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

[Posaune]

"I just want to note that "snowboarders" doesn't necessarily mean "young folks"."

This is true. However the surmise is correct. They both seemed to be in their late teens or early 20s.

 

[slowrider]

I was reaching with "the young folks" but by no means think Snowboarding is restricted to youth. Heard 3 different patrons falling off chairlifts yesterday in Oregon. Stay safe out there.

 

[noncrazycanuck]

Pousane I am very glad to hear that turned out well. That snow was seriously deep Saturday.
When they dropped the canyon ropes I have never seen so many burrowed in or stuck on a single run, it was a bit chaotic.
And sorry about the crowd by Saturday we were up to 19 as more from out of town arrived.
Haven skied with some of those guys in years and was the first time we've gotten a group that size together in decades.
We all enjoyed your company.
Hope to do it more often.

 

[fullStack]

Crystal was a bit crowded at times over the weekend but was still a lot of fun.
Northway is starting to fill in and the forecast is looking good. Here is a shot from Saturday on Spook Hill, looking across to Brand X cliffs:

 

[Daves not here]

Schweitzer is getting dumped on. 12" overnight and 8-10" forecasted for today. Has not stopped snowing since last night.

 

[Daves not here]

Schweitzer is getting dumped on. 12" overnight and 8-10" forecasted for today. Has not stopped snowing since last night.

Schweitzer is getting dumped on. 12" overnight and 8-10" forecasted for today. Has not stopped snowing since last night.

Update: 12 Tuesday night, 8 on Wednesday and 7 last night.

Mid week pow!

 

[Christy]

I was thinking of skipping out of work this afternoon to do a half day at Snoqualmie, but found this on the website:

Unfortunately, according to the local utility district we are looking at a prolonged outage of water supply for both The Summit/Alpental as well as the entire Snoqualmie Pass area. Snoqualmie Pass Utility District crews are working through the night and into tomorrow to resolve the problem as soon as possible. With the water situation currently unresolved and affecting our ability to operate the ski area,

The Summit's operations will remain closed for Thursday, January 25 2018. As much as we would love to resume normal scheduled operations for Thursday, it isn't possible given this situation. We apologize to all our guests for this unfortunate and temporary inconvenience. We do appreciate everyone's patience as we await more information and updates regarding the water situation and we all look forward to getting up and running again as soon as possible.

 

[noncrazycanuck]

today Whistler was almost perfect. (clouds started to roll in around lunch time)
thigh deep silk (in places). Best snow of year for me.
Didn't get to top until almost 20 to 9 but was the initial powder frenzy.
Once the bombs stopped and every thing opened the lines dispersed and was ski on before noon on the chairs I took .
A great day and more in forecast. Kicking myself i can't do it again tomorrow

 

[Posaune]

Spent the last three days at Stevens Pass. It was powder every day. Today it was breaking at about waist level. Some of the best skiing I've had in quite a while!

 

[Daves not here]

Just woke up at our condo at Schweitzer to another 7 inches on top of the 4 from yesterday. Expecting another 9 today. They got about 6 ft in the last week and suppose to snow all weekend!

No friends on a POW day!

 

[David Chaus]

Every one of my students today, with one exception, got stuck in deep snow today and/or fell and needed help getting up. 5” overnight and 21” in the last 48 hours. It has been windy so there were snow drifts everywhere.

There were a TON of people in the lifts lines this morning; strangely enough the crowds seemed to disappear after a few hours. I don’t suppose it has anything to do with powder hounds seeking powder and leaving when everything is cut up? Couldn’t be!

 

[John O]

Crystal today was a lot of fun. Crowded (they ran out of parking which doesn't happen often), and the new snow was dense and wind affected, but coverage has increased a lot since a week ago. The new snow while dense, wasn't wet, so it got skied out into soft crud which was a lot of fun. Everyone appeared to go in for lunch which made for a couple hours of empty lift lines and great skiing. Fun day overall. I heard it was way better on Thursday but I couldn't be there so I'm going to pretend that didn't happen.

 

[Posaune]

Mt. Baker closed today in anticipation of the Great Flood. Right now it's 30* and overcast with 4" of new, but at around 10:00am it's supposed to warm up and the heavens will open and we'll have about 36 hours of deluge. They're expecting anywhere from 2" to 4" of RAIN, then snow, snow, snow through the week. Time to get things done around the house.

 

[noncrazycanuck]

Baker closed on a weekend ? that's rare.
just a little further north the forecast isn't quite so dire
Whistler's freezing level is high for next few days and while it certainly will be rain in the village still snow mid mountain up.
but expect slow alpine openings

 

[David Chaus]

Stevens is open today, but the DOT was planning to close HWY 2 somewhere between 7am and 10am for avalanche control, so my ski school announced last night they were going to close for today and do a make up day. Stevens is reporting light rain right now, so I think the main thrust of the atmospheric river is headed to Baker and the general Vancouver area.

It is forecast to rain at the pass through tomorrow, then back to snow Monday evening around 10pm.

 

[Mister Mann]

Yesterday (Sunday) was decent at Crystal. Heavy, moguled up snow and crust. Sun came out a bit in afternoon. I missed the morning since I flew in from LA. Today was eh. Upper mountain closed due to wind. Rain in late morning through afternoon, then snow mid-mountain, slowly moving down. Was snowing at base at 4:00, then sleety rain. Above the base it was snowing a ton, so hopefully tomorrow (my last day here) will be good. I think the upper mountain will be quite good. With the lousy conditions today, I rented a snowboard and tried that for the first time. Humbling experience!

 

[noncrazycanuck]

another 18" overnight at Whistler over 2 1/2 feet in last 48 hours
when the alpine opens will be nice. Major cornices builds over the last few days. They even had to shut it down after initial opening a couple of days ago.
Mid hill down the snow is like early May .

 

[Posaune]

Baker was closed because of rain Sunday and yesterday. It was coming down in buckets and with all of the new snow that fell over the week there was too much avalanche hazard to open when nobody would show up anyway. Today they report 9" of new, temps in the 20s and it's still snowing. Quite a turnaround! I'm heading up there to scout it out.

 

[Posaune]

Baker today, 1/30
The report mentioned above was wrong by the time I got there. There was at least a foot of new, and it was snowing so hard that it accumulated super fast. The best skiing was on the lower angle stuff because there was a lot of ice underneath all that new snow and it got scraped away from some of the steeper pitches. We concentrated on North Face and the terrain on Chairs 5 and 8, it was almost completely free of any hint of ice, just copious amounts of fresh snow.

Not many people made it up there and it had that deserted feel. The young chargers were all-over the steep and deep, ignoring where we were skiing, and so they were dealing with ice. Too bad for them. We got freshies even on our last run, right in the middle of North Face. Can't beat that!

 

[Tom Co.]

Stevens- Wed 1-31
It was a really fun day. Lots of people out there enjoying it. There was a school holiday for some kids and they showed up, however, it wasn't too crowded. Only an occasional little line on Hogs. Stevens wasn't very prepared for the crowd, so food service was jammed. The visibility was pretty good. Seventh had its usual cloud cap, but it skied well. There was almost enough new snow to cover up the ice slayer. In some spots you can float, in some you scrape. The trees skied well. We did lots of poking around. Big Chief Bowl needed more new snow. There were some interesting icy moguls off piste. There were also a few frozen chicken heads you had to watch out for. The new snow varied from about 2 inches to a foot. We ended up skiing a lot of places for the first time this year. A not great, but pretty darn good day.