12/27/18 Stevens Pass Epic!

My idea this winter is to Cherrypick powder days at my old playground. Today was a remarkably good one. No lines at 9:00 and my Epic Pass worked on Big Chief. It was snowing hard the last mile from the east and I was impressed with 2-3" of cold smoke over a nicely groomed Chief. (I don't remember grooming at Stevens but maybe it just got better.) My son and I had a new skier with us so we then went over to Hogsback and eventually Tye Mill. A bit firm underneath the powder but everything skied well. We went under the power lines and skied some very large lumps and bumps with lots of
Powder over lots of old tracks. Black Diamond run for our new skier (ansnowboarder convert)

Jupiter was next so I left the newby and skied nice boottop to knee deep powder under the chair and to skiers right. I was thrilled with the new glades and thinned runs there! They are steep and the options are open so fresh tracks were easy to find. Though fine skiing for my son and I, it was by no means easy skiing as the snow underneath was a bit hard and everything was uneven.

My favorite chair had very few people on it, and nobody in the trees skiers left. I think it's been uncrowded for a while because I kept finding deep snow left over from Sunday. I only was able to ski one run there, but would have gladly stayed all afternoon had time permitted.Again, not easy powder skiing, but very fun and much deeper than imagined.
Was going to roll back down Double Diamond, but sensing fresh tracks on Wild Katz, I hoped on the quick herringbone up. A younger version of me would have liked it better. Nice powder and no new tracks, but seemed like most everyone in there recently was side slipping the steeps, and it made the crux pitches very firm and committing...I might have missed a few turns...☹️

I can tell I'm going to love my powder days at Stevens this year. The thinning and selective logging has been very effective. The grooming is better. Some of the lifts have been upgraded! Great little resort with a few Big Mountain features and steeps.

! Great little resort with a few Big Mountain features and steeps.

 

Oops - Should be in lift accessed skiing...

And now it is...

Guess we all should head for Stevens tomorrow (the 27th). Your forecast is excellent. 😁

Did you get the time machine online or make it yourself?

Stevens was also lovely this afternoon and evening - I made a late run and was pleasantly surprised at how much fresh semi-tracked and puffy piles was to be mined, and I rapidly hamstered my legs into submission thanks to private club like lack of lines.Though I heard on the lift line that the "locals night" ticket purchase line at 4 or 5 took like 45 minutes. Ouch. It's indeed nice to just walk on from the car. I'm still not sure I like that Vail now has Whistler and Stevens but resistance was futile.

Great day today whatever the date!. As a Whistler  Pass holder for years, I love it. My Whistler Pass is now 2/3's of what it was ten years ago, and now I get Stevens for free! Vail Corp May be a pain in the やはま but Whistler Management has always had their problems as well.

I bought the Epic Pass this year primarily lured by Whistler. But I've skied at A Basin and Vail so far and it's been fun. Stevens is now an option if I somehow find myself around Pugetopolis and it's a ski resort type day.

Yes, I was hiking alone in UT and ran into  a guy on the Vail Senior  Leadership Team (reports to the CEO) two years ago. He said at that  point that now that they had Whistler,  they'd be buying  something  in the Seattle  region (and mentioned Stevens as the lead contender at that point) as a "feeder" - the idea being that the combo of the two  resorts  would be a compelling  value proposition for  many of us. I must admit that this  year it was indeed for  me given Whistler travel plans plus a prediction  of an El Nino winter. I got the  "Epic Local" pass - I'll  likely not quite  tap out my Whistler days with it and the Stevens days become gravy. He said we'd all learn to love them. We'll see!

And 2 out of the last 3 days we hit up Tahoe. Northstar is not all flat like in the old days. Heavenly is still big! And I just haven't caught Kirkwood good yet...

Good to know about "Flatstar"

Gotta check out the NorthFlatStar trail map to see the big new steeps?...Nice area but Sierra at Tahoe is another very fun area...But Heavenly/Squaw/Alpine/Kirk have always been the main line ticket at Tahoe...hope the snow is good, hope the snowpack is building , hope to have a happy mid April trip at the Lake. This is a long thread for Stevens, actually its a unusual report to have a report from Stevens....Thanks avajane!

I'm no Northstar expert as I was a Squaw Valley skier back when it opened, and never skied there at all. I'd heard it was flat. I skied it a couple of years ago because it was Epic and I was at Heavenly for a week. I don't know when the Backside went in but it's got some pitch. I also found some off piste steeps in their sometimes closed areas. I think Lookout Mountain may be even newer, but I'm not sure. One ungroomed bump run named Prosser, is a fine, steep bump run that will make 95 percent of Northstars "groomer skiers" cringe.

I used to enjoy skiing Sierra Ski Ranch! (Now called Sierra at Tahoe) Preachers Passion and Dynamite made it a ski area...Much like Double Diamond and Southern Cross make Stevens Pass!

It will be interesting "Next Season" to see how EPIC
& IKON resorts value us Geezers (70+). We bought
Stevens "premium passes" so we could use the Powder
Alliance to visit Whitewater & Castle Mt(AB). Will
have to explore EPIC Veteran option next season.
Looking forward to that Low Altitude B.P. Pow 😁

I think my friend who's only 61 got an Epic
Pass for I thought $99 this year!

That would be for "Retired with 20 years service".
I was only on active duty for 31 months & 14 days.
The Veteran Epic is about $500 which might be attractive
If they jack the prices way up for 70+ passes at Stevens.