PNW Conditions

That's a pic from the Southern Hemisphere..

Snow across the Cascades today and tomorrow... they're firing up the guns at Mission tonight.. we're off to a good start over here.

Feels like it's going to snow

Looking West at Mission Ridge

A few inches at my house.... about 8 inches above 5k with about 8 more on the way.  It's looking like it will stay cold with more snow on the way for mid-week.  No lift service yet, if the pattern holds, a lift or 2 should be spinning at Mission pre-Thanksgiving.

Baker and Crystal were almost ready to open this weekend.  Looks like the Cascades are going to get hammered all week.  Excited for you nepa!  Heck, it’s shaping up well for anyone who might want to make an early December trip like I did last year....

Right on JTG!!

Plenty of snow across the Cascades... more blessings coming this week.  Lifts start Thursday at Stevens... I would imagine others across the region would fire things up this weekend.  

Earned turns at Stevens today.... Steeper slopes are still a bit boney.... typically the steeper lines need about 50 inches to ski well.  I would say there is about 30.  I lapped the Hogsback pod.  A fresh cat track made for easy ascending.  5 descents totaling 4000 vf in 3.5 hrs.  It took 2 laps to find the proper line for maintaining momentum between fall line sections.  Once the line was dialed, it was quite nice for November.  Mostly bottomless.  Low angle Hippy Pow stuff... my favorite style of riding.







This is the Stevens Pass Snowmaking System

Nice!  

Crystal opens tomorrow, Baker on Thursday.

Whiteface on Saturday.

A good early start for everyone!

More downs than ups over the past couple of weeks.  Record warmth and lots of rain have yielded a Rocky start in the PNW.  Most who opened ended up closing, thanks to a good old fashioned Pineapple Express that started rolling shortly before the holiday.

The past few days have been better.  One more event for the weekend, and then some dreaded tranquility.  We need some snow.

Made it over to Stevens today for the Grand Reopening.  Light crowd.  Lots of Rocks.  Decent Powder Hour with 13 in the past 24.  Although the cover was a bit thin in spots, where there was snow it was soft.

Clouds about to move in on the frontside


Backside view from the top of Tye Mill


Thin cover under Tye Mill


Farmables were easily harvested until about noon


Shot looking up #1 Canyon @1200ft.  There was snow cover down here before Thanksgoving

Pretty good refresh over the weekend... 6 to 8 at my house... 8 to 12 closer to the crest.  Warmish and dry over the next couple of weeks could ruin the holiday for the region.  In a recent discussion with an insider at Mission it was indicated that the area is in the hole by about 30K as compared to last year.  The main ribbon skied very nice over the weekend.  I suspect it will feel fairly Spring like at most areas around here for the foreseeable future... lots of Sun with very little clouds or precip to speak of... If we get a big rainstorm were going to be screwed... our typical January drought is just around the corner

Made it over to Snoqualmie yesterday with a fellow retiree.  Lots of Sun... soft carvable snow.

Wildside Top Terminal



Still lots of trees popping... coverage is pretty thin.

Inverted today...

Sa-weet.  Crowded like the ski resort in North Korea.

D.B. Cooper wrote

Sa-weet.  Crowded like the ski resort in North Korea.

Still a bit upside down.  Is it really a WROD if it's carvable and uncrowded?  All things considered, the snow covered areas have held up remarkably well.  Everything else looks pretty haggard.  It was Spring like butter up high early today.  When I left the temp had dropped below 30 at 6700ft.  Needless to say, the surface quality went downhill quick.  

We have had mostly freezing fog over the past 8 to 10 days.  Pretty stagnant.  It looks pretty (everything is covered in frost), but we need snow in the East.  Things are a bit better to the North, South, and West.  They're saying it could be over a foot at Stevens by the end of the weekend.  Most other areas are looking at much less.  Next week looks like it could be a bit more active.

Looking North.  On a clear day you can see pretty far up the Columbia from here.

Sweet report nice photo is a great combo.

Harvey wrote

Sweet report nice photo is a great combo.

Thanks Harv!!  Powder to the People!





Could be good midweek...

It's a go for Baker on Wednesday....

I think Baker just got Gore's yearly total in 5 days

Remarkably good over the past few days.  Still a bit boney in the East, and in general below 4k.  The West side of the range in WA went from sketchy to spectacular in a matter of 72 hours.

Never made over to Baker.  The cost benefit wasn't there for me.  It was either 5.5 hours or 1.5 one-way.  27 inches in 72 hours at Alpental (1.5 hour drive), and pass reciprocity versus 24 in the past 48 at Baker.  The wildcard turned out to be the visibility.  It was absolutely awful at Alpental... perhaps it may have been better over at Baker.  That said, I was out with a 40 year PNW veteran who came prepared with a "poor viz" game plan.  WestSideWeave knows the zone quite well.  Local knowledge is priceless when skiing high risk terrain In poor visibility.  The snow up in Edelweis was quite dry... down low it was nice early by noon it was pretty torn up.

Pics from the day


Sweet!


Best visibility all day.... first ride on Edelweiss


Weave... Weavin


Weave Deep in the Trees


Enough Said


Interesting shot of the morning track oriented looking up Edelweiss


Same track oriented looking up Armstrong

Headed out to Seattle January 6th through the 8th. Have to go out there for meetings, why not stay the weekend and have work subsidize my skiing right? :)

Looks good out there now. Hope it stays that way until I get out there.

Not sure where I'll go yet. Thinking Crystal and Stevens, but really can go anywhere. Not booking hotel to base out of until the dates get closer and the forecast is clearer.

Any recommendations on where to ski? I don't have any Avi or BC gear, so would be staying in-bounds. That being said, I'm all about skiing the woods and off trail. Definitely not looking to ski groomers.

This should be good!

If the conditions are good......Crystal.  Especially if keeping it in bounds.  Tons of great lift served terrain, modern and efficient lift system.  Then you have Southback and portions of the Northway area that are hike-to in bounds playgrounds.  Southback has a series of wide open, above tree line bowls, classic western skiing.  Northback has numerous cliff zones and tree runs.  Depending on what you like you can ski gentle groomers or 50 degree chutes, and everything in between.  You could spend two days there, never ski the same run twice, and not even scratch the surface.  It’s an easy drive from Sea-Tac.  The Alpine Inn at the base of the mountain is perfectly quaint in a sparce kind of old school way.  The restaurant serves the best veiner schnitzel a la Holstein.  The Snorting Elk bar is perennially in the running for best ski bar and a fun place to hang apres.  For a solo trip Crystal is absolutely perfect.  There isn’t anything you could ask for that it doesn’t have, as long as you don’t want some overbuilt base village to shop in.  If you need a pool/hot tub you’d have to opt for one of the condos type places at the base.  Big casino on the way to the hill if you are inclined, which I have been for a few hours several times.  Beware, I hit Crystal for a few days on either end of a business trip and now I’m hooked.

Baker is amazing, absolutely.  I’m fascinated with the place since my last trip.  A small mountain that skis big, but if keeping it in bounds there isn’t the same variety that Crystal has.  What they do have is excellent, with tons of challenging terrain.  However, no lodging at the hill and Baker is a longer drive from the airport.

I haven’t been to Alpental yet but that’s the next place I want to try.