April 8, 2005, Stevens Pass

Well, I wouldn't normally post a report on this sort of trip, but this day was unexpectedly spectacular. . .<br><br>After slowly recovering from severe hay fever allergies the past few weeks, I really needed to get out and ski. I hadn't skied at all since winter's belated return in mid-March. Most of all, I needed to get some serious mileage on my new lightweight Volkl/Dynafit/Mega-Ride AT setup, to develop some trust and confidence in case I'm soon depending on them in a sketchy high-mountain situation. Time to hit the lifts and rack up the vertical. The forecast for Friday was gloomy, mostly cloudy, but better north than south. Even worse, Thursday's front had fizzled, NWAC telemetry at most sites showed only 1-2" of snow following moderate rain to 5000+ ft, with only Baker and Paradise getting the forecasted 5-6". So my expectations were very low. Based on the forecast, I decided on Stevens instead of Crystal. Stevens planned to reopen for Friday plus the weekend, and the price was right there too ($30 minus 25% Whistler Edge Card discount = $22.50).<br><br>Shockingly, Friday dawned clear and beautiful, and my spirits lifted. An easy drive brought me to Stevens just before the lifts opened at 9am, with the sun shining brilliantly and almost no one there. Conditions were dust on corduroy, 0-1" of powder on a solidly frozen groomed base following Thursday's rain and a hard freeze overnight. A few quick runs revealed that the Volkl-Dynafit combo does have the stiffness and torsional rigidity to carve 40mph GS turns on solid hardpack, not bad at all for an ultralight rig. But then someone on the lift mentioned how great the snow on 7th Heaven was. I didn't believe him, but I had to check--and found POWDER! 4-6" of medium-density powder up there atop a firm but uneven base. Wow, an unexpected bonus even though it was starting to get tracked out. After several quick laps, by 11am the bright sun was thickening the powder, and steeper groomed east-facing slopes down below had genuine corn on them. The afternoon was mostly spent yo-yoing the cruisers, beautiful sun-warmed packed powder which got spring-like by day's end but never slushy. Coverage is excellent on the groomed runs, variable off them. I thought the skis worked well throughout the broad spectrum of available snow conditions.<br><br>Anyway, it was my first time riding the lifts at Stevens since 2001, and it was surprisingly great, despite the ski area being barely 50% open and the previous day's rain/freeze. What a day, 57K vertical of excellent turns with no rocks struck, at a cost of only 50 cents per run. And a winning view too (see below). Everyone I spoke with on the lifts agreed that it was an unexpectedly fantastic day.<br><br>Summary of possibly useful info for planning backcountry trips to the North Cascades this weekend (before the next storm):<br>Surface conditions off the groomed:<br> 4000-5000 ft: dust on crust, 0-2" highly variable snow on firm rain crust from Thursday night<br> 5000-6000 ft: 2-6" medium-density powder atop firm crust, deepest on protected lee aspects (NE and east)<br>Weather: Very sunny all morning and midday Friday, with clouds building during the afternoon. So east and south aspects are likely to have a solid sun crust by Saturday, less on west aspects.<br><br><br><br>The south side of Glacier Peak fills the horizon from Cowboy Mtn (well, maybe a strong telephoto lens helps). <br> Click here for an enlarged version of this photo.<br><br>

I was up there this weekend and the now was actually pretty good considering the lack of new snow. Being a Stevens Pass employee i have been up there alot this year and these past two weekends have been unsuspected. The coverage up there has never been great this year but these last two weekends have had some of the best coverage of the year. i just saw there is <br>winter storm watch up for the cascades so next weekends closing weekend should be a good one. <br><br><br>Sean