17/18 Hyak Report

Because we needed another seasonal thread and I've relocated to the hillside of Summit East...

12/26/17: Opening Day
Zipper freezing rain crust on top of thigh-deep, rightside-up snow made for a typical opening day at East. Walked-in to Rampart and caught first chair with two others - it was very nice to see the coverage beneath the chair before sending down it. Whole neighborhood was out and many fun laps were had. Afternoon offered packed powder of considerably high quality for being below 3000'. Was still finding powder pockets after last chair @ 3.

12/27/17: Round Two
The packed powder settled overnight but was still enjoyable in the morning. I headed over to the other end of the pass in the afternoon to get some back bowl laps in before the next storm closed the gates.

12/28/17: Reverse Pow Day
Snowed all day and the easterly flow kept temps in the upper 20s. Turns became increasingly better as the day wore on and I, once again, was making quality powder turns after last chair @ 3.

12/29/17: RAIN DELAY
Summit East was closed after receiving multiple inches of rain overnight and all day. The rain turned to snow in the late afternoon.

12/30/17: True Hyak Sat
No crowds, heavy snow, & nuking wet flakes all day. Showed a friend around who'd never ridden East before and had a lot of fun pushing the heavy stuff around. Upper 1/3rd was very crusty, middle 1/3rd fortunately breakable, bottom 1/3rd slurpee consistency. Damp but fun.

12/31/17: Ice Age
Yesterday's wet snow set-up overnight as the skies cleared and temps plummeted. Sure the sun came out and the visibility was great, but it was a groomer-only kind of day. A big turnout left most of the groomed runs icy by midday. Family came by for lunch on their way back over the pass so I hung-up the boots mid-day and watched the last Hawks game.

1/1/18: Happy New Year!
Stayed-out way too late and didn't make it on the hill until 11. Met-up with some friends on a similar schedule and had a lazy, line-free day of lapping the tilled groomers and dabbling in the icy bumps a bit for variety. Top few hundred feet starting to facet, but not great conditions. Hidden Valley was in the sun all day and offered softer snow than the frontside.

be sure and invite ddk to edit.

Soup is whatever's on hand in my kitchen. Yesterday it was a hearty Campbell's Chunky clam chowdah

Come say high sometime...

Lordy....Chunky Clam Chowdah! Sounds pretty good....might get met up way north soon....☺

A smattering of thick dust on you don't wanna know what dictated remaining on the groomed terrain today. Hill was empty - I saw more folks out on Nordic skis, snowshoes and touring equipment than riding the chairs today. Serpentine and the ski-out to the neighborhood have been groomed, so that's nice. Rampart chair was delayed in opening this morning and closed 5 min early. Fortunately the fine folk spinning East Peak know what last chair @ 3 means...

Soup was a PB&J sammie on toasted whole wheat with a serving of rye whiskey to wash it down. Parking was easy, no berm to contend with and the warm up helped with chipping the ice away this evening. Mixed snow & rain fell most of the day, but never more than a light shower, intermittently.

Without appreciable new snow, today started mediocre and never improved, really. At least the rain held off until this evening...

Soup was a microwave burrito that didnt heat evenly. Parking was parking, I haven't driven since Fri. Groomers were chunky. East cost skills paid dividends. See you next weekend!

Better late than never, eh?

Waited out this morning's rain and didn't make it onto East Peak until half-past 10. No worries though as only a few folk were around to tough out the knee-deep glue. The sun came out around 11, the mist dissipated and the afternoon was quite wonderful until the fog rolled-in after 3.

Springlike conditions, ride-on/ride-off all day and ample coverage made things okay. I suspect tomorrow will start firm but be fun anywhere by midday.

No soup as when the sun's out there's no time to waste!

More sun, more people, worse snow.

Started earlier than yesterday (~930), sun was out and some slopes had already softened. Those were NOT on the Rampart side of things. As the day progressed more and more zones unlocked but others only slightly. Aspect selection was key, the east wind was ripping and the lines were made tolerable with a nip or two of whiskey.

All in all, a more than mediocre day..Soup was the brown sludge I triged thru in the lower parking lot to get a brat from.the snosk8 contingency

Better than expected but still thoroughly mediocre. Thankful for the coverage we have, hopeful about the coming week.

Rode all day. Hidden Valley was soft from the start, most everything else softened by 3. Plentiful sunshine, a nice, cooling east breeze and no lines made for a nice start to a short week. As nice as Juneuary's been, I can't wait for a return to normalcy.

The soup was s lie, but that's what you get for relying on a Volly...

