SNOW IN THE PNW 2010!

[wickstad]

Oh and my video from Mission Ridge Ski and Board resort. Last Weekend of March.

[ACH]

QUITTER!

Ha! Never.
I just know how Greydon thinks.

[AlpenDude]

Here is some stoke from the good conditions that did exist in March:



Looking forward, could this rain event be a good thing for our snowpack in the spring touring season?

[wickstad]

Any insider information on US2 Re-opening?

[PNWski]

Xtal was raining, heavy cement and slightly windy. Came back early due to sucky cement.

[Dromond]

Xtal was raining, heavy cement and slightly windy. Came back early due to sucky cement.

Forecast looks decent, yet it's still 46 degrees at the base.

[Ski to Be]

I had fun on High Campbell this morning before the rain moved in. It was heavy and clumpy in areas but untracked with at most 8 people skiing over there. We went to Northway after lunch and the snow was heavy and sticky.
We called it a day at that point. It was still raining at the base at 2pm.

[regct]

I'm staying optimistic. Heading to Stevens early tomorrow and again on Monday. White pants, blue coat. $$

[wolfelot]

Four inches new at Crystal, 27 degreesat the base and snowing with 3-5 forecast on the day. Cooking breakfast and heading out the door to get first chair. I'll be wearing a black descente jacket, dark grey helmet and pants and skiing Line Blends. There is a brewfest today from 1-4 so it should be fun!

[Northway]

Crystal was pretty fun today, north facing aspects were tough, with frozen below the new, but any other aspect was still a bit soft and slushy underneath the new pow. Fun turns.

The big news was the slides released by morning control work. Bear pits went huge with a 6 foot crown that propagated all the way across. Ripped out trees and a huge debris pile riddled with trees on the bottom. I was on REX when it went after a bomb, and could hear trees snapping. Niagaras went large also, in addition to yesterday's natural and control released rock face slides.

Pretty crazy that this snow is now moving on the crust from Feb., on terrain continuously controlled by CM.

Poor cell phone pics of the bear pit slide:

Slide path and debris, with part of crown visible at top:


Debris pile at bottom, with plenty of trees!

[Chainsaw_Willie]

I hope nothing moves like that at Alpy, which is where I'll be tomorrow.

Winter's back for another round, just when I thought the start of the spring mush season was here. If anyone's at Alpy tomorrow, look for the guy who looks pregnant (I'll have my camera in a chest harness under my jacket) with blue pants, black jacket, blue & black hat, old black Gotamas with Dynafits.

[Yonder_River]

Alpy was good today. Felt like a weekday, no lines at all. 12 or more depending on where you were at and it snowed the entire time. Patrol released a three foot slab that slid to the snakedance entrance, huge debris field so you have to approach from the sides (not as big as that bear pitts slide above). Elevator opened around 11ish and was $$$. We released some sizeable sluff but nothing too worrisome.

[regct]

Stevens was pretty good this morning, but the weekend slaughter hit after 11 or so. 5 or 6 inches in places, 12 inches of wind load in places, 0 inches with ice and avy debris in places.

POV TR

[Lahar]

I hope nothing moves like that at Alpy, which is where I'll be tomorrow.

Well then stay off Upper Nash... I was there today and the debris field runs all the way out to Snakedance gate. Worst I have seen it in a long time. Elevator opened late in the day, and looked about the same.

[Dromond]

It was another fun day at Alpental today. Foggy, PNW powder

I think that I left some gloves on the roof of my car or in the parking lot next to the bathrooms. Black and white Hestras, size 10 with the gore-tex insert if you see them laying around somewhere. Ah well.

[XavierD]

Today was a good day to return to Crystal. I haven't skied there in 3 or 4 years or so and the mountain has really changed. Good day non the less, opening 6th up latter allowed good turns into 1:00. Nothing to complain about for April skiing, minus Crystal having no idea on how to operate a ski lift.

[Za]

Skied Hyak Hidden Valley first thing this morning. My first time on the back side, and found some fun stuff with about 12" of new, but man those runs are short. I made about 13 runs in about 1.5 hours. Headed over to Alpental and found the goods up high: Knoll 4, Wall Street. Pretty sticky and chunky down low. Didn't even try Nash from what I heard of debris. Shot Six sucked with sticky chunks.

[Chainsaw_Willie]

I think the Alpy patrollers must be getting kickbacks from the ambulance companies.

