Pacific NW/AK/BC Pacific NW, AK, and BC Resorts, Weather, Conditions 19-20

[noncrazycanuck]

been very decent north of the border too.
mostly powder days and but even saw the sun for a while last Saturday and Sunday.
more snow and clouds so far this week.
March is usually a big snow month at Whistler coverage is excellent, snow is "West Coast Light" to valley

 

[pchewn]

Tuesday March 3rd:

Very icy morning at Timberline Lodge & Ski Area for day 34 of the season. We had freezing rain overnight. The parking lot was treacherous. I had to walk while holding on to one car at a time. Good thing I parked right up front.

The whole top of the lodge area and all the trees were covered in about 1/4" of hard ice. Very hard ice. My first run down the hill was survival mode. I made it to the Phlox hut and just waited there until the sun got higher and warmed up the ice. After about 1 hr, it was skiable. From 10:30 to 2pm it was perfect spring skiing. After 2pm it was slush.

I ALMOST quit after that 1st run because it really was unskiable hard ice first thing in the morning.

 

[PNWRod]

My son and I hit Crystal yesterday. What a fabulous day. Sunshine, a little bit of fresh on the spring snow. In the afternoon the snow off piste on the sunny sides got a little warm and heavy but North facing slopes and all the groomers were great. We were surprised to find we could make fresh tracks in many areas. I think the visibility issue over the weekend and into Monday preserved the conditions for us. We may try again Thursday but I'm not expecting the same freshies as yesterday. May need to temper the outlook as it doesn't get much better than yesterdays conditions.

 

[Tom Co.]

Stevens Wed. Best Ever!
At least 8 in of real powder.
Yes! Light, excellent quality powder that lasted a while. I got there early and did a warmup lap on Sky in untracked mostly bottomless snow. On only the usual windy areas did you bottom out. Then four laps on Seventh which was stellar. Tye trees for more of the same. Tye bowl was sweet, then to Big Chief Bowl which was the only let down for the day. It was crusty and clumpy in the main bowl. According to reports the back side was work. I did not go there as I was having to much fun on the front side. The crowd arrived late so the pow lasted longer. The morning gave me the best two plus hours of skiing I've had in a looong time. Snow showers, sun breaks and nice cool temps. I cried a camera but as has already been said - 'I was having to much fun to get it out'.

Stoke-o-Meter Off the Scale
Fun-Factor Ditto

 

[Posaune]

A similar day ^^^ at Baker, but the crowds were there for first tracks. However, the snow was sweet for hours. Pan Face, Snagglepuss, and Gabl's were best because of their shaded exposure, but the sun only made the other places a bit heavier. The wind must have been blowing hard when the snow came down, but the sub surface in the exposed areas was very edgeable snow and the lee areas were sweetly deep. Mt. Shuksan and her friends were out, but like Tom, I didn't pull out the camera, I was too busy and anyway, I've taken a million pics of the thing. I can't describe how beautiful and amazing that mountain is. The sun was out, the sky blue, and it was snowing when I left. Where the snow was coming from, I don't know.

Fantastic day!

 

[noncrazycanuck]

off day for me. very very bad timing.
Most of you probably have seen this before but I recently rewatched the 1935 film Call of the Wild. The trees still look pretty much the same by Heather Meadows.
Alaska is also much more believable than as presented in Deer Hunter.
Never understood why Gabl's often has no E. I always thought that was the origin of the name.

 

[Posaune]

Never understood why Gabl's often has no E. I always thought that was the origin of the name.

It was named for Franz Gabl, the first Olympic medalist from Austria in 1948 (GS, silver). He came to Bellingham and was involved in the early development of the ski area. He was owner and operator of his own ski shop in town; I remember it from when I first came to B'ham in the 70s. He was also the best skier in the region.

 

[noncrazycanuck]

That's kind of funny.
Not being from Bellingham I'd never heard of him.
In the 70's we always assumed run name had something to do with all the pictures from "The Call of the Wild" at Graham's.

 

[Posaune]

Baker today was wonderful and weird. The wonderful part was the 19" of new at opening. I got multiple face shots on the first run. It made the day worth it with that one run. The weird part was the amount of people that showed up. The parking lot was more than half full 30 minutes before opening. It's a weekday in March but there were longer lines than I've seen anywhere at any time for several seasons, and Baker never has lines like that. I rode up the chair with two sets of folks who had flown in from California just for this dump. I don't know how many people asked me where I was from, like I was at Whistler or something. Gabl's is usually deserted, but it looked like an ant hill. I got disgusted with the show by 11:00 and went home.

 

[noncrazycanuck]

Whistler and Blackcomb
may have been the best weekend of the year for me
bonus significant unexpected fresh on Saturday, followed by blue skies, lower temps kept the snow light to valley floor.
crowds were light, a beautiful weekend

 

[Posaune]

Monday at Baker
I missed the weekend crowds. After Friday's huge dump another 5" was on tap for Saturday and then a day with no new and some sun on Sunday. I didn't get there for any of that, but went up today for sunshine and cold leftovers. The snow was very soft and the skiing was great. What was amazing was the tracked out OB. Baker has a huge amount of back country that is larger than the ski area and it was so tracked that it looked like it was inbounds. Most of this stuff requires quite a bit of hiking. Check out the photo below, none of the terrain is inbounds and it all requires a big vertical climb and then more work along the ridge. The OB has suddenly become very popular lately. It's kind of hard to tell from the pic, but nearly every inch of the terrain is tracked out, and this was almost all done in one day.

 

[Itinerant skier]

Plan to hit the WA IndyPass resorts foiled by work, I hit up Grouse today instead. Awesome. Bluebird day, perfect spring snow and the newly later daylight made for a sweet evening.

 

[noncrazycanuck]

sweet - I've always thought it's just as pretty at night too.

 

[Posaune]

I can see the lights at night from my living room window, but I've never made the trek. Crossing the border and driving through the city are intimidating when it's easier to just head east, but we've got to do it one of these days.

 

[Tom Co.]

Monday at Crystal packed powder and nice crud. Great commute through downtown Seattle with everyone staying home because of the flu.
Yes, I got the camera out.
Grubsteak peak and Snorting Elk bowl from the top of Northway Peak

Zoomed what is left of Mt St Helens. Blast went to the right.


Northway chair, peak and bowl

Employee Housing, a 1500+ vert black diamond leg killer

More Employee Housing

Powder Bowl, 1000' vert of sweet black diamond skiing

 

[dbostedo]

@theNitza - just realized I never saw anything about your time at Crystal after JH... if you see this... how was it?

 

[Itinerant skier]

sweet - I've always thought it's just as pretty at night too.

Yep.

 

[noncrazycanuck]

empty chairs at Whistler on a beautiful day.
News is starting to take over

 

[PNWRod]

Yeah. I wish I wasn't so swamped with work so I could go play. All these folks wanting financing for houses. Sheesh- can't they go house shopping in the summer?

 

[Bad Bob]

Was out all last week missed an 11" day last weekend but was too sick to enjoy it. This weekend will be a different story.
Really good thing mental doesn't count as sick when talking skiing.