November 17, 2017 Stevens Pass

Today was Stevens Pass's second day open.  "The Plan" was to ski for no more than 2 hours and leave with a smile. My younger friends skied on Wednesday, opening day, and had a powder day. There was 6" overnight with some wind and cloud.  I skied the Skyline and Hogback Express lifts and there was no lift line. I stayed on the 5 groomed trails, BUT there was untracked powder everywhere, and I only skied the powder along the sides of the groomed trails. With only 5 groomed trails there were bottlenecks, but the powder nearby helped solve the problem.

My younger skier friends tried to convince me to hit the treed area, but the season is just starting and I stayed with "The Plan". I saw numerous 2-ski ejections and snowboard wallowing in the snow where they'd gotten caught because of the low/early season coverage. There is powder, but you need to know the terrain! I stayed 2 hours and my thighs reminded me that it was time to go home with a smile.