That debris field above the Snakedance gate was downright dangerous. Might as well try skiing through a field of boulders - it was very literally a pile of frozen solid basketball sized chunks of ice. Two things combined to make it especially hazardous today: it was covered with yesterday's snow, partially camouflaging the carnage underneath AND the lighting back there was flat at the best of times and when it was foggy you really had no idea what you were skiing into until it was too late. I hit it early in the morning, managed to not get hurt and predicted, accurately, that patrol would be extracting injured people from there. That's an area where people tend to ski pretty fast, coming off the steeper slope above to the flats below and it just looked like a fairly open slope with a few bumps in it. Sure enough, they spent a bunch of time extracting some poor guy around 11:00 or so and then someone else got hurt in there later in the day. We asked the patrollers why they didn't put up some bamboo right at the top of it and they just brushed it off and one even said that hitting that would make you a better skier. Right. Breaking your leg or blowing your ACL or concussing yourself on an ice chunk the size of a basketball in a debris field that's hard to see in the middle of a main run makes you a better skier...

Normally I'm all about supporting patrol and the work they do but when there's a serious hazard present in unusual conditions and they do nothing to warn people about it and take the attitude that if you hit it and get hurt it's too bad for you, well, that doesn't sit well with me.

Other than that, it was a really fun day despite the snow turning to sticky mashed potatoes in the afternoon.

[3pin]

Up and down weekend at Alpental. The good - skiing far exceeded expectations after this last week of rain. Deep and empty resort on Saturday, lots of good turns with Dromond, Mofro and a few other mags. Nicely filled back in today, super smooth skiing, although lines a little longer today. Breakover and Elevator skied great for a few laps, then we hit the High T just as it opened, with unbelievable first tracks down Draft Dodger until the bottom section. The bad - unfortunately the season probably ended for my wife with a likely blown knee in a lower pillow section. She toughed out a long, slow traverse back to the car and a visit to the Patrol first aid room (which was packed as people came flooding in from a number of incidents around 12:30-1), mostly pissed to be missing the rest of the day and spring skiing. We'll try to get an MRI tomorrow, fingers crossed.

Anyway, good skiing with a bunch of you guys.

[cuzinick]

Sorry to hear this about Mrs. 3pin, hopefully the MRI is negative. Great to make spring pow turns today.

[Dromond]

3pin: A few years ago Ms. Dromond tweaked her knee pretty good on a sunny day at Taos as I watched; so I know that sinking feeling. Hopefully it heals quickly and isn't too serious. My legs were burning on that traverse out today I can't imagine what it would be like on a busted knee!

[Toadman]

Those slides at xtal were impressive. The heli dropping bombs yesterday had me wondering just how many pounds of TNT they dropped. Some of those bangs had to have been 50+lb charges. A few slides on HC yesterday with one skier lookers left of the chair 6 receiving warning shouts to get left or point 'em to avoid being knocked off his feet by a slide. Still made some nice tracks in the heavy wet mank on HC. Just based on what released, I seriously doubt I will venture into the side country this spring season.

[Mofro261]

I think the Alpy patrollers must be getting kickbacks from the ambulance companies.

Sure enough, they spent a bunch of time extracting some poor guy around 11:00 or so and then someone else got hurt in there later in the day. hit it and get hurt it's too bad for you, well, that doesn't sit well with me.

Unfrotunately that guy turned out to be a friend of mine/parent on the kids ski team-he broke his back. That was one of the largest/ longest debris piles I've seen in upper I, it usally doesn't run all the way to the Snake Dance gate. Most of those came down naturally in the cycle occuring on Wednesday night. The new blasting from Sat and Sun's 16" new kind of smoothed out the path up high and made it skiable down to where it was not.


Good skiing with everyone both Sat and Sunday, Saturday gets the nod for quality storm skiing on an empty hill but highT laps on Sunday were primo until the fog did it's microwave job on the snow early afternoon. Sorry to here about the Mrs. knee 3pin- she was ripping it up on Saturday.

[gregL]

Unfrotunately that guy turned out to be a friend of mine/parent on the kids ski team-he broke his back.

Ouch. Sorry to hear that, hope he heals well and quickly.

[Greydon Clark]

Mofro, sorry about your friend. I saw patrol working on him and it looked nasty. Personally, I think a little bamboo at the toe of the rubble field would helpful.

On a positive note, Sunday morning was real fun and it looks like we’re going to get some more snow this week.