#31 – 3/22/14 – Saturday at Hyak/Central/West. Clear and chill for first chairs at Hyak, snow was kinda firm on piste, and styrofoamy off. Things kept getting softer as the day wore on, but high thin cloud came in and kept things from getting totally baked. Followed a new-to-us route out under the Hyak power tower peak line for the last couple of runs thru the woods and that was mucho fun.
#32 – 3/23/14 – Sunday, we were on the road going up I90 just after dawn and saw something pretty cool – a low cloud deck made for dark green trees looking up one of the southside valleys, but the snowfield above the trees was glowing bright light blue. Looked like it had been coated with a watercolor wash of “sky” over a B/W print. Just scattered clouds and mostly sunny once we got to the pass proper. Hit the lineup for Hyak’s 0900 opening and scored 2nd chair up. Snow was nice and crisp, but not quite as hard as yesterday. After an hour, we headed out on the grand tour via the crossover trails and ended up at West, enjoying the great grooming work done overnight all over the hills. Off-trail and ungroomed wasn’t much fun because it tossed you around pretty hard until it finally started to soften and slush up at noon. Made our way back to Hyak after taking a Silver Fir run with Chad the Central patroller, then crossover and cycled H runs (Hiya Jack) front and back until the bitter end, loading a last Hidden Valley chair at exactly 1600. Many thanks to the staff and patrol for turning what started out pretty rough into a decent season of fun. Sure wish they would stay open – there’s better coverage now than there was for their first two weekends. Oh well, no more West either, so it’s just Central and Alpental for pass fun from now on. Remember, mid-week at Mission is still free if you have a Snoq pass. TomK & Kerry.
