill and relaxed. Hit Alpine on a buffed-out, killer day with runs to ourselves. Skied pow and wind-buff the following days at KW.

Music: Amit – ‘Lost Voices’

Day 1: Thunder Bowl to Carson Spur

Not a bad day for Basom’s first day to Kirkwood eh? Patrol actually opened the gates on this day…one of the few days to do so during the last month.

Too many tracks, too many problems….Woody’s line:

Looking to the West…

Basom gives it a go…

…and he’s riding 7SK’s!

…he now LOVES the V-tree line….

Woody gives it a go…testing the water content of the snowpack:

Just like the snow in New Zealand…

….at Coronet Peak?

No, he says its a little better in California…

Way better he says…thus, he approves and is STOKED!

I decided to hit the chute…bulletproof at the top/crux, and heaven on the way out:

Our lines: Woody on the lookers left, Basom in the middle, and 666 on the right:

Zoomed out…now for setting the boot pack back to the Palisades….yay!

We then hiked over to the north facing bowl just passed Martin Point…its the spot that they do the cat skiing….Here, instant best friends try to make powder 8’s:

Now on the Spur, Woody makes some long radius turns in beautiful flat-light…

He complained that he didn’t see any other tracks…

Basom loves Kirkwood….I’m sure he told everyone at Squaw about how many people we ran into on this day

Those darn life decisions….

Basom has a little fun….and GOES HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Woody attacks the opposite steep face…with the Kingswoods as his weapon of choice

666 decides to ollie the glacier chunks….

I land and look up. We start yelling to the dude up there, er Basom, that he needs to grow some balls and become Leroy Jenkins and launch something.

Only if my shitty backup Sony camera had the balls to take clear photos…

Nice…..I guess those Spatula thingys are good for something.

One last lap into the outer Palisades to get more untracked at 4 pm….Basom likes Kirkwood….or no he doesn’t.

Day 2: Alpine Ghettos

With High Beaver, Estelle, etc closed, we lapped High Yellow to Sherwood Cliffs to Scott Chair, and repeat. We ran into Irul&ublo on the chair but he was on his own gameplan…or that my kiwi mates smelled like crap.

Woody on High Yellow….peeeeeerrrrrrrrrfffffectly smooth.

Lower Sherwood…and no hat as usual.

Charlie airing into the secret chute off of Scott…

Charlie on High Yellow…hours later…

Charlie airs it out by Sherwood Cliffs…

Woody’s kiwi style lunch…MMMMMMMMMMM.

Top of Keyhole…..

666 in a Sherwood spine…

Airing it out….

Another POV of the secret chute off of Scott Chair..

Sherwood again…so good, it was ridiculous

OB above Scott Chair…VERY WINDLOADED!!!! * Always do the poletap *

Nice looking ridge though right?

Are these the Alpine Meadows? We carved out an entrance…Woody dropped in first:

Charlie was next…..I decided to roll skier’s left, and then the whole cornice broke off, which then sloughed out the whole face. Firm layer underneath provided an edgeable surface, therefore, I was able to stay on my feet.