March 15, 2009 Stevens

My ski buddies were near the front of the line when I arrived at Chief at 8:40 and they located a single for me ahead of them. Thanks !

The backside opened on time and I was in the first wave to descend Orion.  Very deep, probably 10-12" BUT you could feel the crust layer on steep terrain. The backside has a mainly southern exposure and all that sunshine last week setup a nice firm base.  The snow was very dusty and being a heavy 205 lbs, I descended the 12" of dust to the crust.  Even the treed terrain had a firm surface under all the powder.  Joel and I being a bit heavier and older then our other ski buddies returned to the front side and skied the treed terrain that was north facing. No crust and face shots were in abundance even for someone 6'3".  I returned to the car after 3 hours and had to sweep off about 6" of light powder on the vehicle.  I love March powder. 

I was there. It was unreal. There were some places on the front side with 2 foot deep soft pow. Towards 2-3pm the wind really started kicking up and there were times I had to stop in a complete whiteout unable to see anything. We left the pass at 3:30 and it took us 3+ hours to get back to the 405. Escaped before they closed the pass for avy control.

An epic day.

Good it was. Corona Bowl first thing: waist deep in spots on top of old moguls. The road closed about 4, so instead of driving home there was nothing to do but ski a few more hours. The wind lightened up, it kept snowing, and our Spring light made a couple of runs into Tye Bowl just fantastic. Wind transport and the fresh snow re-created what seemed like untouched pow into the evening. Up to 12 inches on the lee side of my car and a considerable dig-out. Never got above 24 degrees. What a day!