November 20, 2004, Steven's Pass (Closed)
11/20/04
WA Stevens Pass
2240
1
Stephanie and I decided to opt for a shorter drive and see what we could find at Steven's after that good cold front this week.
I'd say it is still going to be a couple more weeks before Steven's opens, but they still seemed able to fill a parking lot with skiiers and sledders. It was a beautiful, crisp clear day with not a breath of wind.
We skinned up from the lodge to the Tye Mill lift and then up Skid Road(I think) to the ridge. There was a pretty good, iced, skin track the whole way and it looked like some boarders got some great turns yesterday. There was probably 8 inches of soft new on top of a crust.
On the ridge, we got into the sun and it felt great. So we did some turns down Gemini, stopping under the power lines. The <><> bowls on the backside have alot of rocks and bushes sticking out. The snow on the backside had gotten some good sun and was a little hard to turn in with my old and straight Ramers in sun worked, wind deposited snow. We weren't getting the best turns, so we skinned back to the top and down the colder Skid Road. We got some good turns in there. We weren't alone. Followed by some nice smooth turns on the lower section of the mountain. Did an interesting jump across the PCT at one point.
You can ski to the car, plenty of snow for that. Just look out for ditches and streams and the occassional rock.
Stayed off the steeper runs, they don't have enough cover yet.
Overall, a great day to be outside,loved the blue skies,great views, and no wind. But I think for the next week or two, I'm gonna either go higher like to Paradise or up to Baker.
Big Chief bowl might have been good, but most of the steep stuff looked thin. SkyLine looked good as well, and hooting and hollering could be heard from that direction, probably the terrain park.
Edit: By the criteria we have been using, this qualifies as a "backcountry" trip (area was closed), so I have moved it to Nov. 2004 TR board.
Charles
I'd say it is still going to be a couple more weeks before Steven's opens, but they still seemed able to fill a parking lot with skiiers and sledders. It was a beautiful, crisp clear day with not a breath of wind.
We skinned up from the lodge to the Tye Mill lift and then up Skid Road(I think) to the ridge. There was a pretty good, iced, skin track the whole way and it looked like some boarders got some great turns yesterday. There was probably 8 inches of soft new on top of a crust.
On the ridge, we got into the sun and it felt great. So we did some turns down Gemini, stopping under the power lines. The <><> bowls on the backside have alot of rocks and bushes sticking out. The snow on the backside had gotten some good sun and was a little hard to turn in with my old and straight Ramers in sun worked, wind deposited snow. We weren't getting the best turns, so we skinned back to the top and down the colder Skid Road. We got some good turns in there. We weren't alone. Followed by some nice smooth turns on the lower section of the mountain. Did an interesting jump across the PCT at one point.
You can ski to the car, plenty of snow for that. Just look out for ditches and streams and the occassional rock.
Stayed off the steeper runs, they don't have enough cover yet.
Overall, a great day to be outside,loved the blue skies,great views, and no wind. But I think for the next week or two, I'm gonna either go higher like to Paradise or up to Baker.
Big Chief bowl might have been good, but most of the steep stuff looked thin. SkyLine looked good as well, and hooting and hollering could be heard from that direction, probably the terrain park.
Edit: By the criteria we have been using, this qualifies as a "backcountry" trip (area was closed), so I have moved it to Nov. 2004 TR board.
Charles
We were at Stevens today, still not open and for good reason. Arrived at about 9:30 AM and saw Alpental bros Chris and Eric in the lot with the same idea as us; unfortunately it had rained the night of the 22nd up to around 5,000ft leaving mushy fresh at the bottom and rain crust at top. Our plans to skin up Tye Mill and ski Double Diamond/Big Chief were abandoned when we saw this:
. . . so we continued up the ridge to the top of the Southern Cross chair. What looked to be sufficient coverage for turns turned out to be funky to skier's left of the chair and fair to skier's right.
Several good sized rocks were uncovered on the way back down the ridge and frontside, where some snowboarders had busied themselves with kickers adjacent to the lodge. Back at the car at 12:30, time to go home and take a nap! 2,000 vert skied, 45 minutes to repair base and edges . . .
. . . so we continued up the ridge to the top of the Southern Cross chair. What looked to be sufficient coverage for turns turned out to be funky to skier's left of the chair and fair to skier's right.
Several good sized rocks were uncovered on the way back down the ridge and frontside, where some snowboarders had busied themselves with kickers adjacent to the lodge. Back at the car at 12:30, time to go home and take a nap! 2,000 vert skied, 45 minutes to repair base and edges . . .
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