PNW Conditions

TR from Day 1. Elected for Crystal since nowhere near Seattle got new snow overnight and that was closest to my hotel. It was crusty...really crusty. It rained all night up to the top, and then temps dropped throughout the day. Most of the ungroomed was mostly unskiable. Groomed was icy but OK. Attempted a run off chair 6 and Northway but both had really bad crust so didn't do any reruns. No pic's  because it was fogged in solid all day. Impressive place with lots of great terrain, but didn't get to ski it do to the conditions.

Snorting Elk is a great bar. Top 10 Apres bar for sure in my book.

Staying in Everett tonight, headed to Baker tomorrow. NWS is showing 4-8 tomorrow plus a few tonight and tomorrow night. Snowforecast is showing the same. Fingers crossed it holds up because if it doesn't may bag Monday and change my flight to head back tomorrow night because I have limited vacation time.

Shit, too bad the conditions didn’t come through for you.  Glad you got to hang at the Elk.  Hopefully Baker will come through for you.  It’s a fascinating place, especially if you can explore a little.

Report day 2. After the conditions were so crappy yesterday, Mt Baker redeemed the trip. Nuked snow all day. Report says 1"...way more than that. Lots of wind so you had to hunt for where the snow got deposited and it wasn't blown down to ice, but everything off the front side of Pan dome was awesome. Pow turns everywhere. Gunner bowl and the Canyon also were sick. Great lines and tons of snow with refills.







Supposed to get more snow up there tonight. Should be a good finale tomorrow before I drive back to SEA to take the red eye home. For now though sampling some Bellingham brews after a great day.

Sorry for the crooked pics...my phone does this all the time...not sure why or how to correct

Awesome!!

Nice!

At Whitewater today... great snow... free-refills were available in the afternoon....  The place was dead.  Soft, untracked snow everywhere... it wasn't super deep, but it was light and quite dry.  Challenging visibility at times...


Headed down to Red tomorrow.... there appears to be great snow in the Kootenae Rockies now with more on the way.  Today felt like the first "mid-season" day for me... we went everywhere...all of the little trees are now completely buried...  there were no ropes to be found anywhere...

Tuesday and Thursday look very promising... for both Red and Whitewater...

Glad Baker came through!

Today was as bad as yesterday was good.  Five inches of Kootenay Concrete topped with a sweet candy crack crust... it was less than stellar...there were a few decent pockets in the trees, but even the uncrusted stuff required serious chutzpah.  A thick, moist, layer of fog descended upon a group of about 20 in the pre-open line-up.  We were pretty much soaked after dismounting the Silverload chair... and then quickly frozen stiff at the top of the Motherload.  Cold and Wet were the trend from the first chair ride to the last.  There were a few good turns, but in general, it was a bit of a disappointment.  We gave up on it shortly after lunch.


Riding the Red chair.  Best visibility, worst snow.

nepa wrote

Headed down to Red tomorrow...

Hey nepa, how is Northport, WA as a town? 400 people, a river, $40,000 houses, no income tax and 25 minutes to Red Mountain (with the minor hassle of a border crossing). Looks like a sweet little off the radar ski town for a super cheap bum.

Kleetus wrote

Sorry for the crooked pics...my phone does this all the time...not sure why or how to correct

Rotate on phone, save, rotate back, save, post

MC2 5678F589 wrote

nepa wrote

Headed down to Red tomorrow...

Hey nepa, how is Northport, WA as a town?

Driven through it a few times... it looks pretty quiet.  I come from a bit farther to the West, so depending on our destination, we crossover in Orroville or Danville.

In general, the Northern tier is really nice.  All of the towns are tiny, similar to Northport  If you enjoy rural living, you'll like it up there for sure.  I'd imagine it can't be too different from rural NY or VT.

I'm starting to like Whitewater more than Red.  I would move to Nelson in a heartbeat.  Red is trying to develop a country club armosphere... it's changed a lot in the past 5 years or so.  Whitewater feels more like home to me... I would say it's probably similar in look & feel to Plattekill

nepa wrote

I'm starting to like Whitewater more than Red.  I would move to Nelson in a heartbeat.  Red is trying to develop a country club armosphere... it's changed a lot in the past 5 years or so.  Whitewater feels more like home to me... I would say it's probably similar in look & feel to Plattekill

Thanks. This is good stuff.

