18/19 'Yakyard Report

Now that conditions are good and waterlogged, it's time start this year's thread...

12/26: Opening Day
Great opener! Knee-deep powder of the not-too-heavy variety blanketed the whole hill and the touron crowd didn't seem to put too much of a hurt on it. There was a bottom but you had to work exceptionally hard to find it. Aside from the sticks poking out coverage was good - no rocks or stumps were encountered even when pushing in in the trees. The snow in Hidden Valley was the lightest, offering faceshots in the right places. It dumped good, cold snow all day with a brief break around noon - I rode until 2:30 before deciding to just push bell-to-bell.

12/27:
The second day dawned cloudy but dry and the grooming was exceptionally nice. I spun a few laps with a VIP in the morning and enjoyed both the fresh 'roy on- & packed powder off-piste. I didn't stay too long as I had good word the other end of the pass was set to go wall-to-wall, but the handful of laps I did get served as a nice warm-up for the afternoon's workout in the deep end @ Alpy.

12/28:
Yesterday was good enough I decided another double-dip was in order. The snow had firmed-up a bit and the groomers were a tad chunkier as it did warm up the previous afternoon. Hidden Valley still offered good turns, but the lower reaches of the frontside were pretty beat so I headed-over to Lot4 just in time to get nuked on all afternoon while cleaning-up stashes off the HighT. It was snowing so hard at closing bell I decided to stop on the way home to do some golfing and ended-up lapping Wildside until it began raining @ 1830.

12/29:
Windy & wet but tolerable in the morning, I spun a few laps until I was feeling pretty damp and made it home just in time to beat the afternoon's deluge. Spring snow in December is nice but hopefully fleeting.

Thanks for the the post - I like the thread tittle...lordy got the Padded Seats reports, the Padded Seats recap posts and your very entertainingly named Yakyard reports (I like it)....Lordy the Pass is going off with three different main line never ending threads....Glad the season is going and hope to abuse the Pass threads with a few random day overly wordy reports. Happy New Year all! The last couple of weeks have been great and now we can at least survive with a reasonable snow pack.

12/30 - 2nd day at the Yakyard this week, 28th being the other.  Mighty fine fun had with my fam.  Kids had a blast with several untracked lines.  Got to say that the used Bent chetler Jr skis I got for my 9 yr old are the best kids skis I've ever seen for the PNW.  So much fun and he can float with the best now and spin a wicked 360.  Got heavy pretty quickly but still fresh lines to be found all morning.  Of course, snowboard was the choice of the day for dad, great day for smashing some PNW 32F powder. Lines, yeah, you'll find them at Alpy.

Picking-up my slack

12/30:
Heard rumor of a delayed opening at Alpental so I lapped Rampart until the bombs stopped after 10am. Headed-over to Alpental just in time to catch Elevator opening and had a blast

12/31:
Warmed-up the legs with a half dozen groomer laps before heading over to Alpental in the hope of catching Nash Gate. Except the dang thing didn't open all day until someone illegitimately untied the rope and moved the signage around 3pm. More or less regretted not staying on the East end of the pass but I did need to take the recycling out so I was pleasantly surprised to get a few laps in at West on the way back home since they were open 'til 5. Gorgeous weather, great views, good way to end the year.

1/1:
Happy New Year! Dragged myself out of bed to harvest the first corduroy of the new year. Seemed as if the groomer had hit the sauce before making it all the way to Hyak - lots of irregularities to keep you on your toes. Ran into some familiar faces in the morning sun and had a pretty good amount of fun. Nash Gate finally opened for real @ Alpental so I went over in the afternoon for a hat trick of exceptionally mediocre laps.

last quiet weekend at the hack then A ski cruel starts
and somes of us will be disturbing the peace over thar.

1/5:
East coast "packed powder" day. Fun groomer bombing until about 1130 when the wait in line exceeded the amount of time it took me to ski the hill so I headed back to NB to get to choring. I missed skiing those short and narrow rip sticks...reminded me of growing up on the ice coast. Lots of ACDC at hidden valley today.

1/6:
Late start due to digging out after wind storm. 84mph registered at the pass. Not sure what it was exactly in north bend, but it was rowdy. Never seen a windstorm like that before. We got a spear through the porch roof and two trees fell on the neighbors house. Chainsaws all around to clear the road.
The skiing was fun, nice few inches over the firm. Chunder busters helped later in the day when it got spread out and warm. Country music blasting at hidden valley.
Seemed like half of Seattle was touring there today. Almost ran into three separate groups both on the face and over rampart way. Blissfully trucking upwards unaware of the shitshow. I don't get it at all...

Yeah, the uphill crowd was getting after it yesterday. I only suffered a single-digit number of runs on Sat. before pulling the plug and heading into town for a friend's birthday shindig. Consequentially, I didn't enjoy Sunday morning nearly as much but after a lunchtime power nap, enjoyed the afternoon sunshine enjoy to stay out for the remainder of the day.

