Went up early morning and sat in North Bend for 4 hours then turned around and went home again at noon.
After some lunch and some ski waxing, at about 2pm I checked the pass conditions and they were anticipating a 2:30pm opening. Knowing that it was about as good as it will get for the next 5 days, and not wanting to wait that long for my next fix, I jumped back in the car and headed up. I must have hit it just right because I-90 was wide open. Westbound was still closed, so no traffic coming the other way, and zero cars between North Bend and the Pass. It was almost spooky. I did finally catch up with the log jam about 100 yards from the Summit exit, all 4 lanes jam-packed and rolling at <5mph. I quickly decided no to stick around for the Central exit, and shot over into the Exit Only that takes you to Summit West. Again, wide open.
Central Express was the only lift running anywhere on the pass, and it started up not much before I arrived at 2pm. The conditions were less than ideal, but with the approaching spike in freezing levels, I wasn't complaining. It was sleet/rain at the bottom, but deserted and all afternoon/evening you could ski right up to the chair. 12" on top of Central, light and powdery, with snow falling. About 1/3 of the way down it changed to sleet and the snow was turning to mashed potatoes. The bottom 1/3 was rain and the heaviest, wettest snow I've ever seen and you needed a bulldozer to get thru it, evening going down fairly steep slopes. They groomed a cat track that was essential to getting back to the bottom. The snow on the lower portions was HEAVY - packing in on skis/boards/boots, and weighing a ton. If you got off that cat track, you were hosed. But on it, snow was fast and smooth. The precip tapered off around 5pm, then started back around 6:30 or 7:00, but this time as snow all the way down to the base elevation, the rest of the evening was fantastic. A few more cars showed up by the later hours, but it was still deserted.
On the way back, westbound I-90 was closed still or again, I'm not sure, but they wouldn't let me on. Blasting was in progress, and they'd need about an hour more to scoop things up. To waste some time, I let out my inner redneck and did some donuts in Alpental's parking lots - about 14" on the ground there so it made for some good fun. They let me on the highway 30 minutes earlier than I was expecting, and the whole way down not a single car, all the way to North Bend. Like having my own private freeway up and back! Very unusual.
