and the best groomed run in the state of WA is ...

of course we are all about pow and corn au natural, but took one zip down Orion on the backside of Stevens the other day and decided that it is the best groomer in the state -- 2k vf, steep but not too steep to carve, fun rolls and turns sweeping both directions.  It reminds me a little of Sun Valley (albeit Sun Valley has 20 runs like that).

The exposure is south so it doesn't hold good conditions too long, but on the other hand it doesn't stay frozen either.

I can't think of anything at Crystal or Baker that matches it if you decide to get your groom on.  Maybe Mission?

Last week I skied Alpental on Sudnay. They had groomed the whole lower mountain, including some of the black diamond runs up to the cat track. Rocketing down the short, steep and freshly groomed section was a blast. It may have been the steepest groomer I've ever experienced. Too bad it was so short.

Of course, NORMALLY they never groom anything at Alpental.

+1 on Alpental last Saturday. I did a bunch of laps top to bottom. Grooming was wall to wall.

Mission has the best groomING in the state, with nearly every blue run impeccable corduroy.  Skookum off Chair 3 (preferably ABOVE Chair 3) is my favorite for a gasp-inducing rocket ride.  But I second Orion for the best single run... length, steep, features... hard to beat.

OMG! this should be in the lift skiing section so it doesn't pollute the untracked.

Crystal ... mmmmmmmh I still like Iceberg when it's been freshly groomed but it's much shorter but FUN!
Lots of grooming in the Northback this year at Crystal.
I like my groomers slushy and I hope it rains this closing weekend at Crystal. Rainy slush= not so sticky. Here's hoping for rain!

Back east they were doing winch cats on some double-diamond slopes decades ago, e.g. White Heat at Sunday River, which was always half-groomed/half-bumped. I was down at north Lake Tahoe late last week, and I saw that both Squaw and Alpine were doing the same, and were opening more and more groomers as the weekend approached. It indeed made for very fun (and easy!) turning on anything that had enough of a solar aspect to start to soften (temps were on the edge for us).

This thread is messing up my weekend plans - now instead of all those chores, I'm wondering if I should be getting pu to Alpental for a half day today...