February 22, 2009, Stevens Pass

The time seemed right to spend my first day inbounds this season. Due to a snafu at the lab, I started skiing with the noon ticket. Spent the early afternoon lapping Southern Cross with mostly ski-on chairs, moved to the North when the backside closed. Skied 'till 10 pm. The corn I'd hoped for never really materialized, but fun was had. Snow might be best described as heavily packed powder (what was moving about was light and fluffy, but not much was moving about). My 80 days-since-last-sharpening edges hold well in the backcountry, but left something to be desired on clean-scraped nighttime runs. Set a new personal vertical-in-a-day record as well.

Photos for conditions on local peaks: