TR: A virgin is deflowered. No blood, but pregnancy imminent.

[thefrush]

Word. This thread will not contain much visual stoke, as I was hiking alone, and my skiing self-portraits need some practice. But! It was an epic day for me on a personal level so I just wanted to share.

Today marked the start of a season that will be much different from my last 17 years of skiing. This year, I break free. Up until this year, I have skied almost entirely with my Dad, on rental demo gear, on an average of 10-15 days per season. Not any more.

Having jumped the nest, now living on my own, it's time to get my ski on. Today marked the first time I ever hiked for turns, as well as the first time I've ever skied in November, let alone the first week of November. I had originally intended to go up on Tuesday, but the storm + my 2WD Tacoma and lack of chains = me stuck at home. So I rescheduled for today, after hearing from everyone that conditions were still good.

Got started early, left Sacramento around 5:45AM, got to Kirkwood about 8, scrambled up to the kid's parking lot, after hearing Ottime's warning, booted up, and got to hiking... way too quickly. Sea level to 8000' in two hours straight into physical activity was not a good idea. About halfway up chair 7, needed a break. Was considering turning around. Busted out the camera.

The bootpack had been covered by snowmobile tracks, saw the kids blastin' around, shoulda hit em up for a ride to the top.


Lookin' up to chair 7:


Decided to just man-up and take it slow, wasn't a race to the top.

I slowed my pace heavily, stopping to take breaks every hundred or so feet. I had plenty of water and Gatorade with me, and also ate a banana on the way up which helped greatly.

After passing the top of chair 7 I found the bootpack trail, MAJOR thanks to whoever laid this down, made the hike much easier. I hope the first tracks were worth it.

Lookin' across the valley, someone needs to SkiBASE those cliffs on the left, behind the tree:


Lookin' up stump run:


With the pace on my deflowering slowed to a comfortable crawl, I kept trodding up the hill. Looking back down stump run:


Top of Sentinel Bowl came into view, at this point I knew I was home free:


Lookin' over at Glove Rock:


And down to Palisades:


Finally, two hours after leaving the parking lot, made it to the top, not a huge victory by any means in the grand scheme of things, but was stoked to have stuck with it and made it.

I've only been to Kirkwood twice previously, but I've seen all the famous TRs so I decided to check around a bit to see what landmarks I could find.

Big Jim's is... well, a lot bigger in person. More like, Hugenormous Jim's. I'd like to work up to hitting this bad boy some day, but it might be a little longer than I had originally planned. You can also see someone hit Jim's chute with a nice jump turn entry. Badass.


Lookin' down into Chamoix I believe?


Lookin' up at Chair 6/Wagon Wheel Bowl/Sisters:


Across the valley again, better view of the cliffs that need SkiBASEing.


Still the only car in the lot:


Alright, time to get to the goods. I recognized a couple little hucks that I had seen in Ottime's TR that I wanted to hit. After talking to a couple guys that had just summited, a snowboarder and a dude with a cardboard box - no joke - I decided to click in for the first time in 8 months and go for the huck.

Landing was super smooth, and the next 10+ turns were untracked pow and the ride all the way to the bottom was relatively untracked.


I've definitely been impregnated, with a renewed invigoration for skiing. I look forward to exploring heavily this year and pushing my skiing to a new level. Bring on the season! Stoke on! I promise my future TRs will show actual skiing.

[huck4bucks]

Well played, sir. Well played.

Good choice hitting the 'wood. It got warm on the north shore.

edit: No photos of cardboard box guy?

[emtnate]

Nice to see a report from someone's first time hiking. I explored sidecountry turns last season inspired by a couple threads here. The hikes open up a whole new world of skiing. It is difficult to find earned turns in Indiana though.

[guermo]

Nice first TR!

[LightRanger]

Good job man. Now save some money for an AT (or tele) setup and you won't have to work quite as hard. Get the gear and I'll take you touring.

[the vor]

Dude, congrats on bustin that cherry. Good TR. Looking forward to a season of expanding my horizos as well. Look forward to some more.

[thefrush]

Thanks everybody. And SCUT once those lifts start spinning I'll forget all about hiking.

edit: No photos of cardboard box guy?

I kind of regret not sticking around to see the spectacle. They both said they were heading over to hit The Wall, I didn't feel like walking all the way over there and back. Must have been quite a sight though. As I was waiting at the top, the first dude came over with the snowboard, and I saw a little further down the guy carrying the box so I asked him what was up with that? Dude goes, 'that's his chariot!' Pretty funny.

