Jan. 6, 2015 - Summit West, Wildside Wednesday

Left town in time to make it onto I-90 by 3 and arrived in the lot on the Little Thunder side 15 minutes before opening bell. The chairs sat silent, the lights were off and it appeared as if nobody was home. A quick check of the snow report confirmed that West was to open at 4pm today so I donned my gear and schlepped over to Wildside to investigate. At 4:01pm the second person arrived, someone just like me who'd shown-up in time for first chair only to be confused with what was going on. At 4:05 a ski patroller emerged from the fog, started up the chair and loaded himself. 10 minutes later the lift operators arrived and began working on the ramp and setting up the maze. Finally, at 4:31pm, Wildside loaded to a crowd of approx. 10 customers. An embarrassing delay, even with the ongoing staffing shortage at The Summit this season.

Nonetheless, the snow and the turns were good, just enough new on top to turn Sunday's moguls into fresh pillows. It did get considerably thicker near the bottom, but it was, by all means, great snow for a night at Snoqualmie. The visibility was difficult with Webb's Cloud hanging around all evening, making it hard to ride in dimly lit areas and impossible to venture into the dark trees and Beaver Lake area. After 10-12 laps in 2 hours, Wildside was chopped up so I moseyed over towards Pacific Crest to check-out the other side of the hill. Skier's right of Dodge Ridge was a wide swath of lightly touched, boot-top-deep snow, but the fog and darkness combined to make for difficult riding, esp. in a relatively flat area with lots of dips and holes. Went far skier's left into 360 Bowl were I was surprised to discover no tracks, not even down the old poma line. Yeehaw! Lapped that zone with a few others I happened to bump into until it was as cut up as Wildside then called it a night at 9:30. Made it to North Bend just in time to swing through the Taco Time drive-thru and stuff my face with tex-mex goodness and tater tots. Back in the city by 11 under clear skies to boot.

That 31min delay was awesome given I had to drop my kids at central night lessons so made the crossover at 4:35. I was therefore 1/2 lap behindy which is perfectly OK. I hung riders left by the lights after a fresh lap not seeing a thing just so I had some idea where I was going. Pretty good snow for such warm temps and managed 13 laps before heading back to central at 6:30. First wildside Wed in 3 years for me, that's WAAAY to long a hiatus.