I drove from the Pass to Cle Elum a little before that it was a giant shit show
Stevens closed to uphill traffic. Epic Vailure as usual
"Uphill travel: Safety is paramount at Stevens Pass, which is why we’ve made the decision to prohibit uphill travel in our permit area while we prepare for the 2020-21 winter season. Uphill access at Stevens Pass will resume once we’ve opened for the season and will be permitted outside of normal lift access hours.
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"Im not here to ski, im just late finishing the PCT..." Think that'll work? Where's Altasnob offering insight on Stevens' right to restrict uphill travel?
Man, im not on social media but went to go watch Snoqualmie's video about what they plan to do for covid safety this year and the comments on the instagram account are just awful. I feel for the liftys and security staff this year. https://www.instagram.com/tv/CHbsWm5..._web_copy_link Not excited for some expected ugly lift line scenes in the first month or two of the season before the loud-proud assholes get their passes clipped.
Like all ski areas on National Forest, Stevens doesn't have exclusive use of the terrain. But they do have wide discretion to restrict the where/when on uphill travel for "safety" reasons. I don't really blame the ski areas for this; it's Americas over litigious society. If someone ends up killing themselves early season before the ski area is open, but after Stevens is plowing roads and setting stuff up, and the deceased's family has no soul, they will find some unemployed shady plaintiff's attorney to sue Stevens. Stevens may win in court but their insurance won't want to risk it and end up paying something on the frivolous suit. The cycle continues and in the end, we all pay for it in the form of higher lift ticket prices.
But Stevens pass holders should be happy with Vail's ineptitude. With the border closed, and Vail being, well, Vail, everyone in entire Puget Sound region has bought an Ikon pass and will be skiing Crystal this winter. Bachelor joining Ikon seals the deal. Stevens should be a ghost town.
Stevens a ghost town! I hope you’re being ironic.
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The crowds were definitely a bit lighter at stevens last year. Never had a weekend drive home over 2 hours and that hasn't happened in years
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Tried that during covid times and they had mountain ops chasing us on cats and snowmobiles saying that the inbounds was fully closed.
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Well, there were two mid week days last February when the west side of the pass was closed for a few days. Waist deep blower, but that’s an anomaly.
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Now there's food for thought. However, betting against Vail's ineptitude is...a risky move. I flexed an Edge card day on a projected 1 ft+ weekday last season. Stood in line on Kehr's for 3 hrs before they were finally able to get their avy work done, double D and backside never opened. If it's not a sat/sun, their approach to opening terrain seems to be no different than at Whistler, i.e a total clusterfuck absent any motivation to deliver.
I can't seem to start a new thread as a new member but maybe this will find someone!
I have a BCA tracker DTS with a broken case and id love to keep using it if anyone has one for parts I can buy!
Buddy and I skinned up Stevens several years ago, a few days before they opened. There was no uphill policy at that time. They had the lifts running and cats were grooming, and plenty of other people skinning and hiking around the frontside. Nobody from the resort seemed have any issues with our presence. We decided to drop off the backside for a lap. Snowpack was super thin, but the ungroomed cat road skied fine.. As we were skinning back up, all hell broke loose with multiple charges going off above us and continued nonstop, getting progressively closer. Turns out the patrol had decided to "stabilize the pack" and sent out multiple teams of patrollers to bomb the crap out of anything that might move, before the next storm came. This function is normally handled by rain around here, but I digress. We hunkered down in some trees until we could communicate with the patrol. Suffice it to say they were both surprised and pissed when they finally saw us.
Stevens just flat out rules you out of skinning inbounds.
Crystal allows you but plays games. They haven’t updated their fancy webcam at the summit since 11/5. They haven’t been showing any data on snow levels other that 24/48 totals...
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Oh my...
Nice!
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Great shots!