Successful trip on the books! 6 days, 15 skiers, and... 0 cms of new snow (even in the 3-4 days preceding our trip). That being said, we had amazing stability, and other than the first run of the trip down a sun-crusty aspect on Seeman Peak, most runs skied quite nicely (and even if the initial run was terrible, at least it made for great dirty jokes). I was really thrilled to have a green light on pretty much all aspects/all elevation bands - for me, great terrain > great snow. Low angle pow runs through the trees are possible at a lot of places. A consistent, 2000 ft fall line at 40 degrees with easy skinning in and out is not. It was also nice to skip the rentals and ski my old faithfuls when the snow had a light crust or some of the entrances were tight & technical.
As for hacks, the best item I brought with me was a plastic spray bottle. Totally clutch for marathons in the woodfired sauna, and while wipes were essential, it was nice to follow them up with a spray bottle “shower” since the wipes leave a bit of a residue. Also, for groups that rotate cooking duty, grab a day in the middle if it’s a long trip. I nabbed the last day thinking that we’d be tired by then, but a midweek chore day with less skinning & skiing would’ve been nice for the ol’ legs. And bring a shower bag for after. Tons of community pools in CA with hot tubs and steam rooms and (most importantly) showers, and it lets you easily pull an audible if it finally starts dumping snow on your heli out and you just have to extend your stay to ski the local resort.
Groups were also surprisingly difficult. 6 from our crew were from the east side of the Cascades and were super aligned on objectives each day. The rest of us are good friends that ski together pretty frequently, but tend to go different directions in spring when the avalanche risk, visibility, and daylight hours improve, which was similar to the weather we had at the lodge. Skiing with a group of 9 is a cluster. Skiing with 9 when there are big differences in uphill speed, downhill speed, our appetites from the a vert/laps perspective, comfort with exposure to get up on the ridgelines, and comfort with steep skiing/sometimes cruddy snow made for a lot of waiting and negotiating. We finally got into groups of 2-3 by the end of the trip. It’s tough to chat about runs too far in advance without the weather/avalanche risk as part of the conversation, but I think a little bit of research and comparing some notes while we waited for the heli would’ve helped us make better use of the first few days there when our legs were fresh.
