The place
A ski area in a bowl of volcanic cliffs on the Sierra crest, beside the highway over Carson Pass. The Freeride World Tour came in 2011 and 2013, to the Cirque under Thimble Peak: a face closed to the public for decades and opened only for competitions.
Off-piste Past the resort's boundary nothing is controlled or patrolled: avalanche terrain, your own risk.
- 14lines to start
The lines
Every line here, with how hard it is.
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The Cirque
■■■■■Kirkwood's forbidden face: 250 m of cliffs and couloirs under Thimble Peak, closed to the public for decades and opened only for competitions.
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The Cirque, Looker's Right
■■■■■The Cirque's other end, nearest the Wall's top: 48° over its steepest 100 m, a band of ribs and cliffs over Devil's Corral.
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The Wall
■■■■■Chair 10's namesake and Kirkwood's double-black showpiece: 250 m of firm, corniced fall line straight down beside the lift.
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All the Way
■■■■■From the crags of the Sisters west of the Wall's top, the whole length of Wagon Wheel Bowl: north-facing, shaded, deep snow, chutes and gullies.
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The Notch
■■■■■One of the named slots in the Sisters' crags at the top of Wagon Wheel Bowl, beside Once Is Enough, the chute locals point you to: narrow, steep and north-facing.
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Chamoix
■■■■■Off the ridge west of Chair 6, under corniced slots that mostly need an air to enter: a steep, north-facing bump run.
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Fireball
■■■■■Sentinel Bowl, at the end of the long traverse from Chair 6 under the cliff band: north-facing shots under Glove Rock that hold their snow.
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Hell's Delight
■■■■■The east edge of the Cirque, the way into its skiable foot: the Lower Cirque's cliffs, the Handrail spine and the Kodak drops, all over the flats where the contest lines finish.
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Boylermaker
■■■■■One of a row of short, west-facing rock chutes off the Lookout Vista ridge, each with its own name, over the Thunder Saddle gully.
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Elevator Shaft
■■■■■Chair 4's groomer: a steep top pitch, then wide open GS turns 370 m down the backside.
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Sunrise to the Village
■■■■■From the top of Chair 4, Kirkwood's highest lift, down Larry's Lip and the Thunder Saddle gully past the foot of the Cirque, and on to Mountain Village.
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Broadway
■■■■■Out past Covered Wagon, beyond the boundary: the steepest couloir in the area.
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Pipeline
■■■■■Kirkwood's sidecountry classic, 1.2 km past the boundary: a long walk along the ridge past the radio tower to Peak 9795, then 350 m of north-facing couloir at 45° that funnels into two narrow chutes, out to Emigrant Lake.
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Thunder Mountain Main Line
■■■■■Over the boundary behind Glove Rock: Thunder Mountain's north side, the line that keeps clear of the rocks and cliffs in the saddle, 250 m of steep powder, then a climb back out to the Palisades.
