Blue World Blog 2.23.09

February 23, 2009

President’s Week has come and gone. Local retail and rental shops had brisk business, especially on those stormy days when the shopping and indoor activities seemed to be a good option. Oh yeah, the restaurants were busy as well. Lots of new snow fell this past week and I had a chance to ski Heavenly on Tuesday. 8 inches of fresh was reported that morning so I had to at least get a few hours of finding the good stuff under my skis.

I got to the Stagecoach Parking lot about 9:15am and it was almost full and headed to the upper mountain. Riding up the lift I noticed only a few tracks under the lift, so I delayed heading up further to take a warm up, under the lift. Very… Very… Nice!

By the time I got to the upper mountain there were a good number of skiers and riders starting to congregate at Dipper and Comet Lifts. I rode up Dipper and B-Lined it to Milky Way Bowl. Lots of folks had the same idea… I traversed across the bowl and jumped in down past the tree line (Stu’s Run) and caught several powder turns. I headed back up to do it again and decided to traverse all the way over the Killebrew Canyon rope line and ski the trees down… Sweet! After that, yet another ride up Dipper to see what was left down Dipper Knob and it was pretty well skied out but the snow was great. From there I continued past the Galaxy Lift and headed on the cat track to catch a few turns in Galaxy Glades, another stash that many skiers and riders bypass, and found a route, although a much lower angle, to satisfy my addiction for powder!

I rode Galaxy back up and headed to Comet. The bumps were starting to form on Little Dipper, but the tree skiing was still really good… so, two more runs down the trees and I was ready for a break. I stopped in to my perch at the Star Bar and had my usual warm up drink… Poor man’s mocha… ½ Coffee & ½ Hot Chocolate with a topping of a little whipped cream…

I was also preoccupied thinking about my North American Snow Sports Journalist Western Winter Summit coming up the next week and decided I should start preparing for my trip, so I rode Comet one more time to head back to Stagecoach Lodge.

On the way down the mountain the impulse hit me and I found myself loading the Olympic Express to check out the “WP”. Some tracks were in there but still lots of pow left to my surprise, and then continued down through North Bowl Trees and down to the base of the North Bowl Lift. The ride up North Bowl, as with Galaxy, is slow but a welcomed recovery ride to rest my screamin’ legs. I headed back down to finish up at Stagecoach Lodge before heading out. A great morning on the Heavenly mountain, and now you know where some of my powder stashes are.

This past week Kirkwood was also able to get both sections of the Covered Wagon Platter Lifts fired up to access Emigrant Basin as well as the New Vista T-Bar at the top of Chair #2 to access, what we used to call, the Moon Cornice and Boogie Slide in Thunder Saddle, so if you are heading out, check it out. Plenty of snow at the Wood.

With more snow coming this week, the conditions on the mountain continue to get better and better and more upper mountain off-piste terrain is getting better and better as well.

If you plan on skiing or riding off-piste, do as I say and not as I do… Always ski and ride with a buddy. Be Safe and stay in-bounds.

Have a great week,

Curtis Fong

“The Guy From Tahoe”

BikeandSkiTahoe.com

tgft@bikethewest.com