Sunday 3/11 - Crystal Closed & Stevens limiting ops

This from a Crystal email that just rolled in:

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DATE: Saturday, March 10th
TIME: 3:30pm

Our forecast sources are calling for high winds with lots of rain Sat night and all day Sunday. Therefore, the ski area will be CLOSED on Sunday, March 11. The storm will pass Sunday night with freezing levels beginning to drop Monday morning. We will resume normal operations on Monday, March 12th.
Forecasts are looking great for next week with the freezing levels expected to lower by Monday morning and snow showers expected through the week. Keep up the snow dances!!

For more information visit us online at www.skicrystal.com:(http://www.skicrystal.com).

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Ans the Stevens site says

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General Message

ATTENTION!!
Due to the Pineapple Express the LAST NIGHT of Night Operations is SATURDAY, March 10th!
Beginning Sunday, March 11th, hours of operation will be 9am - 4pm, daily - seven days a week, conditions permitting.

PINEAPPLE EXPRESS LIFT SCHEDULE FOR SUNDAY, MARCH 11th, 9am to 4pm, conditions permitting:
SkyLine, Hogsback, Daisy and Big Chief

SPRING HOURS OF OPERATION, conditions permitting:
9am - 4pm, Daily, through Sunday, April 15th.

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baker closed too

Started raining for reals (hard enough to hear on the roof) here at Alpental about 30 minutes ago.

Whats the temp looking like at your place Mofro?

good spring skiing at Alpental today. very little rain however, I am wondering what 3 inches of rain will do to the base. What are your thoughts(mofro?)?

I hate mothereffin friuty coladas. keep it down south, yo!

Satellite pictures indicate a
lengthy plume of moisture laden air stretching from the
south-central BC and Washington coasts southwestward toward
Hawaii, with several short wave disturbances propagating
along the back edge of this long frontal band.

Booooooo Pineapple Express :fuckyou:

I saw a ton of people at Les Schwab today so that's got to be a sign that we'll get slayed again soon.

fuk pineapples fuk pineapples fuk pineapples...

:fuckyou: :fuckyou: :fuckyou:

Well Fuckit, this is the PNW and I aint no fair weather skier! I couldnt make it up today so I'll be at stevens enjoying limited ops and the last of our snowpack tomorrow.

SKiiinngg in the rain.....

I just put an umbrella in my bloody-mary... good ole Hawaiian air. I can just smell the sugarcane.

X-tal is 47 & 41 degrees resp.... shit!

Hey, look at it this way. This heavy rain is natures grooming for off piste. Then when it starts to snow again. The slopes will be smooth like a babies bottom.

The heavy rain butters out all the ruts. So, it will be like starting the season over with smooth freshies as soon as it cools off and starts snowing again.

That's what I was thinking....

WEATHER SYNOPSIS FOR SUNDAY AND MONDAY

In order to smile now, think of long term gain,
And of recent snow stabilized by the rain?
It?s a process we value that helps cleans the slate,
But while it?s occurring, don?t go and tempt fate.

For as liquid water moves down through the snow,
It loads and it weakens, increasing downhill flow?
Wet loose and wet slabs are the common close,
Of this abysmal weather driven by warm, wet flows.

With the weather and stability both looking quite bleak,
Don?t find yourself up the proverbial creek?
Give the snowpack a while to settle and slide,
Know that this sloppy snow won?t be a good ride.

But if you must go out, stay on gentle terrain,
Away from avalanche runouts that could be a pain?
Avoid cornices, chutes and other terrain traps,
As these are places that will fill with bad crap.

Be positive and look to when temperatures plummet,
That?ll be a better time to head for the summit.
Old wet weak snow will refreeze and strengthen,
Decreasing the danger as day times lengthen.

But unless the forecast is a total bust,
We may just be left with dust over crust?
It?s not a bad thing, and good for stability,
Time to work on your edges and carving ability.

Anyone up in the Whistler area care to share a weather update? Things are looking bleak most places, but a first hand account would always be nice.

I was up at Whistler yesterday from 8:30 til about 3:00. Things weren't that great. In the morning visibility was good from the bottom to mid mountain. Snow conditions on the bottom were extremely slushy. The top had nice packed powder conditions and Blackcomb glacier had a few inches of wind blown powder. By 10 or so visibilty decreased drastically at the top with thick clouds rolling in. Those clouds also brought in a moderate snow. We then moved towards mid mountain and the visibilty wasn't much better. Around there the snow conditions then turned into the slush again but this time coupled with a constant rain. This made visibility on the bottom bad as my goggles don't shed rain well. By 2 we had enough of the rain and bad snow. We decided to try the top again and found that the clouds were still limiting visibility.