The backyard greatly exceeded expectations this morning. The 6" new at the bottom was twice that at the top and those first turns down Hyak Face yielded consistent face shots. There was a firm layer lurking beneath but it was only really noticeable on steep, lower mtn faces. The temp spiked in the afternoon, but the precip remained white all day. As mentioned elsewhere, things did get heavy and packed firm by closing time.

And the cross over is still closed, keeping the silver fir riders, on silver fir

Rampart would be happy if an inanimate object could have emotions.

Giggly kids of the non ski school who really want ski bikes

Rampart would be happy if an inanimate object could have emotions.

I hear it moves on the weekends.

let's hope it doesn't tumble again

Cluster of a morning rush coupled with a major delay didn't have East Peak loading until 9:50. Didn't matter because it thinned-out by the time Rampart opened @ 10:30. Hidden Valley didn't crack til 1:30, by which time the snow had turned to garbage thanks to some late morning warming. New terrain park thingy in place on Creek Run past Serpentine, angering many a skiing family. Thoroughly mediocre for the insane amount of shoveling the employees were doing and currently raining lightly.

Rain turned to mist by 10, groomers were soft and fast, off them was only passable if it had been skied hard yesterday. Ghost town, foggy on the upper mtn everywhere but Serpentine. Caved and did the online park pass class during lunch so I could sample the all-snow park. They've built an excellent jump line and QP along Creek Run as well as a fun set of rollers and banked turns on Cut-Off. Only bummer is now there are tons of families clogging up Serpentine. I guess a fix is on the way for that, as well as for Nordic folks skiing down to the base and tourers skinning up. Almost hit a splitboarder who was coming up Serpentine ??? Soup was egg drop ramen, boiled heavily with sriracha

Until they get whatever that "fix" is in place I'm thinking that if I hit the Nordic trails I'll ride up Silver Fir and head down via White Rabbit and then get onto the cat track just below where that hits Outback...

Serpentine is marked as a touring trail, there is a picture of a skinny guy in tights at the entrance.
A challenging run in xc skate gear I'm sure, not so much in lift service gear. My daughter likes the banked turns, she's a 6th grader, Mom thinks its fun too!

When you're on the Nordic-only trails, it's suggested as an "easiest way down." If you have a decent snowplow turn, it's not too bad in most conditions assuming you have its full width and it's not too densely filled with downhillers screaming by. I've found it a bit easier than for instance getting onto the Central->East crossover from the White Rabbit XC trail, or taking the White Rabbit ->Outback route I mention above.

Yesterday was surpringly fun in the morning. Foggy at the top but the sun was almost poking through at the bottom of both East Peak & Hidden Valley. While thankful for the grooming (it would've been unskiable goop without it), it was uneven everywhere except for Hyak Face, which rode the best it has all year. No crowds, no parking issues, just fun lapping in the mist until the rain started in the mid-afternoon (by when I was over at Alpental lapping with FA & his merry gang of BBI misfits).

Today's report forthcoming...

Today's report forthcoming...

Wet...

Still, did a dozen laps and logged 10k+ vert. You can't spell training w/o raining, or so I'm told...

Chilly. Firm. Fast.

No real chalk to speak of like there is across the highway beneath chair 2. No lines and relatively empty slopes. Park has been relocated to Kendall and is still all snow features. Serpentine rode well despite a ribbon of ice down the middle.. Off-piste varies from dust on a crust to just crust.

Snow returns Fri. Cold & dry until then

Sure was a lot different from Monday. Knee-deep, light and continually-improving conditions made the day fly by. Was kinda surprised when Hidden Valley closed and I realized it was quarter til 4... Went bell to bell with an ill-advised foray over to Silver Fir for some power line lappies at what I thought was lunchtime. Ready to do it all over again in the morning ;D

Best day of the season so far. Knee deep and of perfect density. Snow didn't start falling until after most of the grooming was done last night so there were lots of spots to enjoy the new snow with minimal bumps underneath. Storm raged into the afternoon, at one point I kept repeating the same line thru the trees in Hidden Valley and each time it was as if nobody had been there today. ****/****

Dreamy on Sunday. There was literally no bad snow anywhere. First day on 22designs Axl: once I got them adjusted, they were pretty dreamy too. Maximum line 8 minutes at Silver Fir after lunch and never a line in Hidden Valley, so no complaints.

The past two days have been better than expected.

Not stoked about next week's forecast but there's still time for it to change

Sun-kissed slopes schussed great,
While the surface remained loud n proud in the shade.
Light but cool east breeze moderated the solar radiation,
Oh how I wish East was open on Mondays...

Snowsk8ing is hard but fortunately the ground wasn't,
This virgin has popped his cherry but I don't forsee too many mkre Serp laps to come
One more weekend, hope to see you there...

thank you for being one of the 7 that post here.