Stevens 2019/2020

1/17/2020 Absence makes the heart grow fonder. And the pow deeper.

The pass is open!!!!!!!

After a week of constant refreshing DOTs page, the trees are cleared (enough) and the powerlines are secured (enough). Driving up, wow. That was a very, very busy week for DOT. Looking at the remaining trees, now I'm a bit nervous. Easily hundreds of trees got cleared, thousands left to clean up.

But anyhow, lifts loading at the now standard opening time of 9:15 (I think the manager's watch runs a little slow) with the standard 10" stevens measure (knee to waist, I know I'm short but...). Straight up and over 7th to the backside where many laps were had.

Today's write up is easy. Everything. Was. Awesome. High fives. Loud cries of joy. Drops were dropped. Light pow was slashed. Turns and turns and turns. White room all day long.

Lightish crowd that disappeared around 10:30-11 (you think I bothered looking at the time?). Vis was perfect bluebird until around 1.

3.5/3 Yes, that damned good. I am happy today.

1/21 + 1/22 2019 Useless musings of a bored, but dry, ski bum

Monday was fine groomers, small crowd, bad to okay vis and a couple inches to play on. The vis reasonably clear in terms of distance but the light was so flat you couldn't see if you're skiing into fluff, a bump, or off a cliff more than a turn away, so we stuck to the lower half. The new training park off hogs is nice. Good line of smallish jumps, a few boxes and a hip at the bottom. At some point I'll actually commit downhill sideways on a box... but for now, my hip's sore. Only real downside to this location is you can't see the entire line from the top. You're not going to land on anyone, but you might have to skip features if there's an unscheduled yard sale. Finished the day lapping Kehr's. The trees were good and the boulders at the top fun if you like flat landings.

1/3. 'Twas a day on twigs.

Tuesday... yeah, so there's confidence inspiring snow, and confidence requiring snow. This 8-10" was squarely the latter. Get at it, it's a pow day. Don't and you're gonna have a bad time. A bit of unconsolidated debris lurking around. Vis was fine, crowds were good then gone. Faceshots were possible (mouth guard optional). One ski through and the snow setup solid, so it tracked relatively fast. Looking at the telemetry, maybe the afternoon shift was a better choice?

2/3. Negative modifier due to the recent storms. If I wasn't so spoiled recently, it'd be higher.

NWAC is XXX for today and most lifts are closed, so none of what I've said matters anymore. If fri gets any depth, expect a lot of hidden debris.

1/24 I'll take my concrete right side up, thank you.

Short swing shift today. Schmidt haus is just a little low to tell the story, claiming 1". The 5" on the stakecam is a lot more realistic; it's more than that. No one at all there today, full speed hockey stop at the rfid guns type day. A few inches of soaked snow covered by a few inches of wet snow covered by surprisingly decent refills. Just cold enough to be fast. Some of my favorite conditions; increasingly firm going down into the snowpack and tiring/questionable enough to keep the masses away.

Good vis, light winds. Hogs, tye and sky were all skiing well; hogs seemed to be running a bit slow. Tye bowl was a tracked mank "base" but the refills made it ski really well. The bobsled run out was a hoot. The bowl right side of skid road (that have a name?) was light on light, but very fun fast wet pow up top and mashers below.

Even after 4pm the traverse skiers right off skyline wasn't fully in (but was in the right place!), so the pitch with the now not-so-big rock was completely untracked, knee deep goodness.

Some debris, but not as bad as I expected and mostly avoidable. Tomorrow might be great, or it might all refreeze into a coral nightmare. I won't know since it's a weekend.

2.5/3.

1/28/20 Insert witty subtitle here.

10" of reasonable snow that warmed quickly. Did some shady laps on the frontside. The transition from barrier to headwall was about 2' tall. Followed my tracks into a small drop into it... turns out, if it looks like a kicker it'll probably act like it. Threw me a good few feet above the rim going in, if not the most air I've had under my skis ever it certainly was for this year. Did the typical land the air, blow up on the first turn routine. Gave the lift riders a good chuckle, so that's nice.

Up and over 7th to the back, which was getting hot and thick fast. I think we put up with 2 laps there... Did a lap down DD/Trapper through slightly tracked but very nice powder. Maybe witnessed a divorce. Finished the day poking around in the trees, which kept good snow but I need more laps through.

Vis was good until you sweated up your goggles, small crowds that disappeared quick due to the snow.

Soup of the day was a mountain full of clumpy potato chowder.

2/3 Good day.

Yeah there was great fun in spots including some mostly untracked decent length lines that took a little effort on a semi-sketch traverse and funky cliff/tree entrance to reach that were skiing pretty well if heavily until at least noon or so. But most of the mountain sure got tracked out quickly for a weekday - perhaps the good visibility was a factor but an active small crowd seemed to be as well. And by 1PM at least a few of us aging skiers were feeling more our age than our mental images like allowing for. By that point the semi-tracked was thick chudly stuff that took a LOT of energy to ski at all well, and the groomers were mostly hard and full of microbumps that send a lot of shock up the skeleton. I did find some still soft groomer shortly after 2 on my way down the boundary edge toward the Brooks base and my waiting car (gotta love being able to ski right down to the bumper!) but at that point the snow that had started to fall was behaving more like rain once it hit any surface including my goggles and I decided it was time to take advantage of the handy ramp to the bumper.

Wednesday 29 January. Once again "you don't know if you don't go." Expecting rain at Stevens yesterday morning we found perfect soft snow falling on well groomed runs for three hours before the warming weather.