Powder Day 11/28

The Kirkwood ridge.

 It is crazy how good this early season has been for snow compared to the previous few years. The mountain is already filled in pretty well, whereas two years ago (and last year) there was barely any coverage going into late December. This also shows you just how many rocks get completely covered over the course of the season.

After a brief return to the Bay area for Thanksgiving after Kirkwood's opening day, we turned right around and came back up to Tahoe for a weekend in South Lake and a day of skiing on Sunday. We stayed at an awesome house and I did some snowshoeing (and football) on Saturday with Cathleen and Jesse.

It snowed all day Saturday in South Lake, adding nearly a foot of new snow to the few feet already on the ground there.

We met up with Owen at Kirkwood. Despite there being only a little over a foot of fresh snow (versus 10+ feet four days before) it was much lighter and just generally way better. Good times had by all! Also, two new core shots, this time in my old skis. So, it's either still pretty rocky or I just have less and less regard for my skis' well being.

Me, taken from Owen's iPhone.

Traversing out in Palisades.

Kirkwood Opening 11/24

This year, Tahoe was blessed with the biggest November snowstorm since 2004. Kirkwood recorded 128" of snow over the four day period from November 19 - 22. It was enough to cover the entire mountain in a decent base and gave us the November opening we've been missing for the past three years. We made it up for opening day on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

Driving up after the storm.

Approaching Silver Lake.

First tracks of the season at the top of Chair 6.

Kirkwood Opening Day - 24 Nov 2010 from Kyle on Vimeo.

I got a chance to test out my Armadas in their natural habitat - Powder. They're going to take a little getting used to. The rocker in the tails means you can't lean back too far without wiping out, as I learned:

Kyle - 24 Nov 2010 from Kyle on Vimeo.

Now, It's not usually the best idea to use a brand new pair of skis on the first day of the season - cover is thin and there are plenty of rocks lurking just below the surface. But with all the snow I figured cover would be better than normal for opening day. Still, despite being extra careful, I still managed to put some big scratches and a few core shots in them, all before lunch.

Mammoth Trip 11/17-18

When Lauren got back from Geneva, on November 15, we took a preseason ski trip to Mammoth. Mammoth was the only ski area open within a "reasonable" driving distance (besides Boreal, but 200 vertical feet doesn't really count). On the drive, we stopped by a hidden hot springs in Bridgeport, CA, with an excellent view of the Eastern Sierra:

We skied November 17 and 18. I've been impatient to go skiing again since basically July, so any snow would have been enough. Considering Mammoth was only open for a week at the time, it was pretty amazing that they had enough natural snow to cover the upper half of the mountain. The lower mountain was mostly man-made, but skied pretty well. I rocked the park a LOT. 

... and Lauren is working on skiing in a more interesting direction on the groomers. You have to learn to ski switch in order to do a switch 360, after all.

Lauren Learning to Ski Switch from Kyle on Vimeo.

I tested my new skis for a few runs. They actually did better on the groomers than my old skis, thanks to new sharp edges.

On the drive home, we went over Monitor Pass (highway 89) and saw an amazing sunset. It looked a little like this: