December 31, 2005, Stevens Pass

Evan, Dave and I arrived at the Stevens parking lot at 8am under lightly snowing conditions. The temperature was in the high 20's but snow was still draped on the trees. Showed our Whistler Edge cards and received a $7 discount which lowered the price to $45(wow).<br><br>We strolled over to Big Chief lift at 8:30 and were first in line. The lift usually opens early but not today. The patrol was still working and "butts" were loaded at 9. We happened to be on the first chair on Double Diamond and everyone was "in heat" about the 6-8" of new reported. The boot deep untracked was a bit heavy. We cycled until the easy stuff was tracked then " headed out" to some of our favorites. The snow was much deeper outside the area in the open terrain. In the treed canopy it was boot deep. A few ski cuts did not release any slopes. The major observation was the rather shallow snowpack. Having skied Stevens backcountry for years, I noticed more brush, stumps, creeks and stuff then I can remember. We need a lot more heavy snow to lay down the brush. We experienced a couple of "boot grabbing" limbs during our adventure. Dave spoke to a couple of folks that skied to Tunnel Creek on Friday and it became a 4 hour adventure in getting through all the brush and stuff down to the hairpin turn.<br><br>The temperature stayed just below freezing but it was warming. A good indicator is when you see grease drips below the lift rollers on the ground and dripping on your chair. The "drips" were visible around 10:30. The big surprise was the lack of crowds, at least on the backside. We never waited in line on the back lifts. I spent an hour cruising the fronside lifts during lunchtime and was able to zip right on the lifts. We left at 2pm.<br><br>Zap