This was only my second trip to Kirkwood - my first trip was when I was still a budding beginner snowboarder, trying to connect some beginner turns and thus I could ride only very few slopes.
A few more seasons of snowboarding apparently made big difference, and now I was able to ride many of the runs in the resort.
The location of K-wood or simply the Wood for some people, is both its blessing and its curse. Statistically K-wood gets the most snow (average 630+ inches in a season) among the Tahoe area resorts and the base altitude is one of the highest (7800feet, or 2377 meters), which means both quality and quantity of the snow are among the best in the Lake Tahoe area. However, it's also one of the remotest resorts - it's almost 1 hour drive from the lake, or any other "town" other than the resort itself. And the rugged terrain with heavy snowfall makes the resort one of the least accessible, especially during the heavy storm - even though K-wood is one of the closest to the bay area in distance. These factors apparently make lodging more expensive than other resorts (e.g. heavenly, with entire South Lake Tahoe, and any of the other north lake resorts, with Truckee or even Reno which is only 30-45 minutes away from many of the north lake resorts).
Hence, for past four years of snowboarding in the Tahoe area, I've been to the wood only once before. This time though, they had a promotion of giving a one-day free pass for any season pass holders of other resorts - and I happened to have a pass for Heavenly. I also needed to make a day trip, which made Heavenly less desirable due to 30+ minutes more drive, while the spring weather kept the road to K-wood clear and pleasant to drive.
So I woke up at 5:30am, had my first breakfast and packed my breakfast/lunch and snacks, filled up the gas in my car and took off - it was 6 when I got on the freeway. Other than one brief stop at Starbuck's at the beginning of 88 in Stockton, I drove nonstop and it was 9:30 when I arrived in the resort parking lot. I dropped off my board for the tune-up at The Edge Repair Shop - free thanks to Snowbomb Card - and got the free lift ticket from the office (which was indoors, a lot nicer than other resorts where you have to wait outside, often shivering in the cold). While waiting for my board to be ready for ice and slush of the spring, I had my second breakfast.
By 10, I was on my first lift ride of the day, the chair #1 (see the trail map) - I wanted to try the back side, the chair #4 through the chair #2 and #3. The chair #1 is super slow, as is usually the case for a lift serving green trails - unfortunately I noticed one sideways from the top of the chair #11 that can go to the bottom of the chair #2 very late in the afternoon. Anyhow, Snowkirk looked nice and flat and not too short nor too long - just about right for beginners.
When I first looked at the trail map, I didn't pay much attention to the runs from the chair #2. However, on the #2 lift, I saw the nicely groomed Flying Carpet, which is a wide blue run with moderate pitch. Keeping in mind to try that run on the way back to the main lodge later, I went over the hill and headed to the chair #4. On Herringbone Straight, snow was a bit slushy already - considering that it was April, it wasn't too bad. Unfortunately I missed Bud's Alley split (too bad there's no sign) which meant I had to take #3 to go back up the same hill again. The chair #4 is long but fairly fast and provides excellent view of all the runs from it. Here's some pictures I took on the lift:
On the picture, you can see Elevator Shaft to the left of the lift, Hully Gully and Cold Shoulder on the right. Off the chair, I figured I'd try the easiest runs first, since this was a warm up, and went on Happiness Is. It's a very nice blue cruiser, crossing the huge bowl. It felt a bit like Alpine Bowl in Alpine Meadows - wide open bowl and fun blue run in the middle but plenty of opportunities on the skirt for more steep start. Overall, the snow turned out to be excellent - sure, it wasn't a fresh powder, but it sure was as good as any packed powder condition on a warm winter day. Some pockets that don't get much sun was a bit icy (not on Happiness Is, but on other runs off of #4) but nothing like rock-hard ice on a really cold winter day and my freshly tuned edges had plenty of bite to chew through what little of ice up there.
Hully Gully is like a half made half-pipe that's steep. The pitch is only a tad bit more steep than most blue runs, but the huge gully makes it a lot of fun to zigzag. Right next to Hully Gully is Cold Shoulder. It is a bit more steep than Hully Gully, so about middle of the pack for a black run, and it was topped off with huge rocks at the end - giving some opportunity to try your cliff jumping and rock avoiding skills if you want. I'm not good enough for that kind of stuff, but if and when I'm ready and want to hone my skills, I think I'd feel a lot more comfortable to do my first jump off of those rocks at the end of Cold Shoulder than others, since it has much better visibility than most such places and fairly short (for what it is).
Elevator Shaft, Hully Gully and Cold Shoulder all merge into a single trail which lead to the bottom of the lift #4. It was a nice cruising course, and surprisingly there wasn't any slush - thanks to huge trees casting shadows - it looked like the entire valley/bowl is facing north and the trees blocked sun very well, keeping the snow in good condition. I tried Elevator Shaft again and then headed back to the main lodge.
