Summit Central, Feb 3 2016

Went up mid-day with Yanna who was teaching at Central in the afternoon. Wishing that the storm were coming a little faster, but still hoping it would come soon. In the meantime, the groomers were surprisingly lovely on all the longer lifts, though they exercised a bit of my old east coast "turn where the snow is piling up" neurons. And the hoped for snow did start, and by the time Yanna got off work it had started the change the character of the skiing. By 8PM, we were finding some really nice deposition zones that everyone was ignoring at all elevations. It helps to be OK skiing in slightly shaded spots at night! By this point the snow was really piling up and it just got funner and funner - a perfect amount of fresh powder for the pitch of the Central slopes.

Thought briefly about racing up to hamsterize with the other powder hounds for a few hectic hours, but rolled over and slept for a few more hours instead. I'm sure it would have been yet more great skiing, maybe even better for a bit, but my body is now telling me that it appreciated the rest after spending the night turning under the lights. I love night skiing in a bit of a storm!

The usual junior safety patrol officers were violating the "keep right except to pass" rule on the highway heading home, staying well under the posted speed limit (not only the limit that was posted on the reader boards up in the snowy section), and the cowboys were of course weaving their 4x4s through the traffic as a result, at speeds much higher than the posted limit. I never will get used to the WA "keep left and turn brain off" driving habit...

Looks like Snoqualmie and Baker won the snow lottery this time, from a quick scan of telemetry.

As you suspected, the padded seats across the highway did not suck this morning. But things were getting warm fast and there was lots, I mean lots, of storm and wind slab activity.