This morning's elbow-rubbing w/ the silver hair crowd on Silver Fir was a different story - after the most eastern of the Acres were flattened in the first hour, most folks went away and left enough stashes on Triple 60 to make it worth a longer stay.

1/8 Stopped by silver fir about 1, Lift was closed, not sure if it ever opened. I had my meadow skipper/family picnic ski set up and planed to do a little walkabout over to grand junction. The hill was empty, I had to ski down, it was awesome skiing, light gear is about ridiculous. But 4in of fluff over groomed made it doable

voly patrol at the hack in full force today
they appear eager to slay the fresh cord

holy busy parking lot freeway parking anywhere the fuck they want crowd at the pass today. lifts not busy but the jerry was in full effect. newest puget sound winter activity is park anywhere there's snow and let the games begin.

Two decent days scraping around the yakyard with friends old & new. The sun-facing terrain softened nicely on Sat. while the freezing fog frost offered good turns in the shade on Sun. Grooming was better than expected and despite thin cover in a few places, everything's still in play. Glad I have my own parking spot & warming hut, though, as the base area was an Epicâ„¢ gongshow. I'm impressed with the number of people in the bar Sat. evening that the floor didn't go.

Well if that wasn't a *solid* holiday weekend, I don't know what is...

Back-to-back Juneuary days had me on the hunt for the sunblock and shades. Sat. was soft from bell-to-bell, Sun. not so much (although if you went to church like a good parishioner, the surface conditions would've been fine by the time you arrived). The "off-piste" left much to be desired, but at least it held an edge well enough to allow one to seek relief in the trees. The parking lots were full both days but the only notable lines occurred in Hidden Valley and the only zone that never fully softened was Serpentine. A few more days under (high) pressure, followed by mixed-bag that should shape up just in time for next weekend, when last chair moves to 4pm for the rest of the season

Giant line, read biggest ever At 'Yak, that I could have skinned the face twice in the time it took to get on the first lift. By the looks of Hyak front side I wouldn't have been the first to skin it prior to opening either.

Super heavy powder that was really deep, measured armpits on my 9yr old when he ejected on 1st run. Fun morning then got packed wet snow grabby stuff. Lines OK after 1st one.

Off-piste was less friendly today having been stampeded over yesterday before last night's borderline rain event & warming. Groomers, however, were amazing. Even at the end of the day it wasn't possible to find a spot of true ice - just some places a little firmer and more slippery than others. Warmed up considerably this afternoon, but tomorrow should be more of the same.

Turned deeper than it looked this morning. But nothing to see out East after noon, move along please

super sleeper cc day at the yak with kind snow and friends

Full sun and short lines made cleaning up leftovers at TAY's training facility quite tolerable. Missed last chair by seconds but enjoyed the band as I'd planned to anyway. Security had an issue with me opening my pocket beverage outside for the walk home and yanked it out of my hand to add it to the base. Guess I'll walk a little further uphill next time...

A revival day at the yak today for the Flowings & ACH
we skied pretty nice and ate fairly well saw funny stuff

Good weather & spring conditions in the yakyard this weekend. Face was soft by 10a and everything else followed shortly but the ungroomed terrain remained difficult until the afternoon where shaded aspects were surprisingly decent but the sun baked slop was heavy.

Two more weekends...

The face was pretty nice even late in the day, as was Sissy's->Chikamin. Even Alpine over at Central was quite OK all the way at the end of the day today.

The cov'rage out East is far superior to that of Silver Fir.
Head-on over, the crossovers are fine!
Second-to-last Sunday coming up...

Last Saturday of the lift-served season and it's clear most folks have focused elsewhere. Nonetheless there was soft corn from practically bell-to-bell and mostly just locals harvesting it. Clouds materialzed in the late afternoon to prevent a full-fledged mank session, but most aspects got sticky at some point (w/ the rare exception of the old Dino chairline which remained firm until.last chair).

Last call for lifts tomorrow, hope to see you there!

Sunday
I took the Dream Man's suggestion and went to Hyak instead of making the long slog to Crystal. I got there at nine and it was a bit firm here and there. After a trip over to Silver Fir and Triple 60 it softened up nicely. The treed runs on the front side of Hyak were about as good as it gets for spring snow bumps, with nobody skiing them. The bumps under the new chair were also mighty fine. It was a great day in the sunshine.

Made it on the hill in time to catch first call in the beer garden. Somehow didn't fall victim to the $4 tallboys of Dayglow IPA and made it all day until last chair, too. Great day of sliding around in the spring slop - my favorite line held good corn all day and coverage elsewhere held up remarkably well. Creeks aren't raging too much, don't give up hope on spring touring just yet!

They're starting to take things down for the season and have left the slopes to the dogs (and their owners) who were having lots of fun in pretty sweet corn on both sides today. Not too many people out but I ran into first Manfred and then Eric which was fun and festive.