- Posts: 629
- Thank you received: 0
Feb 20, 2016, Stevens, Slack Day
20 Feb 2016 21:54 - 20 Feb 2016 21:57 #226171
by pipedream
Feb 20, 2016, Stevens, Slack Day was created by pipedream
Despite departing N. Seattle at zero dark thirty in the morning, we still didn't get a parking spot in the summit lots and were directed to head down to Yodelin. Fortunately the driver's ladyfriend is an XC skier so she volunteered to cross-country for the day, dropping us off at the summit so we could enjoy powder hour and she could get a parking spot in the Nordic Center lot before it, too, was filled to capacity.
The sun came out early in all the wrong places, cooking the deepest new snow before noon. However, despite full parking lots, we never seemed to encounter more than a 5 min line anywhere on the mountain all day. I'm sure some of this was due to the excessive amount of hiking we did to usual places that never were an option last winter. After about an hour of lapping the rapidly thickening new snow on the backside, we headed to the front, rode right onto Skyline around 10:30 then right onto 7th Heaven, booted Cowboy Ridge and dropped-in to a choice line to an empty Tye Mill. From there we scurried up to Hollywood Bowl, hitting it before the sun completely wrecked it, then made a quick lap down the "toilet bowl" on Rooster. At this point, the hoard had headed back to the frontside for lunch, so we cruised right on to Southern Cross then ventured out for a lap down Highlands Bowl (the bowl itself was excellent, the lower 1/3rd to the nordic trail, not so much).
Met-up with our nordic friend for a very late lunch at the bottom of the backside then hopped on Jupiter and made the trek up to Tye Stick where we found only a single pair of tracks leading down the front. We hopped on Tye Mill and went back for seconds, as the snow was some of the most protected on the mountain - knee-to-waist deep without much crust underneath and no frozen debris buried beneath the new snow in the exit. Finally, we took a lap through Grace Lakes before finishing the day with some tailgate apres in the upper lot where our most excellent nordic partner had driven the car to after skiing back to it after our early afternoon rendezvous. A sunset departure had us back in the city within 2 hours, despite the best efforts of the City of Monroe's traffic lights to keep us in gridlock on hwy 2 forever.
The sun came out early in all the wrong places, cooking the deepest new snow before noon. However, despite full parking lots, we never seemed to encounter more than a 5 min line anywhere on the mountain all day. I'm sure some of this was due to the excessive amount of hiking we did to usual places that never were an option last winter. After about an hour of lapping the rapidly thickening new snow on the backside, we headed to the front, rode right onto Skyline around 10:30 then right onto 7th Heaven, booted Cowboy Ridge and dropped-in to a choice line to an empty Tye Mill. From there we scurried up to Hollywood Bowl, hitting it before the sun completely wrecked it, then made a quick lap down the "toilet bowl" on Rooster. At this point, the hoard had headed back to the frontside for lunch, so we cruised right on to Southern Cross then ventured out for a lap down Highlands Bowl (the bowl itself was excellent, the lower 1/3rd to the nordic trail, not so much).
Met-up with our nordic friend for a very late lunch at the bottom of the backside then hopped on Jupiter and made the trek up to Tye Stick where we found only a single pair of tracks leading down the front. We hopped on Tye Mill and went back for seconds, as the snow was some of the most protected on the mountain - knee-to-waist deep without much crust underneath and no frozen debris buried beneath the new snow in the exit. Finally, we took a lap through Grace Lakes before finishing the day with some tailgate apres in the upper lot where our most excellent nordic partner had driven the car to after skiing back to it after our early afternoon rendezvous. A sunset departure had us back in the city within 2 hours, despite the best efforts of the City of Monroe's traffic lights to keep us in gridlock on hwy 2 forever.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.