They're supposed to get some more rain and snow today through Monday. I think by mid week conditions will be a lot better.

Sounds like whistler next weekend could be epic!
Peter

Whistler Conditions:
I was up both days this weekend. Saturday was pretty good, fresh snow building throughout the day. It was rain lower down, but up on Glacier Express and area it was still winter. About 2/3rds down the Spankey's Ladder bowls things started getting heavier, but still falling as snow. I'd say around 10-15 cm of powder by the end of the day in the alpine, often more in wind-loaded areas.

Today (Sunday) was a pretty different story. The morning was great. It was snowing from about half-way up the Blackcomb Gondola (sufficiently low), and was quite deep up high. Jersey was the highest lift to open, with 20-30cm of heavy powder. Crystal trees and Jersey were quite deep, pretty much everything was good to go. By around 11, it was raining hard at the Glacier Lodge, and a mix of snow and rain for most of the way up Jersey. I expect the warmpth went to the top, meaning tomorrow when it cools off could be quite crusty. On the other hand, if it didn't melt, there will be probably close to 50cm of powder, maybe more, that is untouched.

We quit at noon, probably the first time this season I've left the hill early without having some place I needed to be. No crowds at least, and this should be good for a nice fat spring base.

Check the forecast, I think it will be pretty different than today was (it is supposted to cool down a lot, for one). I would expect a pretty nast crust for at least a couple days though.

Looking around at other area reports, all 3 of Vancouver's north shore mountains were closed today. BC Okanogan was reporting only a couple cm, so either the storm totally missed them, or they got a ton of rain too.

Stevens Pass was $$$$$$$$$$$$

Maybe 50 other people on the hill and that is a highend estimate. It rained but weather was warm enough that it didnt matter, snow didnt get too soggy till late afternoon and was soft enough for some mini hucks all over the place. Hauling ass in slushy snow is so fucking fun. Combine that with zero people and today was just the shit. Fuck yeah.

glad somebody had fun.

I've been cleaning my apartment. Yay.

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Originally Posted by Phill

Stevens Pass was $$$$$$$$$$$$

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Hey, you need an opportunity to work on your pond skimming technique sometime. :)

Rain days can be great. Sat. at Alpental was great. But I would rather the snow stay around a bit longer, I worry about the base going to fast.

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Originally Posted by Phill

Stevens Pass was $$$$$$$$$$$$

Maybe 50 other people on the hill and that is a highend estimate. It rained but weather was warm enough that it didnt matter, snow didnt get too soggy till late afternoon and was soft enough for some mini hucks all over the place. Hauling ass in slushy snow is so fucking fun. Combine that with zero people and today was just the shit. Fuck yeah.

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Originally Posted by Phill

It rained but weather was warm enough that it didnt matter

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Kinda like that feeling you get when you're really lazy and piss in your ski pants, mmmm warm and wet. I guess after skiing the rain friday night and the decent skiing Sat without much drizzle, my pants were wet enough already.

So I threw down some sick(ening) lines at Ikea today. Good practice for human slalom.

Mindoc, the snow base will come out fine and the areas will still be open thru April. But all of the play grounds need to be re-inspected for damage before a return to full throttle. 2 years ago the season didn't start until the end of march. I guess there is no such thing as a "typical" year anymore.

Hmm, well, looking at the W/B cams it looks like it might have stayed snow up high, or at least gone back to snow at the Roundhouse, judging by the snow covered tree branches. Looks like it was mostly liquid at Pig Alley though. I wonder where between the two places it stayed cold enough to keep things at least skiable. Hopefully there isn't much of a crust in the alpine.

Forecast is not looking good. Looks like a couple cold days and then really warm again next weekend.

I'm pulling out all the stops on the anti-jinx: BBQ was just wheeled out of garage, summer climbing trips are in the works, tanning salon appointments are made (kidding).

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Originally Posted by Lloyd Christmas

Forecast is not looking good. Looks like a couple cold days and then really warm again next weekend.

I'm pulling out all the stops on the anti-jinx: BBQ was just wheeled out of garage, summer climbing trips are in the works, tanning salon appointments are made (kidding).

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I smell another pineapple for Friday. If so, i'm bailing to Whistler. (oh wait, I'm there anyway on Sunday...silly me). Guess I'll be heading up sooner.