Pacific NW/AK/BC 2017-18 PNW Weather, Conditions, and Stoke

[noncrazycanuck]

Jan 1 Mt Seymour
Snow was awesome according to my 3 year old granddaughter
first day on skis for both her and her 2 year old sister
light lines on the magic carpet, sunny day with a temp inversion. we all had fun,
Very nice start to 2018.

 

[Christy]

Things were a little firm first thing at Crystal today. Some runs softened nicely in the morning, others were just pretty scoured (maybe they softened later in the day). Everyone woke up late today of course. At 8:55 we parked toward the front of C lot. By the time we left B and C appeared to have filled.

Nice day out.

 

[Tom Co.]

Crystal after the holidays, Tue 1/2

It was a - comes up a comes up a bit short - kind of day. Visibility: Pretty thick high overcast early which made contrast just a bit off. It got a bit better, then it got worse, then you got fairly decent in the afternoon. Off Piste areas: They were a bit challenging. Green Valley Gondi Face was a bit crunchy and rutted, with big bumps towards the bottom. West face was more of the same. Short West Face was a bit better. Right side of MIFB, off of the groomed, was pretty much unskiable. Snorting Elk Bowl was too much work, however there was a nice groomed streak, right down the middle that you could bail on. I took the chance and went out to Hamburger, the traverse sucked, but not real bad sucked. Hamburger itself was kind of crunchy and lumpy. Definitely not worth repeat. Powder Bowl, skiers left, the chute access, around the backside, was rocky, the first 50 feet of the chute was rocky, the rest of it was full of bigrut moguls. Once you got out of the chute, the snow was pretty good, and if you picked your spot. It wasn't too bad. Powder bowl, skiers right, wasn't too bad either. Once you got past the ridge crap, it skied okay, but the light was pretty flat in there. Groomers: LS and MIFB we're good early, a bit icy after the first rush, then better when you could pick non-scraped off, piled up stuff to turn in. There were a few areas that were groomed down to brown streaks. Some of the mid mountain slopes softened just a bit toward afternoon.
The three big things you need to a fun day are good snow, good visibility, and lack of crowds. Today got one point for lack of crowds, one half point for visibility, and one half point for snow quality. So it was a two out of three day.

 

[dbostedo]

^^^^

 

[Bad Bob]

Another beastly holiday crowd at 49* North. Why do I keep putting myself through this? Had to wait with 5 people in a chair line once, might have to find a less crowded mountain. DON'T GO HERE!

 

[Posaune]

Baker today.
Few people, quite warm, but decent snow. Visibility was 80%, just a bit of clouds to make it a little less than perfect. The snow was very spring-like but I was surprised that the New Year weekend crowds had not formed huge bumps in several places that usually have them. The sun affected snow was sticky in the PM but there were plenty of places without any sun, so it was something you could avoid. There was almost nobody there and there was absolutely nobody on the Heather Meadows side of Pan Dome, which had some great skiing.

 

[fullStack]

Dug this up from Saturday's rain crust fiesta at Crystal, daughter #1 and I found some decent turns up on Chair 6. Stoked that the current ridge looks to be retreating already, and we should get a little refresher before the weekend.

 

[noncrazycanuck]

looks nice. Have to ski there some day.
Whistlers off piste is fully open but you still need to be careful in spots. I would rate the season as c- so far.
While the base is close to end of December normal, it has been a pattern of nice dumps followed by temp inversions since early December.
A few crusty layers have developed.
on the positive side Feb/March is when most of the snow will fall anyway.

 

[Tom Co.]

Stevens - Thur 1/4

Debostedo. My relationship with Stevens Pass is - I want you, I need you, but I ain't never gonna love you
Can you see Paradise by the dashboard light?

Stevens is in better shape than Crystal. Fewer rocks, better quality snow, and lots of good groomers. They groomed a lot of places that they only groom with a deeper snow pack. A good example is the runs on the lower part of Jupiter chair. It is much better then my last trip. The off piste areas on the backside were pretty frozen, basically unskiable. 0ff piste, on the front side, in the shaded areas, is still pretty good. I didn't try Seventh Heaven because I was skiing with a couple of friends who were mostly into bombing groomers. The groomers we're in pretty good shape. Only a few icy places and some pretty good chalky snow. Visibility was pretty good with high overcast. There was some flat light here and there but not bad. We did hit a little freezing rain about 2 o'clock, just when we were quitting. No lift lines, decent drive up.
Point score - crowds gets a one, visibility gets a .75, Snow quality gets a .75. So it was a two and a half out of three day.

 

[Mister Mann]

Should Crystal be on my shortlist for a 2-day stop on my way back to NY from LA Jan.27th? Conditions seem so variable around the US this year.

 

[David Chaus]

Yes.

 

[Jack skis]

The wife and I spent last 28 years living and skiing first at Big Sky, and then for 17 years at Crested Butte. A tragic change has left me back in Washington for the winter. To make things worse, my right leg is having a problem and I don't know if I'll be on my skis at all this winter. Decided today to drive up to Mt Baker just to see if I could. Drive went well, only got lost once, and the rain wasn't too bad. Once in the parking lot, I was reminded again of the difference between Big Sky, Crested Butte, and Mt. Baker. People were out there skiing in hard rain! Went in to buy some lunch and the place was well populated by happy looking skiers. Didn't hear a single complaint. From what I could see outside (there was some cloud on the ground) others were still skiing,loading the lift, and accepting the fact that they were seriously wet. Gotta hand it to them, PNW skiers are a tough bunch, and will evidently ski what there is, no matter the conditions. I admire them no end. Think I'll get my boots and one pair of skis sent from CB and go join them at Mt Baker. If only the leg works.