[powdork]

way to stick it out. keep pushing it and you'll be surprised how much easier it gets, especially if you spend enough time at altitude. you know by now the next step in your addiction is relocation.

not chamois, this is jims. the one with the turn in the pic above this one is corner pocket. from big jims over to probably 100 feet past this shot towards chair 6 is mostly considered jim's though. then you get to ski school and patrol chutes, and then chamois (which i heard was hit from the top)

[powdork]

Thanks everybody. And SCUT once those lifts start spinning I'll forget all about hiking.

i'm betting you'll reconsider once you realize what's outside the boundaries. unless we never go more than three days without snow during the whole season.

[LightRanger]

i'm betting you'll reconsider once you realize what's outside the boundaries. unless we never go more than three days without snow during the whole season.

Exactly what I was going to say. When KW and Squaw (where the OP has passes) are skied out by 11, and I'm getting untracked all afternoon, you'll be singing a different tune. Likewise when I'm skiing nice corn on Shasta in June.

[Ottime]

Nice work. I'm heading up again next Thursday if your interested in more hikes...

And it is true - I thought I would never hike when the lifts are turning, but the snow can stay killer for weeks in the BC and on the hill it is often done by noon. You will probably be looking to hit sidecountry this season, and get a full touring set up over the summer.

Earning turns is a different adventure. My wife commented on how I would have never driven all that distance for one run off the lift. And I, like you, was super stoked after my run.

Nice drop. I was actually wishing I had hit that on Wednesday, skied to the boot pack and then went back over to Olympic. The entrance to O was barely a foot - fun but... And that snow was pretty fantastic for landing in.

Snow still staying cold? And I think those are cat tracks at the bottom - a good sign of opening plans...

[powski3]

Way to get after it man. You will become addicted to hiking and touring once you get in shape and realize there are fresh turns to be had everyday the resort is tracked out. Just make sure you gain the proper knowledge or people get very pissed at you and you might die.

[thefrush]

Nice work. I'm heading up again next Thursday if your interested in more hikes...

Earning turns is a different adventure. My wife commented on how I would have never driven all that distance for one run off the lift. And I, like you, was super stoked after my run.

Snow still staying cold? And I think those are cat tracks at the bottom - a good sign of opening plans...

We'll see how conditions are. If another storm hits I would definitely be down, but I think yesterday was the last worthwhile day for hiking, the snow was melting off of the trees and it was warming up.

Those tracks were, from what I could gather, three kids on snowmobiles and a snow plow that was pushing snow around the top of chair 7.

Way to get after it man. You will become addicted to hiking and touring once you get in shape and realize there are fresh turns to be had everyday the resort is tracked out. Just make sure you gain the proper knowledge or people get very pissed at you and you might die.

I'm in decent shape, the altitude gain straight into hiking way too quickly is what caught me. Once I slowed my pace it was all gravy. If I had spent a night or two at elevation, wouldn't have been an issue.

And if there's one thing I hate more than dying, it's having people pissed at me.

I would probably be more inclined to tour if I lived in the mountains, but I think I'll have enough issues trying to put all of my season passes to good use this season while balancing a school/work load.

Bring on more snow.

[khyber.pass]

Nice work. Really nice.

But don't BASE those cliffs. Those cliffs look a little too small and thick for me, with some bad-ass trees in the landing zone. More than that, I don't think there's enough distance to deploy the chute. Now I've never BASE'd. So what the fuck do I know. But my sense of self-preservation tells me those cliffs are not happenin'.

[thefrush]

Thanks.

I'm definitely not a skiBASEr, so I definitely wouldn't be the best consultant on that, and I know any real skiBASEr would do the proper research before jumping, I just thought they looked proper for a BASE. Come on, McConkey's gotta be crazy enough to try it.

[LightRanger]

Thanks.

I'm definitely not a skiBASEr, so I definitely wouldn't be the best consultant on that, and I know any real skiBASEr would do the proper research before jumping, I just thought they looked proper for a BASE. Come on, McConkey's gotta be crazy enough to try it.

Still not really high (or sheer) enough for a regular BASE. Not much difference in the height needed for either.


And I think it's safe to assume that your "snow plow" at the top of chair 7 was one of these:



Which absolutely left the "cat tracks" (those tank-like tracks in your first two photos). There are sled (snowmobile) tracks off to the side, and maybe criss-crossing the cat tracks, but those are definitely snowcat tracks all across the run in the first two photos. He just didn't have his corduroy-grooming tail down as he drove up to the top.