49 Degrees North

[bumski]

Heading to 49 for the first time today. Any last minute advice on where to ski? Don't know the mountain at all. If you'll be up there let's meet up for some turns.

[TheDon]

Is that the new Patagonia movie?

[AsheanMT]

let me know how it is. Haven't been yet but I've been thinking about it since i have family close the that mountain that I can crash at.

[murph]

49 was my home mountain growing up. Chair 4 has some good stuff looker's right. Last Chance/Sluice Box usually have good snow. The glades just beyond (Stockholders, Cy's Glade) are solid. They've done some glading to make it more skiable over the years. The stuff under Chair 5 can be nice, Sunrise and Schimitar, but it can also get really wind affected over there. Be careful on chair 5 as there are some old logging road switchbacks that haven't been fully graded out, and some deadfall on the far side that for some reason no one has decided to remove. My go-to place is under Chair 1, Klondike and Tombstone.
I've heard the snowpack/coverage is pretty good up there now. Hope you have a good time!

[murph]

Oh, and if it's crowded Chair 4 is the place to be. I can't remember the last time I didn't ski right on to it. No lines.

[bumski]

No lines, no people, and enough fresh to smooth out the bumps and early season coverage. Still early season but pretty damn good really. You don't have to worry too much until you get lower mountain in the trees. With few people freshies where not hard to find all day (left at 2:00). I made hot laps from mid mountain basically under chair 1 most the morning and had a great time! Under chair 5 was good also but got beat up relatively quick and anything else backside seemed to have a lot of early season bumps, dips, undulating terrain that was tiring and somewhat prevented full throttle riding. Chair 1 was pretty beat up by noon so I spent some time in the Peacemaker area which was all great and still plenty of turns left. All the gladed trees lookers right of chair 4 are excellent. Chair 4 was closed so they didn't get much pressure either. All in all an excellent day for my first time to 49. Not the place to go for steeps, drops and more challenging terrain but it's a quick fix for me in Spokane and offers some excellent gladed tree skiing that you can open it up in.

[Bob Loblaw]

thanks for the reportage, glad you hit it with good snow!

[Cayuse]

Sorry I missed the thready earlier but sounds like you found everything. I was up last Sunday and chair 5 was pretty chopped up then and the bottom where everyone funnels in was getting thin in spots. Hopefully this weeks storms will get everything else covered.

[AlpenDude]

I recently had a great day at 49 degrees north. Haven't been up there since I was a very beginner skier in the late '90s.

Everyone thought it was crowded that day, ha ha, come to Alpental if you want to experience a crowd. . . .

Here is a video from that day:
[ame="http://www.vimeo.com/18877974"]49 Degrees North on Vimeo[/ame]