Upper Sisters' Chute - Kirkwood [4K] 

RUN STATS:
Run Name: Upper Sisters' Chute (Diagonal Chute)
Location: Kirkwood
Rating: ♦♦(Double Black)
My Personal Rating Opinion: ♦♦ (Double Black)
Lift Taken: The Wall (Chair 10)
Maximum Pitch: 35 degrees
Run Type: Chute, Bowl, Gully
Total Run Length: 1.1 mi.
Total Vertical Drop: 1,496
Run Aspect: North
SNOW CONDITIONS: Chowder/Chunder (Chopped up powder)
DATE OF RECORDING: January 4, 2023
DESCRIPTION:
Upper Sisters' Chute (also known as Diagonal Chute by locals) is an epic run off The Wall at Kirkwood. To get here, take Chair 10, go past the Skull and Bones Sign and ski down the ridge. Go all the way past Notch Chute and start hiking up to the summit of "The Sisters". On your way up to the summit, you'll pass other iconic Kirkwood extremes like "Once Is Enough" and "Heart Chute". Hike to the summit and descend a bit. The first obvious chute that you come to once you begin your descent is Upper Sisters'. The next chute that you'd come to is Sisters' Chute which is much easier than Upper Sisters'.
Upper Sisters' can vary tremendously in difficulty based seasonal snow totals. Some years, it can be quite mellow despite it looking ridiculously steep from certain resort areas. In the 2 times that I've skied Upper Sisters', the run was much more difficult than it usually is. I first skied Upper Sisters' a few years ago in a group lesson (link to that attempt here: • Upper Sisters’ Chute -... . The snow coverage was better on that date but the quality was definitely a lot worse. Attempting this run almost two years later as a better skier, I'll say that the run was even harder this time around despite better snow conditions.
The run starts off with a ridiculously steep drop-in. There was not really a cornice on the day of recording, however, there were a lot of exposed rocks that typically aren't there. This created exposure that made this run a lot more nerve-wracking than usual. A brief straightline was required to bypass this initial section. After the first two turns, the run mellowed out significantly. It was still really fun to ski through these massive rocks that define this chute! After clearing the two massive boulders, the run briefly filtered into Wagon Wheel Bowl which held some really nice snow. From here, you entered Lower Sisters' Chute which is the lower half of this run as well as the adjacent Sisters' Chute (it's kinda confusing).
All the runs in Wagon Wheel Bowl follow this formula of starting off with a steep chute, filtering into a wide open bowl with great snow, and then filtering into a gully of some sort and Upper Sisters' is no exception. I've skied this gully a few times in the past and it's always been a lot of fun to ski (one of my favorite natural halfpipes at the resort). Because of the low snow, there was one section that required a brief straightline which was super fun (although I definitely hit some rocks). The snow in this gully was really nice despite the coverage being minimal in a few spots. After clearing the gully, like all the runs in Wagon Wheel Bowl, we entered the Drain and took it back to Cornice Express.
I came to Upper Sisters' Chute this season expecting to have a much easier time as I've improved significantly since the last time I skied it. While I certainly had a slightly easier time this attempt, the run was even more brutal than I remembered it. I still rank Upper Sisters' Chute quite high on the hardest runs I've skied and believe it to be the second hardest run I've skied at Kirkwood (behind Hell's Delight which I never got the chance to reattempt this season). This in my opinion is the hardest "traditional" run off The Wall (excluding of course insane runs like Once Is Enough, Once in a Blue Moon, Heart Chute, and Hospital Air). I had a blast skiing Upper Sisters' a second time and can't wait to one day ski a run in this area that absolutely dwarfs it in difficulty (Once is Enough.... one day).
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT RATING: 8.5/10
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Intro
0:05 - Wagon Wheel Bowl Ridge
0:22 - Sisters' Hike Part 1
0:33 - Once is Enough View
0:41 - Sisters' Hike Part 2
1:01 - Upper Sisters' Chute
1:50 - Wagon Wheel Bowl
2:15 - (Lower) Sisters' Chute
3:57 - The Drain
4:36 - Heading Towards Cornice Express
EXTERNAL LINKS:
Skiing Bucket List: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Double Black Diamond Runs I've Done: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...