Stevens Pass - 03/21

Great big sunny day at Stevens, cold bluebird conditions, 4 to at least 10+ new, sadly the locals are pretty quick on cutting up every visible area front to back (even faster than at Crystal). By 10:30 when we finally tried the backside it was cut up pow going toward something kinda heavy – I liked it but it required fast wimpy Coomba types of skies. Best of the day for me was repeated Double Diamond runs – steep, perfect cut up to packed pow, it was a lot steeper years ago, lost track on how many times I repeated it. Also did a run I haven’t probably done in 20 or so years (least it kinda feels like its been that long) – “Wild Katz” – ouch big fun, steep fall line narrow bump slot in the trees!! Great run, kinda like 4 K2 runs stacked on top of each other, except with perfect pitch ,no flats and no hiking to get the vert. SMS spent a lot of time in Tye Mill today and also was very happy with the conditions. Yee Haa a really fun day in the sun…Sadly had to leave a little early, but I did check to see what the soups of the day were – Chicken Noodle(!) and Clam Chowder….and really really good “big” slices of pizza cooked in a real pizza oven (not a toaster oven conveyer belt like some other area I ski at a lot – which actually never has any available when I check for some). Only negative today was the drive up and back down highway 2 – ugh! Long and slow on the way through all those increasingly long towns along the highway

I believe we heard you whooping your way out of Wild Katz. It was a good day, indeed. Lots of soft lines inbounds, empty chairlifts, warm sun until mid-afternoon which left higher elevation and shaded slopes in good shape throughout the day. Dunno what's on tap tonight for new snow, but even a dusting would go a long way in freshening-up some sidecountry zones.

Sun effects were obvious today - lots of natural sluffs around on steep terrain. Saw a couple small cornice falls occur around lunch time when things got warm. Patrol was up cutting some off cowboy ridge and rooster comb to keep things a little safer for the hiking-inclined crowd. While eating lunch along the tye end of cowboy ridge we saw a boarder pop an 8" deep by 15-25' wide soft slab of the new snow making his way into hollywood bowl from the top of tye stick. He definitely ignored the obvious danger from the sun and today's considerable / high hazard and got lucky that it didn't step down any deeper and he had enough momentum to ride off the side away from its path as it released. The cherry on top: neither he nor his partner had any gear with them and I doubt they were beeping (aside from being "beeping" idiots)

That was probably the best inbounds day I've had this year, all told. I pretty much figured the sun would work its (wrong kind of) magic on the Backside and so never went there, spent the whole day on 7th, sidestepped up that damn 50' to Bobby/Nancy/Solitude so many times I swear my right leg was getting longer than the left.
Just the right mix of sun and views, cold temps but no wind, new snow overnight, reasonably mellow crowd.
Re: soup, pizza, et al. Even though I think all in all the food at Stevens is better than Xtal, the core Stevens crowd probably doesn't care. "Lunch" at Stevens seems to consist of:

• ski into Lot 4, taking your skis off directly next to your truck
• let your 125lb dog out of the back so he can gallop around for a while, meet the other dogs and pee on some tires
• pop a PBR or two and slam down a homebuilt sammy, optional potato chips
• stick dog back in the canopy, step into bindings, skate out of lot and go get some more

Sounds like an excellent day!
Stevens has fast access to the car for sure.  Other midday variations:
-Wrap a flask in a puffy and run the motor to dry out while making sandwiches.
-Eat bagels while stretching on the rear gate.
-In April, bring chairs and a barbie, and grill with your boots on between runs.
-Carry a pint of water and a pbj in your pockets, and dine in the Marley Cave so you can stay on the upper mountain and not go back to the car.   

Thanks for all the tips, gotta agree the lots are a lot closer to the ski action...sounds a lot more fun than the Crystal parking lots...except for maybe the UCBCE lot which I have not had the pleasure of enjoying.