Marc's Blog: snow - Big Xmas Dump at Kirkwood and Heavenly

π 2025-12-23 01:01 in Snow

This year was very bare, on Dec 23rd, the mountains still had a couple of lifts running on mostly grass, it was one of the saddest years on record. And by Dec 23rd, a 6-8ft storm arrived, and thankfully it was cold enough to be snow and not rain, so I went despite the conflict with Xmas.

I drove up on the 23rd in the evening before the temps were forecast to drop too much, and made it across the spur as it was still mostly rain:

nice decors on the way

made it

Day 1: Xmas Eve, Kirkwood

The next morning, wet snow as expected (temps were still a bit high, but it's snow and good or a base):

not bad given that the previous day still had grass on the runs

only solitude was open, but beggers can't be choosers :)

still looks wet

After a few runs on 5, I called it a day. The run wasn't that much fun as the better snow was higher altitude but no chair to get to it, and yeah, the snow was pretty wet and sticky half way down the shorter run. I did go out for Xmas eve for some pictures:

Day 2: Xmas Day, Kirkwood Closed

Unfortunately the heavy snow, winds, and very high avalanche danger, it was not possible to open KW on Xmas day:

no snow for you :)

After a while, I got cabin fever and thought I'd drive to Heavenly which had lifts opened:

but before long I ended up at a random road closure on SR88

after talking to Caltrans it became clear I'd be stuck long enough that I'd get to HV too late to matter

so I turned around, back to KW

didn't make it to SLT, so went to celebrate Xmas at Cornice Grill

Day 3: Heavenly Sky Express

Because Kirkwood likes to underpromise and overdeliver, they unfortunately did not announced they would open anything but 5, so given what happened the previous day, I decided to drive to Heavenly which did announced sky was ready to run and just waiting for wind to die down

went to season pass office to ask whether 6 might open that day, and they said 'unlikely'

so I went to drive off to HV and got stuck because they didn't plow the exit of the parking lot (I have good triple peak snow tires and 4WD, but no locking differential)

after 30mn lost to dig myslef out, on the way to HV

I tested the new FSD in the snow, it actually did well

the bottom looked ok enough to run, but I guess they wanted to save the thin base, so we couldn't run that

the lines were not terrible, I never waited more than 10mn

crowds were very reasonable

sky opened before noon, yeah!

first time of the season, plenty of snow!

oh look, a hole in the wall :)

and snow on the other side :)

someone copied me :)

ski patrol worked hard and nicely opened Ellis

I went to play in the rock field to find fresh snow :)

and then it officially opened

pretty

after all day back to back runs on sky, it was time to go back

we were not allowed to ride back down, had to take the chair of shame back to parking lot

I used the opportunity to enjoy the lights in South Lake Tahoe:

time for a charge, new fancy v3 chargers in SLT

Day 4: Bluebird at Kirkwood: Cornice and Reut

I do need to mention that Days 3, 4, and 5 were blacked out, so they were not busy either at HV or KW. For day 4, I stayed at KW (since I was already sleeping there) and went to enjoy Cornice, even if it did open the day before in the afternoon, unannounced in the morning, but there was still a bit of new snow on top

still some pow to be found

hole in the wall

virtually no lines

obviously still some holes with a river underneath in the drain

then reut opened

more snow

patrol working on opening 1;)

Day 5: Bluebird#2 at Kirkwood: The Wall

Just like 2 days earlier, the wall was not officially announced, even as a maybe, but I talked to patrollers this time and they confirmed they were working on it, so I stayed one last day for that.