May 29 Stevens Pass

Arrived late - first had to get full side-zip pants from FF as having to drop old pants to adjust DJ knee brace was starting to annoy me  :-

Some folks were already leaving. A nice guy showed me his tracks, advised where to skin up (what I now know is Promenade and Skid Road) to get to the top of his run. Other people mentioned sticky snow.

Was on top at 3:20. Some drizzle and wind during climb. Wool LS base + eVent shell + light hat were OK while climbing, hood at times too. Had to add 1 mid-layer when I stopped there.

So I see the run is called Double Diamond and looks like 60 degrees. At least low avy danger. I have been trying to get back into skiing after a hiatus (since early 1990s) and a torn acl (hence the DJ brace and full-zips). But this looks doable. And it was quite alright until the top of Big Chief lift, I was enjoying it.

Then took a wrong turn right, got to where top of Big Chief has meagre coverage. Cut back to DD at the edge of some trees, slid sideways in the wet heavy snow (forgot to say I started a couple of small slushies on top of DD) and basically bad experience down lower Diamond. Mostly because my legs gave out - I couldn't just let the skis go in these conditions and my current skill level, but I guess I also didn't have the legs  to stay on them for too long ??? Ugly skiing. Argh.

Anyway, glad I was able to go out and have some fun  ;D

Bottom line: there must be better snow this weekend - somewhere!