NoKnees
09-27-2004, 07:59 AM
On Sunday my wife and I picked up our passes at Kirkwood. Nice to have that out of the way before the season starts. Don't want to worry about those long lines at the Season Pass office on the first day of the season...
While there we spent some time hiking a few of the lower runs on the mountain. Isn't it amazing to see what's under the blanket of snow? I mean, there are sooo many terrain features that just disappear by the time the snow fills in enough for the resorts to open. At Kirkwood one of the more impressive things to look at is the face on chair 10, better know as "The Wall". The upper few hundred feet are rock ledges and cliffs connected by short scree piles. It would take major work to try to climb up that thing. Yet, once a little snow is plastered to all that, it's not a big deal to ride down it. Parts of it are true verticle cliffs for about 20-40 feet in height, and even those become rideable as the snow piles on.
Anyway, just thinking aloud. A short hike in 70f weather at the base of my fav runs only reminded me how much longer I have to wait for my snowboarding fix...
While there we spent some time hiking a few of the lower runs on the mountain. Isn't it amazing to see what's under the blanket of snow? I mean, there are sooo many terrain features that just disappear by the time the snow fills in enough for the resorts to open. At Kirkwood one of the more impressive things to look at is the face on chair 10, better know as "The Wall". The upper few hundred feet are rock ledges and cliffs connected by short scree piles. It would take major work to try to climb up that thing. Yet, once a little snow is plastered to all that, it's not a big deal to ride down it. Parts of it are true verticle cliffs for about 20-40 feet in height, and even those become rideable as the snow piles on.
Anyway, just thinking aloud. A short hike in 70f weather at the base of my fav runs only reminded me how much longer I have to wait for my snowboarding fix...