18/19 Stevens

1/4/19
TL;DR: An almost-rain, not terribly busy day day at the pass.

Rain never turned to snow overnight, making it an up at the crack of noon type day. Sky was rain soaked groomers with a side of mashers. The layers of traverses in headwall looked geological. 7th was bumps at the top, debris strewn heavy pow off skiers right. Typical stuff. Lower rock garden had lots of the right kind of rocks with good landings.

The upper Gemini traverse to the saddle is still being put in wrong, so no one did it before I did... at 1 or 2. Couple good turns down the wind ridge there. Southpark was full of good turns by the penultimate gully.

Then jupiter broke, and SC never ran while we were there so we went to tye. More good mashers and thick snow. More of the good kind of rocks.

Pretty much good vis all day, some patchy fog at times. No real crowds. Technically snowing, but just enough to test the DWR. I need to redo it.

2.5/3.

Thanks for report. I pick ax'ed ice off a walkway, and worked on a snow blower in a cold garage...Sounds like you had a bit better of a time.

Changed subject to be seasonal.

1/7/2018: The sky lift line had transitioned into the 7th line by 9:15. Barely a slowdown to get scanned after that. 7"+ light snow, no vis issues beyond the moderate refreshing, but the backside got hammered as usual. Frontside kept nice snow through noon, when we left optimistic that legs might be useful tomorrow morning. Some areas moderately wind affected, but nothing too bad that I saw (save one small boulder drop to ice). 80% icestache coverage.

I'll knock off .1 each for there being other people and it not being neck deep. 2.8/3

Swing Shift - deeper snow today than the previous
three afternoons, but a little stiffer near the bottom of Southern Cross.
Sure is fun - not sure if Silas was there or not today.....
missed him yesterday 😞. Oh, and the burger at the Bulls Tooth
is excellent as is the chili.

1/8/19: compared to monday, it wasn't inspiring offpiste for reasons I don't really remember. Groomers were good. Quick laps to get a mild stretch and make the (short) drive worth it.

1/10/19: No crowds, sun came out, great vis, great snow in the shade. N aspects stayed light and cold while everything else warmed up to loud pow by noon. Around mid-shin to knee deep where it was good. April in Jan, minus ~40" of snowpack. 3/3 here, but cement modifiers vary.

1/18 very enjoyable pre-holiday day. few inches fresh made the frontside quite fun. good vis, light crowds. as normal, snow got thick down at the bottom of the backside. Soft enough to be stupid in lower rock garden, my kind of day. 2.8/3

1/22 i really like the days right as the storm comes in. more so when the storm is warm and wet. everything was soft and as flat as can be expected, but vis was terrible. Great turns on groomers, great tree runs, great day to poke about places you don't usually look at. soft surface, but hard underneath made for hard landings. 2.5/3, mostly vis. about .1/3 without a good shell.

1/23 No crowd. Great vis. 10" snow, 2.25" H2O. Yup, totally blower. Not quite loud pow, but thick and a bit of a crust in a few places. Another great day to have quality wet weather gear, but a bit dryer on the person than yesterday, so long as you never fell. Which.... isn't me on a soft day. 7th and backside closed due to avy, not a surprise. After a couple hours on skis we pulled out the boards, in 4k vertical my watched clocked in about 14k, which sounds about right if tomahawks count. I can almost make a turn in soft snow now.... almost. 3/3.