Now at the top of the lift #2 and #3, I got to enjoy Flying Carpet. As the name suggests, the well-groomed wide run looked like an excellent place for practicing carving, and it sure was. You could turn as wide as you want and the slope was indeed very very consistent, making long carving turns so much more enjoyable. Indeed it was so much fun that I rode the chair many more times before going back to the lodge - being relatively short and with very few people on the slope, you can check your turn shapes you made on the slope on the lift back (if you can find your mark, that is).
One reason K-wood is especially good for snowboarders, is that there are very few flat traverses. But there's still few spots that are not snowboard friendly and that's Hay Flat. It's aptly named cause it's really really flat and combined with the slush, it was a leg killer. If I knew it was that flat, I would have speeded up coming down #2, but being a conscious rider, I followed the SLOW sign at the bottom of #2 and slowed down and got stuck in Hay Flat. Well, at least it wasn't that long, so I got out without burning my leg too much, and was back on the main lodge.
On the lift #2After lunch, I got on the lift #5, Solitude and rode Lower Zachary and Mokelumne. Lower Zachary was probably on the steep side among blue runs, so had more potential to be quite fun, but unfortunately snow wasn't very good - especially toward the bottom, it was quite slush. Not surprising, since this side of the slope was facing slightly east. Mokelumne was even worse - it was full of slush (though not complete slush with running water). Making sliding turns on slush is painful, but it wasn't too bad to come carving down. Anyway, all those slush forced me to head back to the excellent lift #4.
After many runs on Elevator Shaft/Hully Gully/Cold Shoulder, I wanted to see The Wave more closely - from a far, the snow looked promising. Well, it wasn't so - the entire ledge was all hard-packed rock-solid ice and jumping off vertical for more than my height was certainly beyond my skills, so I rode back to Happiness Is and was indeed very happy to be back :)
On the way back to the lodge, I decided to try High Whiskey - partly to avoid the bad experience of going through Hay Flat, and partly to try out another black run. And I was richly rewarded for that - I made fresh tracks on slightly frozen wind-blown powders on High Whiskey. On April! Fresh tracks! And frozen powder (i.e. not packed nor icy)! I was simply blown away for the excellent snow quality and the perfectly nice pitch. There were some exposed rocks but no narrow chute. If only it had quick lift connections, I'd have loved to make more fresh tracks all over High Whiskey, but the relatively short run combined with the slow lift #1, and another lift #2 and the traverse through Whiskey Slide made it not worth another trip just for it, with only short time left in the afternoon. But if I'm coming back from #4/Sunrise, I'd definitely take High Whiskey anytime.
Back in the main lodge, I had another afternoon snack, and got ready for the last few hours of riding. And I decided to try the lift #11. On my first trip to K-wood two years ago, I was crazy enough to try The Wall - which is one of the signature runs of K-wood (picture below):
On the lift #11, looking at The Wall (top of the other lift).That was on a knee-deep big powder day, so there was no way I could have hurt myself at the time, but nonetheless it was crazy - I was just about making some basic sliding turns and I was far from ready for even an easy black run. But I remember having some fun (even through tumbling down and slogging through deep powder) down at Wagon Trail at the lower half of The Wall. So I had to try.
If Hully Gully is a half-made half-pipe, Wagon Trail is a nearly-fully-made half-pipe, except nature in its infinite wisdom, made it twisting like a snake, leaving us an amazingly fun run - you could go racing down the valley, or zig-zag the half-pipes, or use small kickers here and there to make small jumps, i.e. infinite sources of fun. Short Spoke, right next to Wagon Trail, is more steep but straight run and I had a lot of fun there too - it's steep but short, so before my legs turned to jellies, I got a nice break on the lift and I was ready for it again. With Wagon Trail and Short Spoke, and with its fast operation, #11 is definitely my favorite chair in K-wood (probably until I'm ready for #10/The Wall).
Usually when I'm riding alone, I stop riding at 3pm or so, partly because I get tired and partly because there aren't many more runs to try with tired legs. K-wood, even with its spring snow (around the base was pretty much slush, though at least not watery slush you can find in many other lower resorts), had many different runs with a lot of good snows that I wanted to keep riding - I left the slope around 3:45pm or so, and only because my legs were simply too tired to have more fun, not because I ran out of more things to try.
With reasonable season pass price, excellent snow and many different fun runs, K-wood is definitely one of my favorite resorts in the Tahoe area. The downside are: less lodging options, more difficult access (if you don't have a 4WD, forget about K-wood during snow season), and no long runs (nothing like Dipper or Orion on Heavenly, or Gold Coast- Mountain Run combo on Squaw).
-On April 6th, still waiting for another opportunity to ride on K-wood (holding on to my snowbomb sugarwood lift ticket on the hands).
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