No-Nonsense Signs Going Viral At Popular Tahoe Ski Resort

Ella Boyd
·2 min read
2

Have you ever ended up at the top of a feature, maybe a chute or couloir, and you find yourself asking: "why did I come here?"

At Kirkwood in California, apparently enough people did that someone took it upon themselves to say how they really felt... using classic ski signs as their medium.

Signs that get straight to the point. Photo courtesy of Bret Adams.
Signs that get straight to the point. Photo courtesy of Bret Adams.

The photo appeared in the Unofficial Kirkwood Community page, which has quite a few more photos where that came from.

This line looked like (maybe) Dick's Drop?

The person who wrote the sign was likely fed up with fresh snow being cleared out of the chute by people side-slipping down and pushing it all to the sides, making things gnarlier for those actually hoping to ski the line.

If you have ever hiked out, you are not alone. I watch people hike down from lines every day at Palisades Tahoe, and the proper Palisades aren't even regularly open yet!

I have had my share of standing-at-the-top-scared moments, and I'm not too ashamed to admit it. One day I will get to the top and go down without even pausing... but without inspecting and taking the time to learn how to plan routes, I'll never get there.

With the reverse-traverse open off Siberia at Palisades Tahoe (because KT-22 is still closed, boo) there is one solid run that gets your blood pumping: Garbage Chute.

I found myself at the top of that chute right before this last storm: I thought I had done "warm up" chutes (really just runs that shouldn't even be chutes at all, but low tide opens up new lines) and now, here I was, faced with the decision to set my edges on pure ice with skis way too long for me with a 22 meter turning radius or hike back out.

The chute was icy and bumped up and while I knew you were supposed to straightline, I somehow ended up skiing it like a zipper line, straightlining once I was 10 feet into it when I felt the flow coming on instead of dropping in the proper way.

Am I proud of this descent? No, not at all. But I learned an important lesson: the first look at terrain shouldn't be from the top. It should be from the bottom. I could have seen that Garbage Chute was icy and unforgiving and it was not the day for it.

But I let my ego get the best of me, and ended up in a still fun, but not the most fun situation.

But hey, there was no sign telling me "if you can't ski it properly, hike back out."

No one wanted that luge course anyway.

Related: Palisades Tahoe Schedules Opening of Greatest Expert Lift In North America: KT-22

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