I definitely have to explore BC more in both summer & winter.

(Kleetus LMK if you want some help posting Day 3. Email me the pics I can rotate and add them.)

Late posting as I rant out of time after skiing yesterday between driving back to SEA to catch the red eye and a work crisis that evolved during my "vacation" day.

Trip report day 3 (yesterday). Mt Baker day 2. Rained part of Sunday night and until 11:30 Monday morning. Made for some great soggy soft turns though. They also got about 4" overnight Sunday, so that helped too. Unfortunately the Canyon was closed , I assume due to mid-week operations or could have been due to avalanche risk as the soft snow liked to slide on the steep stuff. Nonetheless, was still a great day. Pan dome was great again, as was pretty much everything that was open. I love spring skiing though so maybe I'm biased.

The clouds cleared at the end of the day to send me off with some nice scenery before I began the journey back east. Maybe it was a sign.

Was a good trip. 2 great days out of 3 I'll take 2 out of 3 times.

At Whitewater today... 6 inches overnight, 4 more in the morning, good visibility  made for an A+ day....



Silverking...


It's a Tuesday in early January...  it felt slightly odd, yet at the same time amazing that despite nearly a foot of fresh blower pow, we pretty much had the place to ourselves? Some folks we talked to said it wasn't deep enough for most locals to call off work.


We will come back here often... If we could move here we would... it's really a special place.


Hitting the road tomorrow because Thursday looks interesting back at the homestead...

* WHAT...Heavy snow possible. Travel will be very difficult to
  impossible, including during the morning commute on Thursday.
  Total snow accumulations of 8 to 12 inches, with mountain
  accumulations of 2 to 3 feet, are possible.

* WHERE...Leavenworth, Mazama, Twisp, Winthrop, Stehekin,
  Conconully, Blewett Pass, and Loup Loup Pass.

* WHEN...From Wednesday late evening through Thursday night.

I love that part of BC
Nelson rocks!!!

I stopped there on the drive up to Nakusp..

nepa......what are you reading in the tea leaves out there?  With visions of BC blower along the Powder Highway (Whitewater, Red) dancing in my head.......I can’t help but pay attention to the PNW forecast.  Looks like an atmospheric river, tapping moisture from back near Hawaii, is setting up.  Most forecasts point that river north, and there is snow in the forecasts every day through the 28th for Whistler and the Cascades.  Lots of it at Whistler and Baker.  The Euro is the only forecast that points that river Tahoe way.

As it stands there doesn’t look to be too much new snow for interior British Columbia during the week next week.

So, go for some Powder Highway fun chasing week old leftovers, or go where the river takes me to ski fresh powder???????

JTG4eva! wrote

nepa......what are you reading in the tea leaves out there?  With visions of BC blower along the Powder Highway (Whitewater, Red) dancing in my head.......I can’t help but pay attention to the PNW forecast.  Looks like an atmospheric river, tapping moisture from back near Hawaii, is setting up.  Most forecasts point that river north, and there is snow in the forecasts every day through the 28th for Whistler and the Cascades.  Lots of it at Whistler and Baker.  The Euro is the only forecast that points that river Tahoe way.

As it stands there doesn’t look to be too much new snow for interior British Columbia during the week next week.

So, go for some Powder Highway fun chasing week old leftovers, or go where the river takes me to ski fresh powder???????

I would go where the weather is... Neither Red or Whitewater will be any fun without fresh snow.  Grooming snow is not a core strength of either mountain.

That said... weather-wise it feels like things are pretty unpredictable... late last week, this looked to be a good week for us... nothing has really panned out.

Thanks.  Yeah, I saw a video from a guy skinning/skiing firm conditions in the Baker environs on Monday, in his tank top, so not exactly mid-winter conditions this week.  Of course a few feet of cold powder could change all of that!  I’ll probably wait until early next week to book so hopefully forecasts will come into better focus by then.