Nov 18-27, 2006, Snoqualmie Summit West.

Here's reports for the first week of operation up there.

11/18/06 - Saturday - Snoqualmie West(S West). "Crusty crap and fog that sucked" - Kerry. Got up early for their opening day. Blue skies in the lowlands, but foggy at the hill. The fog slowly rose up until the lower hill cleared off around 10:30 AM. Snow was very hard with 19 inches that had been rained on on Wednesday with just a slight trace of dust atop that crust. Cover was actually pretty good with only grass tips peeking out here and there. That hardness of the snow kept us up away from the rocks. To accommodate us early risers, they started loading at around 8:40 instead of waiting till 9. The only lifts rolling were Pacific Crest (PC) and Little Thunder (LT). Not very many folks up there as this was also opening weekend for Crystal and Stevens and its just too early in the season yet for the masses that will arrive after Thanksgiving. TomK, Kerry, & Chad.

11/22/06 - Wednesday - S West. Pretty empty still with little or no lift waits. 7" new over previous hardened base, making for a funky feel. The dense fog didn't help either. PC, LT, & Julies (J) running. TomK

11/24/06 - Friday - S West. Lots of folks out having fun in the snow, but those lifts need some lovin'. Made it up around 10:30 to a nice 8" deep layer of new overnight. Pole push test got 16 inches of fluff over the hardbase, so I was able to find knee-tap turns on the edges of every run. PC was having some glitch that forced them to fire up Dodge Ridge (DR), and then "Oh Joy!" they rolled WildSide (WS) in addition to LT & J. Scored some nice first tracks and crosses on the old T-bird runs till it too had a mechanical that caused the longest liftwait at 15-20 minutes. Got the be first chair after the stop so I could open it up down the old Thunderbird runs for a few. <cheezy grin> TomK

11/26/06 - Sunday - S West. Sweet 4 inches of fresh and fluffy over 22 inches from the week sure beat last weekend. Velvety smoothness underfoot and little to no crowd (we stayed away from the PC chair). Snowing and windy but no fog. It sure made getting up there for the first tracks worth it to see the poor folks stuck in the multi-hour backup on I90 east-bound when we left at 11:30. TomK, Kerry & Karrie

11/27/06 - Monday - S West. Score! 8 inches of overnight fluffy powder made for the perfect surface for the inagural runs of Kerry's birthday fat skis (K2 Nancys). No liftlines at LT or PC chairs. Still finding first-tracks out towards wildeside at the end of the day. Overcast with snow showers and a few sun holes (I saw a disk once, even saw some shadows for over a minute!). Temps in the high 20's. TomK & Kerry