July 2, 2011 Kirkwood, Lake Tahoe

After touring with Rico, Jim and Silas on July 1 at Black Peak off the Virginia Lakes Road, Jill and I drove north to Lake Tahoe for some lift skiing. Yahoo ! We spent the evening near a lake with a view of Stevens and Red Lake Peak near Carson Pass. Jill got up early and captured the morning mist rising off the lake with the sun hitting the snowcapped summits of Red Lake and Stevens Peak. I kept her side of the bed warm while she got up.

We have midweek season passes to Kirkwood which are only $199 which were rolled over from last year due to our various surgeries. So I got to ride the lift free. They were only running the Cornice Express. Apparently the snow pack melted considerably this week which required walking onto and off the lift. You could ski to the base but had to take off your skis and walk on the lift. They did no grooming since the area closed in May so there were various sized sun cups that were getting skimmed by skier traffic. Mushy moguls were developing and some rocks were showing in choke points. I was underwhelmed. There was sufficient coverage to skin or hike over to Wagon Wheel Bowl. The party was starting early. The lift was operating 7:30 to 2pm. We are heading to the NW side of Lake Tahoe and ski Alpine Meadows and Squaw Valley.

Photo 1 – Morning mist with Red Lake and Stevens Peak in the sun

Photo 2 – Cornice Express lift line and coverage

Photo 3 – Wagon Wheel Bowl coverage