Stevens 2019/2020

Lifts are turning and the grins go ear to ear.

Quick day to get the legs warmed up a bit, didn't want to mess up the next couple days. Plus, opening day is more about watching the zoo than actually skiing. Lateish start, in the lot at around 9:30 to a 3/4 full set of numbered lots (with huge gaps between cars). Lots of people, but no real lines. Longest wait might have been 5 minutes. 1-2 of which was an attempt at getting the scanner to work.

Snow was good but thin in places. Core shots were on sale, buy 1 get 10 while you free yourself, but even headwall was surprisingly nice if you were a little careful. Nothing in the groomers that wasn't easy to avoid. Everything skiers right off sky was roped off, a lot of the main sky terrain was gated.

The new brooks/sky line merger is odd, best avoided by heading right just below the park.

2/3 with the first-lift-modifier.

12/20/2019 Neutronium pow day. Any heavier and it'd collapse into a black hole. I've been known to exaggerate.

NWAC said 17" in 24h with 2" of rain at the end. Skied just like it.

Bit of a slow open, but not as slow as it could have been. Got a "DON'T DUCK THE ROPES!!!" speech before loading. Typical pow line at sky first lap (many disappointed after the first turn), but never another wait (unless someone fell off). Worst was a slow shuffle to the front, scanners still tend to be the bottleneck.

Above windy was good, the area below meadow's is still closed off. Now it's probably avy risk, might open? Good turns in headwall and off marmot. Tolerable in some spots below, but below ~4500 and the snow fairy kept pulling the handbrake on me.

Coverage improving dramatically, this was a great base builder storm.

2.5/3 mostly wishful thinking. If I believe I can make a turn in it, I can right?

Edit: Not exactly related but 2.91" of rain on the 19th (all after 3pm), 5.21" the 20th in Gold Bar. 8.12" in under 36h. Still raining.

12/23/2019

Mostly a groomer day, but my skis have no edge left to sharpen. *shrug* Guess it's getting time to retire them. Groomers were okay then less okay then too icy to carve with no edge, YMMV. Off piste was a buffet of refrozen avy debris, tracks, and cookies; sometimes something nice was around. Vis was foggy but okay for the bottom 300', mostly clear above it. Spots of really flat lighting.

Went to check out tye, which was great going down (though it still needs to fill in more) but took an extra 30-45 minutes going up. Gremlins kept me off it the rest of the day (and I think it stayed on hold anyhow). Frickin burrrrr. Second longest wait sitting on a chair. The other one was right above andromeda face so at least this was much less windy.

Ended the day with a lap down bobby chute, which was very nice. Top choke point needs a mowing, and everything accessible from sky was really bad but the snow up top was really nice.

1.5/3. Solid, meh day.

12/24/2019

Another day another groomer. Perfect vis, blue skies all day. Spent the day chasing sun. The new padded seats on Brooks are about as nice as the faster lift. Groomers did what groomers do, they started nice then turned to ice. Still a lot of dust on refrozen tracks mixed with scraped bobsled chutes everywhere off piste.

Frontside is getting into good shape, but still a low snowpack for x-mas eve. Showcase is a bit boney in the middle but oh that bottom half is just so much fun. Most bumps were cookies, ice and rock/branch troughs. The snow off Tye is still very good, but the boulders off the middle traverse are still in need of another foot or three. The top traverse is still roped off. Tye didn't even break on us today!

Started out mostly empty, filled up pretty quickly in the usual places. Got hit actually loading a chair today, that was irritating.

Maybe 1.5 to 2/3 today.

12/27/2019 handful of night laps to try out new-to-me toys. Picked up a pair of FIS GS sticks cheap. Skinniest things I've ever strapped on, whole lot of fun on an empty enough mountain. Yoda skis. Do or do not, there is no try. Conditions were typical holiday stevens night. Better than not skiing but groomers were shaved to ice, bumps and a combination thereof. Vis was good, crowds okay. 1/3 if you didn't have toys for shaved ice, 3/3 if you did.

1/2/2020 Was it the 10" that NWACs said or the 2" that stevens said? Either way, it was pow-enough. Then blue ice, then back to pow. Lots of fun, light snow but also a lot of wind during the night. I think 2" fell but looped through the meter 5 times before landing.

Day was clear vis, lightly snowing, not many people until 11-12 then not bad, and a lot of the terrain is filling in quite well.

Backside needs another foot or so to open. If this next system comes in decent, should be open by Monday! Maybe sat/sun but my pass doesn't work so it doesn't count.

2.5/3

1/6/20 Deep and thick with a slow start.

10am start, bad vis and very thick cement. Backside didn't open, tye and kehr's were late. With the number of cracks visible from the chair, that wasn't a surprise. The pass closing late also wasn't a surprise.

The snow was deep but ate a lot of skis. Speed was hard to come by, easy to lose. Except the bobsled runs on the flats, those were faaaast. Not falling was the smart move, which limits how much you're really willing to do.

Crowd was small, except for the first couple runs trying to connect anything steep enough to ride. Vis got a little better.

1.5/3. Still better than not, but actually a worse day than the rain soaked day earlier.