Round Two of surfing area closing days and prolonging the inevitability of earning turns for the fix. Next stop Alpental? (Edit: Cinco .... si!)
Day started out sunny and had many slopes plenty soft enough by the time I started riding (10AM). Great view of Shuksan and over the way to Sefrit & Goat. Clouds moved in and out but probably never covered more than 50% sky. Clouds helped keep at least top half mountain from getting oversoft. Never more than a 3-chair wait. I may have scored literally the last public chairride on the mountain just ahead of patrol on C5. Great day for snowboarding blues and easy blacks on forgiving spring snow. Slushy bumps of reasonable size.
They never opened Chute or Pan Face, not immediately clear why. (Had slid and clinkered a little with a bottomless bonch appearance and had probably stayed frozen over til midday, but it didn't seem like it was gonna be truly dangerous.) Despite this they ran C1, just for Austin I guess. Gabls also stayed roped off as 'backcountry' but people were on it near end of day when the angled sun hit it enough to soften the surface. Less costuming enthusiasm and general spring vibe than I saw at Stevens. It was actually a little colder than comfortable T shirt weather at top at least, so maybe that curtailed the spirit a bit.
People had some fine back bumper BBQs going on at EOD. The weather was holding, so rather than tangle with traffic I drove uphill to Heather Meadows, switched gear, and went on a late afternoon mini tour towards Herman Saddle. Slopes here facing south had gotten some sun but not completely baked; I actually saw very few wet slides happen but there were goodly numbers from recent past. Particularly 500vf+ slides slopes between Blueberry and Table, some big enough to take out Christmas trees. But they weren't sliding on very deep layer, pure surface. Snow was less than an inch of softening of large grained slooshy corn on a pretty firm crust, much better conditions than I was expecting actually. Not all that many tracks seen, perhaps everyone was elsewhere eg enticed by Wa pass opening? Returned at 7PM to a lot that was fuller than when I left, must have been a Baker employee year end party going on somewhere nearby.
Photos from the Baker website
... I rode up 2nd-to-last chair with the two Mountain Peacocks in the nylon 80s one pieces pictured. Dudes! You rock!
