Snow in the PNW 13/14

[Jacobmandell]

Rad day of riding in the North Cascades this past sunday. Got to ski a line i've been dreaming about for a few seasons now. Check out the edit

http://thesnowtroopers.com/2013/nort...-the-pleiades/

[Norseman]

^^ Yeah man!

[the_flying_v]

Late Feb/Early March is safest probability-wise, but it's the northwest and you can have big dumps, dry streaks, or rain anytime between November and May.

There were some awesome days early-mid March this year.

[cascadianwarrior]

Stevens is reporting 20"/24 hrs and plans on opening Daisy and Hogsback at noon today, 9 tomorrow. Crystal is opening the gonjola and Green Valley with 12"/24 hrs.

[bfree]

Damn that felt good. Le' Internationale, nobody in sight on the upper mountain.

[the_flying_v]

Oh yeah! Got about two hours of fresh turns in at Crystal. Thank God for Instagram updates!!!

Why was hardly anyone else hooting and hollering? I guess the Seattle folks are more reserved and proper than last year.

Splendid fucking time.

[BeardedClam]

Somewhere outside the rainy lowlands, protected aspects held snow that would have be good for mid-February. Consecutive laps of top to bottom overhead bottomless coldsmoke in near white-out conditions were reminiscent of those deserted midweek storm days that leave a grin for days past, and a warm feeling deep in your sole. Trenches were dug, high fives were had, and toques frosted.

[pipedream]

self-served yesterday, lift-served today. Life's good in the great Pacific Northwest!

[skialpy]

Saturday stoke, earned turns at Stevens.

[Stairmaster]

Somewhere outside the rainy lowlands, protected aspects held snow that would have be good for mid-February. Consecutive laps of top to bottom overhead bottomless coldsmoke in near white-out conditions were reminiscent of those deserted midweek storm days that leave a grin for days past, and a warm feeling deep in your sole. Trenches were dug, high fives were had, and toques frosted.

awesome!

[hop]

The back lot at Heather Meadows had almost mid-season traffic this weekend. I saw a lot of hungry shredders and a lot of stupid decisions. Please PLEASE just try and use your brains during your backcountry travel planning and don't mindlessly follow whatever party's in front of you. Remember - just because there's a skintrack somewhere doesn't mean it's well-placed or should be used. Don't let some other moron's mistake become yours too.

For the record, skinning UP descent routes is bad form and puts you and everyone in your party at risk. If you want to go somewhere in the Blueberry/Table zone, skin up the road not up the chutes.

[Gcooker]

Amen ^^^^

[yergz]

^^ Nailed it on the head. Saturday was a shitshow, my group of four was essentially alone (talked to a couple of other nice guys) on the top of chicken, then a mob of like 15 guys shows up...luckily we skied it first because they were all jumping off of shit that they shouldn't have been, and being generally unsafe.

[Big Lepowski]

My guess is that the the trend of general backcountry retardation will unfortunately get worse as the sport gets more popular.

I held off on Stevens this past weekend due to the circus that I knew would be up there. Unfortunately, high freezing levels and rain fucked my getting out yesterday and today.

[hop]

My guess is that the the trend of general backcountry retardation will unfortunately get worse as the sport gets more popular.

This is undoubtedly true. I guess it's up to the non-retards among us (whomever that may be) to field-educate those that are doing dumb stuff. One of the topics we discussed in a training seminar the other day was that our snowpack can often be so stable that dumb people do dumb things, get away with it, and walk away thinking they were doing it right the whole time. I'm certainly not an expert but if I see people doing dumb things I try to be nice and explain to them why their choice may not be the best.

[Mofro261]

I held off on Stevens this past weekend due to the circus that I knew would be up there. Unfortunately, high freezing levels and rain fucked my getting out yesterday and today.

You gambled, and you lost.






Yeah it was a circus with so many people heading uphill, but it worked out okay for a few of us clowns.

[shafty85]

our snowpack can often be so stable that dumb people do dumb things, get away with it, and walk away thinking they were doing it right the whole time.

I think this is very accurate.

[BaNosser]

That shitshow should hopefully thin out some... Baker is opening on Thursday...

The back lot at Heather Meadows had almost mid-season traffic this weekend. I saw a lot of hungry shredders and a lot of stupid decisions. Please PLEASE just try and use your brains during your backcountry travel planning and don't mindlessly follow whatever party's in front of you. Remember - just because there's a skintrack somewhere doesn't mean it's well-placed or should be used. Don't let some other moron's mistake become yours too.

For the record, skinning UP descent routes is bad form and puts you and everyone in your party at risk. If you want to go somewhere in the Blueberry/Table zone, skin up the road not up the chutes.

[pipedream]

That jongshow should hopefully thin out some... Baker is opening on Thursday...

FTFY. Don't forget to bring a towel!

[sklar]

last saturday at crystal, which will probably be one of my last days at crystal, because i'm a poor college kid.

[tomski]

Baker mags, how was it??

[hop]

Baker mags, how was it??

Let's just say I'm getting my bike gear ready for the next week or so....

[d542east]

There's a very reactive layer ~8" down, at ~5k elevation on certain aspects, around baker. I'd expect naturally triggered slides with the forecasted warming this weekend.

[Chugachjed]

Your early season makes me really hope my wife gets accepted to the PhD program she's applying for at UW. This is 2 frigid dry novembers in a row here.

[bfree]

Let's just say I'm getting my bike gear ready for the next week or so....

Not worth touring for higher north facing stuff? I've been debating bike vs. ski for this weekend.