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Heavenly/Kirkwood/Northstar Tips

C-Rex

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Next Wednesday I'm heading out for a week in South Lake Tahoe. We're staying right outside Heavenly, and spending a day each at Northstar and Kirkwood. I'm looking for tips on where to find the goods at these places. For Northstar, I know about Sawtooth, White Rabbit, and Biscuit. Got to ride Biscuit 2 years ago, but the others were closed. I'm looking for interesting trails, fun glades, and stashes. I know these aren't things that people like to spread around too liberally, so if you prefer not to announce your tip to the world feel free to PM me. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Also, if anyone is going to happen to be out there, definitely PM me. We have a great group of friendly people in a big, 4 bedroom condo that will be a week long apre ski party. Any AZer's are more than welcome to swing by for a beer! :beer:
 

dmc

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For real... If you ski more than intermediate...

Blow off Northstar unless there's wind-hold and spend that day at Kirkwood..
Northstar is where I go when everywhere else is closed due to wind-hold..
Kirkwood is just amazing...

Just do me a favor and go the Kirkwood first.. That way you can go again once you realize just HOW great it is...
 

C-Rex

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I was thinking that, but the shuttle service to Kirkwood only runs once during the days we're out there. Might have to look into a car rental...
 

snoseek

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Make going to Kirkwood your top priority.

Too bad I'm leaving here on Saturday for the year in search of better snow and to go back to work...a full month early. It just hasn't snowed very much in the last couple months but not to worry because we just picked up a little and may grab a little more, we shall see. Either way I'm driving east to powder.

Too bad I can't show you Heavenly, not an easy mountain to navigate, especially a boarder. Go to mott and killebrew and find your lines. Do mott first and follow the ridge so you get a good view of killebrew, make a mental note because thee's some steep sketchy lines in there. Also if its busy ride north bowl and follow that ridge out, drop in through those trees. Find Maggies canyon. If it snows some more at lake level then try the firebreak gate at the top of olympic, tons of lines there that take you down into town, not a bad idea to find a partner that knows whats going on.

There's some other bc gates but I'm not gonna spew them as the potential to get lost or in trouble with someone unfamiliar is too great. Find a local and do something nice, ask them to show you around. There's other fun stuff right from the chairs that is pretty obvious.

Most people go to heavenly and ride the diper/sky chair and assume that's the mountain, write it off as exclusivly as a crowded intermediate hill with a big bump run in the front. If you're willing to get away from that it's the last place to track out in Tahoe and thee's good sustained vert of moderately steep stuff. It aint squaw but that's not always a bad thing. If you want squaw like terrain go to kirkwood. There ride chair 6, 10, and the surface lift to thunder saddle. The goods at kirkwood are pretty obvious, in your face.

Good luck
 

C-Rex

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Thanks Snoseek! I take it you're headed to CO or UT? I'm hoping we get a good dump at some point but it doesn't look good at the moment. I'll take warm sunny days on a good base, I suppose.
 

bobbutts

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As a former Heavenly local I agree with snoseek that it's a good place to be shown around by someone who knows it. The other thing about giving advice for that place is it varies wildly depending on snow conditions due to their myriad of elevations and exposures. For instance there's a good amount of moderately steep, well spaced glades in the Gunbarrel/Tram pod, but much of the time it suffers due to lower elevation weather. When the timing is right that area has treated me to lap after lap of face shots pretty with near 0 competition, other times it's hardpack bumps and crust.
 

C-Rex

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Thanks for the tips guys. I'll be on a plane in under 48 hours. The stoke is high, brah!!
 
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