 

[Posaune]

Jack skis,

Welcome to the Cascades. Skiing in the rain has its good points; the snow is actually fun. If you can get a day where it's only sprinkling, old man Gore takes care of things nicely. Alternately you'll also find many days when the new snow is deep and the skiing amazing. You don't come by snowfall records by not having powder days. Check the weather forecast for the next week and you'l find things looking up.

 

[Mister Mann]

Yes.

Done. Pulled the trigger. Will be at Crystal Sunday 1/28 through Tuesday 1/30.

 

[DanoT]

With some fresh snow last week, conditions at Sun Peaks are close to normal. Mid week was clear blue skies but still plenty of skiers due to B.C. schools still on holiday.

Temps got really mild today and are above freezing at 10pm where I am, down the valley and 1000ft below the mountain. The temp inversion is gone so it is still below freezing on the mountain with a few cms of fresh snow. All runs are open and have been for a while expect for a couple of glades that remain closed but have tracks in them.

 

[Tom Co.]

Stevens Pass - Tue 1/9

It was a real typical day for this season. A rain crust with 2 the 5 inches of new overtop of it. The new helped a lot on the groomers but it was not enough to do much for off piste. If you read my last report from Stevens I could pretty much copy paste that. It snowed most of the time. The temperature was just at freezing so it was a Gore-Tex day. The visibility was a little worse than last time. The backside was a bit sticky at the bottom. The best snow was on Tye. Sky was pretty much socked in at the top. Roads were good and the Sultan Bakery was good. .5 for visibility. .75 for snow, 1 for crowds. 2 1/4 out of three day.

 

[noncrazycanuck]

Wed 1/10 Whistler
part sunny, good vis, Snow was ok, (even some boot high fresh was still available in the right spots) but on main runs the backsides of bumps are scrapped off and some ice has developed in the usual high traffic areas and ski outs. Had one 10 chair wait at 7th Heaven otherwise it was straight on both hills all day.
At end of day the clouds were moving in. Promising for what's expected over night.
Decent day but not an exceptional one .

 

[noncrazycanuck]

Thur 1/11 Whistler
like most of the season the snow did not arrive as expected. Just a dusting . A little bit south Cypress got 30cm..
an ok day but not a great day.

 

[Posaune]

Stevens Pass:
Wednesday, 1/10. The report said 10" of new, but the reality was that there were high winds which made heavy, wind packed drifts. If you ran into one of these at speed it would stop you dead, almost like you'd hit a tree. If you could keep away from these areas, the snow was OK but heavy and wind packed so that it was a bit slow and grabby. It got better as the day advanced and the stuff got cut up a bit and loosened. The back side was really nice.

Thrusday, 1/11. The report said 4" at 5 am but by opening at 9 it was more like 10" of new and building fast, no wind. It was a fantastic powder day. It was snowing very hard and visibility was very bad so I kept to the lower slopes of the front side (Hogsback, Tye-Mill, Big Chief) to stay near trees. Most people were heading to the back side; much of the time I rode Tye and the chair was pretty full, but the slopes were empty so those folks were going over to the other side. I didn't go over there, but it must have been crowded, along with the poor visibility. Where I was, there were enough trees to make the white-out conditions a non-issue. So while there were a lot of people at the ski area I was skiing in places that had nobody on them. One hour after opening I skied far to skiers' right on Big Chief and found myself in completely uncut territory, not a track to be found. This was kind of spooky since I was by myself and I had to blaze the trail through the woods back to the main run. If I had racked myself on a tree it might be hours or longer until someone came along, but luckily no such event took place. Overall it was a really great day and I wished my legs could last longer.

 

[Tom Co.]

Crystal- Fri 1/12
16 inches new on top, after it was closed yesterday. Every Powder Pig in Western WA was there.
it was a real cluster . We like to get there just a little past opening so we don't have to wait in line for the first chair. Man this morning was something else. The Gondy line was at least a half an hour and the line for Chinnock stretched up the hill. We opted for Discovery to Quicksilver [ beginner lifts ] to Forest Queen. There was no line on FQ, so we skied Rolling Knowles down to REX. Big line, so back up to Forest Queen. Still no line, so we thought we just lap FQ until Six opened. It open at 10 o'clock and the line there was about the biggest I've ever seen in my life. We bailed. Back to Rex, that line has now gone down to reasonable, then to Green Valley where the snow was thick and skied up but still kind of fun. The GV line was huge. Down Mid Ferks right which wasn't bad, but not especially good either. Then to Sunnyside where the top was okay, the bottom was getting pretty thick and gloppy. We did Powder bowl after an early lunch. It was skied up, but the snow quality was a bit better and the visibility was okay. After 12 o'clock Lines weren't an issue anywhere. Snow coverage was really good. I skied on my new sticks and did not hit anything.

Rating: prorated for this year we've been having, 0 for crowds, 1 for snow, tired 1 for visibility.......Two out of three again