PNW Conditions

If you can make a quick trip to Seattle... now is the time. Powder Daze are a virtual guarantee at Stevens and Crystal this week.

I never understood the Old Back Talkie slogan. When ever I drank this shit in college, I always ended up on the Shitter the next day thinking... "It can't possibly get any worse than this..."

More of the same this past week, with more to come. The daily totals have not been staggering, but the cumulative effect brought about another 2ft this week, with a similar pattern for the week to come. All 2,000 acres are skiable at Mission. Stevens opened up 7th heaven on Friday. I suspect the vast majority of lift serviced terrain in this region will be 100% open by next weekend.

If I were a man of faith, I would say we've been blessed. I am a man of Science... so it's obvious... we've been very lucky. Come and get it now... it probably won't last.

Snotels paint a happy picture in the North Cascades, Wallowas, Selkirks, and Southern Bitterroots:

Storm Skiing Yesterday... traversing just outside the ski area boundary

Backyard Tour from earlier this week

Afternoon Session Shot from today... skies clearing. We'll be in a dry slot until Wednesday

Wow.  It's really bad over here on the EC...  Feels like a bad dream.... I'd post a pic of the view from my office, but I'm pretty sure it looks the same across the region... Pretty Shitty.

It hasn't stopped snowing back home.  From the Stevens report this morning:

Stevens Pass wrote

Yesterday morning the sun rose on the mountain and we rode deep, light powder under a blue sky. I wish we had more time to reflect on how amazing it was, but there's no time for all that because it looks like we've got another powder day on our hands! It should keep snowing throughout the day, so free refills will be on the house. Conditions are WAY better than they were at any point last season. Don't miss out!

Looks like the favorable pattern in the PNW will continue for the foreseeable future.

Really good pretty much everywhere in WA and Oregon.  Without a doubt, it's been a December to remember.  To be honest, I think we may be a bit past peak for now.  It's looking dry for the next couple of weeks.  Typically, we have dry Januaries.

That said, with sun in the forecast today, we actually got another 4 inches.  It's been an amazing run.

The Snotels across the region look pretty plump.  A dry January will bring these measurements back down to normal.  Some areas in the North Cascades are measuring snow depths of about 10ft at 5k.


Some grey looking shots from the past few days at Mission... we haven't seen the sun in a couple of weeks.

My old Lady

Snow covered trees in the upper basin

Riding chair 3


Backyard Shot


 

Dried out for a few days.... snowing again... daily totals have not been staggering, but it's made for fantastic conditions at the ski area... maybe another Peak coming this weekend.

From this morning

Great snowmaking.

nepa wrote

Riding chair 3

I like chair 3!

Great pics.

Snow pretty much every day since Saturday.... couldn't be better right now.

Awesome pics and great looking snow -- but i have to confess that I hate center poles on chairs. They look great but man, the side pole is such an improvement.

/loco

nepa wrote

<p>

oh, hello

I don't understand how you can ski with all of that skier traffic.  



Damn....you guys out there are surely getting back at us for last winter.

ml242 wrote

i have to confess that I hate center poles on chairs. They look great but man, the side pole is such an improvement.

/loco

Seriously... I'm not great with heights either... it's taken some time to get used to.  They're unavoidable, as some of the best chairs out this way are center poles.

Marcski wrote

I don't understand how you can ski with all of that skier traffic.  



Damn....you guys out there are surely getting back at us for last winter.

I often times can't believe how few people I capture in my pics... Believe it or not, lots of these were taken with a full parking lot.  Acreage wise, the area is enormous.  It never feels crowded.

Another dry period is upon us.  Classic PNW stagnation. Cold in valleys, a bit warmer up high has created a strong inversion.  Groomed snow has been spectacular... off piste has become more of an acquired taste.  There are still good inbounds lines, but if you want a smooth surface off-piste, you have to be prepared to work for it.

Contrasting visibility...riding chair 4

Just below the Ridge

Snowing again... it's a pretty typical January pattern on the East side.  Mainly crumbs from larger disturbances West of Crest... enough to refill your tracks from the day before.

Up escalator. Down escalator

Looking up river towards Canada

If you can get to Seattle this weekend, your chances for a WA-Pow day are pretty good

In general... the PNW will be good this weekend and into next week...

Just got back from a trip to the Desert.  Needed to get away from the snow for a bit

According to my backyard, I missed a few good Pow days.

Out at the ski area yesterday... still pretty nice...

But rain is on it way... this appears to be the end of a great stretch.  We will see a warm-up across the region for the next few days... then maybe cold and a bit of snow by the weekend.  

Not optimal... but not a shit-show either.

looks like you are suffering

There was some rain, and then some snow, then a bunch of wind.  The groomed snow within the boundaries of the ski areas is still pretty nice.  Lots of scoured areas off-piste, vast sections of coral reef are easily found.  Considerable avalanche danger in some backcountry areas...

The C&M Lakes area North of the Mission Ridge permitted area:

No injuries... Partial burial of one sno-mo.... lots of recovery work.  The slope in the picture is about 75 vertical feet, with a 100 yard wide slide path, angle ranges from 20 to 40 degrees.  It's an interesting case because we tend to think of deadly avalanches as being large events.  This is great example of a small event (probably rated a D2) within a dangerous terrain trap.  It doesn't have to be a large mass of snow roaring down the hill to be deadly.... It tight terrain, a small slides can be very dangerous.  

Snow depth metrics:

Years like 1933, 1969, and 2002 must have been amazing at Baker, Paradise, and Timberline... 20ft snowpack by the 1st of February.

Snow in forecast across the region on Wednesday and Saturday.  Will probably be pretty good this weekend if you want to make a trip out to the PNW

scary stuff , because the slope looks so benign...

Yo man share some of that snow! We're starving!

I think this pic says it all... at the beginning of February, these signs (@1600 Ft) were almost buried:

The well has been pretty dry for the past 4 weeks.... Often times, not cold enough to snow but not warm enough to soften things up (some times called refrigerator conditions).  It was 35 degrees at my house for 72 hours straight... then it was 36 for another couple of days, before it went back to 35.  Right now...  it's 36.  Things have generally been hit-or-miss.  For example: 10 inches new at Stevens last night (hit!) ... a thin layer of Graupel on bullet proof coral reef at Mission Ridge this morning (miss!).  Last week, we had a foot at Mission with mostly rain at Stevens.  We had a report from our very own JTG at Crystal.  Based on his words, pics and vids... it looked like he had some pretty good conditions for his trip to the PNW.

We have an active pattern in store this week, but the temperatures are borderline (normal for the El Nino)... most likely we will see some signature Cascade Concrete...

Although the past few weeks have been less than stellar, it's been [hands down] better than last season... As we round the stretch, hopefully we'll have a few more Pow days to come, if not, the snowpack is still phairly phat, so there will be plenty of corn to be harvested in the Spring/Summer to come.