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There was some really nice skiing this morning on Castle Face. After I ate my sandwich the snow was getting stickier though. It was Castle Face, visible from Hampton lodge. Nobody was skiing it but me. It was warmed up refrozen windblown. Little tiny blocks were breaking off and racing me down to the bottom. So cool.
Fantastic spring skiing today. Stay close to the middle of the runs. Near the trees can be treacherous. Ate it pretty good at full speed.
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QUOTE wickstad: Surely you found the goods legoskier.</p>
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Wednesday was indeed good at Mission. Never skied there on a storm day before. I was kind of distracted with having to manage various logistics for the kiddos but it all worked out. Thursday and Friday divegirl and I just did laps up to Clara Lake then skirted the trees over to just above the snack shack thing at the bottom of Bomber bowl. Just to get out and get some exercise (and to not spend money, being a ski racing parent is expensive). Finished off five days in a row with a couple of good rain corn days at Stevens. Rain held off both mornings for some fun turns, even though they didn't have much open due to avy danger.</p>
Also, have heard rumors that during the recent sunny days up on HWY 2, strippers set up a mobile pole at the big pullout just down the west side of the pass and were practicing their craft, presumably filming it with the nice view in the background. If I come across this footage I will post a link here. Am now in possession of ultra-rare Stevens bluebird on a stripper pole sticker to commemorate this event.
https://youtu.be/oxJUToUM[emoji644]ro?si=cTG[emoji644]uUkhUK55FMm_
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The river was indeed surfed this weekend. Friday stayed cold and overcast enough to keep the high country good. Definitely required some grunting though.
Temps and rain spared nothing on Saturday, but the big peak thankfully rain shadowed us through most of the day. With heavier sticks and the right attitude though there was lots of fun slarvin' to be had.
Time to hunker down for a few days and rest the quads...
Concrete special at Crustal. Big ridge wind late in the day, esp on the throne hike. Closest I've ever come to having my skis turn into kites. Everything that got bombed slid. Snow below 5k is...an adventure.
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I need to see pics or it didn't happen..Quote:
Originally Posted by Huskier
And I need that sticker real bad too
7th was Phenomenal, and the trees off Big Cheif was thigh deep heaven.
All is right in my world again.
Today at Crystal was weird. Yesterday snowed like 16" but it was also nuking 100+ mph wind so upper mtn was closed. The few days before that were an atmospheric river that poured rain. Then today went warm and bluebird in the morning with greybird and ridge winds by close. Haven't skied in awhile so went up to scope out how things were and hiked the Throne. Found some surprisingly good turns from the hike down to where the traverse into Hamburger is. Below that was all chopped mashed potatoes. Cruised around checking out a few other spots, Short North opened and by 11 I was just cruising groomers in the sun.
I took a long lunch and had faith in the Crystal patrol team opening Southback. There was a long period from like 1040 to 1130 or something where Chair 6 wasn't running? Someone said it had electrical problems. Around 1215 the bombs started going off in Southback and I started some FQ laps to get warm (the AM bluebird had turned into greybird with some wind but it still wasn't very cold). By 115 or so there was a line at the Sback gate and the rope dropped a bit after that. The traverse was a ridiculous scrum, some poor dude ended up downhill shoulder into a tree when people at the front didn't know how to set the sidesteps or whatever.
Snow was a mix of dense pow on N aspects, rock solid bed surfaces from the *everywhere* avalanches with 2-3' crowns, dense pow with suncrust on top anywhere not N facing, and then by ~5k widely rain saturated pow.
I had a blast, crowds were super mellow (840 arrival got me middle of Blot). Lifts seemed to be having lots of mechanicals though. FQ is always a dice roll but GV was stop and go a lot, 6 was down, dunno what's going on with that
***/**** on the Buster scale
Thanks for the review. I was pretty keen on going up weds but couldn't rally any pals and had some work issues looming over me that ended up keeping me home. Sounded like it was the mixed bag which I'm OK missing out on.
It's a bummer this la Nina season has been kind of a bust.
What a great week of skiing at Mission. Nice storm started Monday afternoon and continued through most of the day Tuesday. Total wind machine. Wind buff snow everywhere. Wednesday was great leftovers and yesterday a repeat. Sunny both days and nice settled dense snow up high and spring like down low. Short tour up high in the adjacent side country and then banging out laps on groomers all afternoon beers in the sun with friends to finish the day. Today looks like a repeat
Sunday Funday at the crusty burger. I haven’t skies fog this thick since my days at the Big in MT. Two chair vis up high, and at times it was ski-by-braille conditions. [IMG]https://imgur.com/gallery/crystal-soup-A5nnzDa[/IMG]
This is a long shot but anyone ski Nisqually chutes in the last 4-5 days? Trying to get a sense of general crustiness in the area.
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I went to Muir on Saturday (so before the Sunday bit of refresh)
Above 9k was horrible iron-hard sastrugi. Below 9k down to below pan-face was great. I didn't ski the chutes (partner wasn't up to it) but many others did. Same aspects/elevation were fantastic proto-corn. The wind scrap glistening ice even skied pretty well as a thin easily breakable crust
With the clear-ish forecast nights and the cold overnight temps this weekend looks like pretty much the same setup. Wouldn't have bothered with the final 1k to Muir but it was my buddy's first time getting there
editing posts seems broken, sorry for the double post
other beta: there's 2-ish feet of snow down at the bridge elevation, there was at least one set of tracks and a pair of people who skied from the chutes down to the bridge. didn't spot their crossing but they climbed up the west side of the nisqually, so they found a crossing somewhere
most people did the high traverse back to paradise though. not sure how rugged the skiing is down by the nisqually but it looked better than it has in quite some time
Much obliged
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Taking the day today to rest the legs, eat some hot dogs, and start working on the garden.
Feels like we’ve been on the wrong flip of the coin for much of these past couple months- from stretched of high pressure, to warm ARs, early spring cycles, and now having the last two storms hit north and south of us.
But the skiing has been quite fun lately, with the right attitude of course. Enough coverage to feel confident underneath, and conditions good enough to rip in.
Low country and south facing have been in a particularly good corn cycle, with the best laps being at the end of the day. And in the highest most north-facing slopes there are still some cold chalky conditions to be enjoyed.
But praise be to Ullr, winter seems not to have finished with us yet. March and April shall yet provide us the needed “catch up” to 100% SWE…
Praise be! I would be grateful for more.
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Stephens was pleasant and well worth the drive today. Backside got sun baked in the am and turned a little lumpy, but trees stayed cold and soft. Frontside skied pretty good at higher elevations but you could feel that chunky bed surface as you got lower. Kid chickened out on 7th but looked like the chutes coming down the lift line would've been a lot of fun.
Stevens was soooo good today. Snow was so light and dry and fresh lines everywhere. Headed out to Grace Lakes and found some of the best turns of the season. Sleeper March Pow days are the best!
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Gorgeous morning and perfect snow up the Alpental Valley today! Cold March pow is really hard to beat!
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Family is out of town. Enormous green light to enjoy some cold late season snow! Waited till yesterday to ATTEMPT to secure parking at Crystal. Ouch. Hopefully the morning of there are cancellations!
Won't be a sleeper weekend at Crystal since they're all out of parking reservations
Yesterday was good up there.
Another three hour drive to xtal thanks to the five thousand people who go up on a pow /storm day but can’t seem to get off forest queen without falling
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