Stevens, April 2, 2009

Great day. Not the light powder of days past. Which was surprising considering was snowing in Skykomish already. But hey I'll take it. And at least this time was not hitting any kind of crust below.
Drive up more challenging than usual with snow compacting to roadway despite plows working it, and pretty slushy. Started the day on a snowboard but the heavy snow on backside was owning me, kept losing speed and falling over, so switched to skis after first 4 runs or so. My usual tactic of heading straight to backside wasn't the right plan either, it was heavier back there. I've been neglecting 7th on my previous trips so today I tried to make up for it. I think I rode 7th 17 times. Chair side chutes were particularly nice, and all the other runs were either nice packed powder or chop with occasional powder turn rewards. Best thing to do today was to head for all the steep runs.
Despite the rest of the backside not being so hot my new favorite run is Aquarius Face, it somehow has the ability to attract nice chalky wind transport and refresh itself constantly, and has a nice constant angle for getting into that powder turn rhythm.
Pretty much snowed whole time but was hard to tell how much accumulating really. Not very crowded despite spring break and despite plainly being a Powder Clause day.
At end of day the snow was setting up chundery off the main runs and kind of a weird grabby almost icy pack on the main runs, with little bumps, so hopefully more snow is coming to buff that out.
On the way home at Money Cr a bobcat crossed US2 right in front of me and right through a line of traffic. His timing was bad but his reactions were good and thankfully he made it across unharmed.

'Twas a memorably deep day. We went straight to the back too, and it was TOO deep to turn for several runs. Only the steepest areas gave enough speed to link turns, so we cycled 7th a bunch too. With so much snow, it was a good day for Skybum to take us through the cliffs looker's L of the Meadows off Skyline---plenty of heavy snow, but the deep icy snowboard ruts were a bit narrow to tele through. Great access to the snow in the aprons below.
The snow steadily got everywhere: in gloves, under powder skirts, down sleeves, off helmets into collars. We picnicked at the cars to dry things off on the dashboard.
The Pass was closed ovenight Wednesday to yesterday moring for avy control, and they closed it again while we were there. It was most impressive to be standing atop the Meadows when the highway charges went off, and then listen to 10-15 seconds of huge slides off in the clouds
with the distinct sounds of multi-ton blocks tumbling!

I found my best runs on the backside in the trees where it was less affected by the wind overnight. Numerous runs down the steep flutes in Corona bowl, had to be careful not to slough out the snow on top so there was soft to ski. Did the interesting entrance to Tye bowl from skiers right of Jupiter with a 100' sideslip down the steep icy/sometimes rocky chute to deep untracked in the bowl. Returned after lunch to 7th heaven and found manky heavy snow there and continued to the back, only to find it much heavier than it was in the morn, so we headed home at about 2 right after they reopened the pass.

I spent most of the day on Double Diamond, best snow I found was in the trees on either side of the chair line. Wildcats also had some tasty turns to be had, found a couple of wind loaded chutes off the run that kept being refilled by sloughing snow. Had to be careful though- there were some exposed ice and rocks from people side-slipping on the more traveled areas. I snagged a buried log in the woods by Schims, and rolled down the hill a couple times before sliding to a stop against a small tree. I was very thankful for that tree! Who knows what would have happened if I had kept going...

And I concur that the groomers were terrible- bumpy and really firm. Overheard someone describe them as being like cement, which I would agree with.

Later in the day the new snow got comically heavy, requiring massive speed in an effort to stay on top and be able to move. Still kinda fun to play around on- it was really soft. We ended the day around 3.