Mar 3, 2014, Stevens Pass, Cakeday Chowder

With I-90 closed this morning, we opted to point it to Stevens to celebrate my completion of another trip around the sun. What started out as a great day under heavy snowfall with 16" since closing bell Sunday transformed into a schmoo fest by afternoon. A bizarre temperature inversion had us freezing at the bottom waiting for the chairs to load but sweating down the steeps through noticeably heavy snow. The backside opened ~9:30 and many found their way there, but not before we got a few quick laps in before dipping back down the frontside by 11.

Tye Mill delivered the goods run after run as did the trees above the summit lots off of Big Chief. Found some decent turns off of 7th back down Bobby/Nancy/Solitude, but for the most part the bowl side was mashed potatoes and firm where tracked. As the clock passed noon, the snow began to succumb to the increasing temperatures and by our last run at 1 even the lower reaches of the frontside had taken the consistency of a fine clam chowder. By the time we departed at 1:15, the precip had changed over to rain, but all-in-all a great start to my 18th consecutive month of turns.

One of the more disappointing attempts to claim a powdersickday I've ever had. SO heavy. Huge crowd for a Monday devoured most everything in the first hour. Skied very poorly once chopped due to nasty accel/decel when crossing tracks. The warm up got even more severe at lunch, and for "dessert" a brutal blasting of wind coming over Big Chief Mtn. from the west soaked what wasn't soaked on me before. Raining by 1, really raining by 3.

On drive up with road Chains Required I saw exactly 0% of the obviously not AWD cars in compliance. One of them in a black Buick following me WAY too close up the grade despite my every effort to spray them with slush, tap brake lights, flip them off etc. Black Buick dude: please go back to Snoqualmie Pass (now available) and limit the (eventual) consequences of your stupidity to one highway only.

It's true that the citiodts were out in full force yesterday. But having a local's knowledge of the area paid off. After Tye Mill cracked, we never waited in line for the rest of the day and bagged 15 runs in 4 hours. I thought the highlight of my day would be the first tracks I nabbed beneath Jupiter but it was in fact the following lap down Aquarius which had been groomed the night before which was the best. Heavy snow + uneven terrain = quite difficult. Knee-to-waist heavy snow + smooth underneath =

I will say that I was glad to be behind a pair of plows clearing the highway on the way up the pass ~8:15am. Conditions for the last mile or so were full whiteout and the only thing I could see were the flashing lights atop the plows 20 feet ahead.

Faceshots (more like faceslaps) till 1. Then it was time for a hasty exit. Never saw a line (started at 9:30). Weather and snow turned out exactly as predicted, fun short day.

Great early morning snow for sure. Most people were as happy and gracious as could be, but I do have a bone to pick with the asshats that skied right up to the front of the line before Tye opened and had the balls to call me a whiney b!tch for calling them out on cutting ~60 people. Ugh. In any case,the back side was a blast, first tracks for a few runs and then went back to the front due to having forgotten to caffinate and eat! By the time we got back out at 11, the low hanging fruit was picked. The steeper areas below 7th remained fresh up until the snow switched at 1ish. Luckily,we had no legs left so it was a perfect time to pack it in and head home! On last gripe- the Volvo xc passing into oncoming traffic on the way down:
You're on the asshat list too, you aren't special and you're lucky that you did t roll back the accident counter board (although it was back to 0 anyhow).
Phew. I needed that venting!