TR: Carson pass gate w/ a little wood thrown in - 6 Jan 08

[bodywhomper]

Date: 6 Jan 08 – about 18 hours-worth

Music: skier666, care to share?

Place: jmetzler’s car, with a brief stop at the Carson pass avi control gate and another brief stop at kirkwood

Car crew: jmetzler and me

Gate crew: lots and lots of cars lined up and filled with frustrated folks

Hill crew: ian, dave, jmetzler, a few others, and myself

cameraboy: jmetzler


Ain’t seen a report up from the wood for Sunday and know that skier666 ain’t gonna be putting his own together. This ain’t gonna be the caliber of the devil, but hope it’s still enjoyable.

Well, after the NWS forecast that read like an astrology reading, ‘all models are in alignment,’ plans were hatched and revised several times as the reality of the storms unfolded.

Coke-hee’s 4 Jan report along with the lovely IR satellite loop added to the craving and stoke:



Finally the call was made and sleep became useless. jmetzler made one last check of that satellite loop before heading out:



With the intent of first chair on 6, we made great time until we reached the Carson pass gate at a little past 7AM. Then we waited and we waited and we waited and we waited some more. We met some friends, made some enemies, built snowmen, threw snowballs, and pulled our hair out. At one point a cat drove down the highway, checked stuff out, then drove away. Finally, Caltrans fixed a vehicle or two, got the gates open and by about 11AM, we were off again. Sheesh, so much for first chair on 6. As we finally hopped on the wire, sentinel had just opened and it was off to the land of wallowing traverses, faceshots, and faceplants.



heading to outer sentinel



faceshots and slapstick in outer sentinel


The skies cleared up nicely in the afternoon and patrol eventually got most of the frontside opened. jmetzler and I finally had our reprieve fer missin the opening of 6.



pretty big queue



this next run did not suck.


the hill was empty and felt like a non-powder weekday afternoon. As a last run fer a few of the crew, we decided to venture again where others had not since last wednesday or thursday.




after spending 30 minutes wallowing and punching the traverse, we gave up on doodle and just center-punched some blank canvas in the middle of the bowl. with the steepness of the line and the depth of the snow, it was a pretty sublime run. making the very slow motion turns was a pretty sweet and tranquil experience.

at days end, jmetzler and I decided to actually use the camera a little.


jmetzler setting up for a favorite cliff band, which i didn't catch cuz i totally gaped with the camera




jmetzler avoiding the dry dock on dan’s cliff



me in a finger

on the way out, we stopped by and mooched some caffeine from some friends. We both liked this shot of adam and tracy’s truck showin some of the accumulation.



That’s all. cheers

[nova2]

stoked! The wood is fillin, rad.

[powdork]

very nice!
tahoetrash called me from chair 6 on sunday to let me know how good it was (asshole). only after hearing on TGR about carson pass being closed did i realize he never left his house and was full of shit.
thanks tgr.

[skimoore]

Holy shit that looks nice....so jealous.

[skier666]

Looking goooooood!

Also, this may be the first TR with infrared satellite loops...

[Sierra Cement]

Yea some pictures of the Wood! I'd love to see that Carson Pass gridlock too though.

There are some good stories coming from the folks who have braved the elements to ski the wood lately.