Pacific NW/AK/BC 2020/2021 PNW news, weather, conditions, stoke.

[DanoT]

Sun Peaks has been busy on weekends and a ghost town mid week except when it snows and then all the work from home/out of work/retirees come up from Kamloops for the pow.

The SP head of marketing recently told the local media that skier visits per pass holder are up but most of them are bringing lunch (and beer) with them and eating in the parking lot. Masa's Bar and Grill and the Annex have added large tents for added capacity but I think that they are being under utilized.

When I worked in the past at a demo centre-ski shop almost all of our customers were from out of town. So now there are few shoppers in the village and I think SP management are finding out something that Kamloops businesses have known for years: Lots of Kamloopsians are tight wads that sit on their wallets. They are not about to pay resort prices for anything and they all wait until 40% off sales in the Spring. Some stores are already at "Everything 20% Off".

 

[RJS]

Bachelor 01.19.20/15°f & 10mph winds. After the traffic brushed the sugar off the groom to a marble polish it was nearly impossible to get any high edge angles. A light touch on the edges was all the smooth ice would tolerate. A ski pole tip wouldn't penetrate the surface and I thought I could ski. On a sad note, a young boy passed after incurring injuries on the Summit.

That's very sad to hear. Do we know what happened?

 

[slowrider]

Unfortunately this could of potentially been avoided.

Sad update: Young skier injured in Mt. Bachelor crash has died - KTVZ

A 9-year-old boy critically injured while skiing at Mt. Bachelor Saturday afternoon and flown by air ambulance to St. Charles Bend has died, resort officials confirmed Tuesday.

ktvz.com

 

[Posaune]

I said I'd put up some pictures from yesterday at Baker, so here they are:

Giant crowds as shown by the mob on chair 8.


And a picture I've wanted to take for years, but it actually requires you to stop your car, so after over 20 years, I finally did it. This is the White Salmon Lodge and parking lot dwarfed by Mt. Shuksan:

 

[slowrider]

With a Trace the ice has softened on the groom. Fast with good edge hold and very little traffic. Light winds with snow showers, felt like a Snow globe. Off Piste was another story. Low fun factor.

 

[noncrazycanuck]

Whistler:
enjoying the sunshine,
excellent base, empty slopes but past time for a refresh.
almost looking forward to the braille skiing that will come with it.

 

[John O]

I said I'd put up some pictures from yesterday at Baker, so here they are:

I've lived in Seattle for 13 years and have never skied Baker. Every time you post pics, I kick myself for it. Great pics.

 

[pchewn]

Day 19 of the season at Timberline Lodge

There was about 2" of new snow that was very wet. It was warm and softened the base snow also. So it was like skiing on cream cheese. Very nice and easy to turn in.

I'm testing some new goggles for a friend of mine. I wore ABOM Heet goggles for the 1st half of the day and then 509 goggles later. I'll be making a comparison of these two anti-fog goggles.

Check out the safety bar on the new "Pucci" lift. When it is up, the strap hits my helmet. When it is down, the handles come uncomfortably close to my groin. My grandsons call it the "Helmet whacker and nut cracker lift".

The foggy weather was good for goggle testing.

 

[Posaune]

I've lived in Seattle for 13 years and have never skied Baker. Every time you post pics, I kick myself for it. Great pics.

Thanks. When you do make it up here make sure you pick a bluebird day. Most of the time you can't see much of anything.

 

[noncrazycanuck]

Whistler another sunny day
avoided being probed on the space station but Vail's empire seems to have tentacles everywhere.

 

[slowrider]

Sun & Ice @ the D00.

It is busy.

Ask for a level 9 private, ended up with 2 level 1 juniors.

 

[Bad Bob]

Saturday was really a pretty day at my Speed Bump (49° North), about 20° and no real wind. The groomers were mostly spectacular, the trees were just not safe to ski lots of frozen tracks. We have a good snow bas 102" on top' but it really needs a refresh.
An interesting thing is the size of the mountain, 2nd largest by acreage in Washington, but it is still a neighborhood ski area. They only have 4 Piston Bully's. They are grooming a lot of stuff right now that never sees a tiller. Lots of fun and should pay dividends on snow preservation later in the season.
Will take a day like this anytime.


Off of Sunrise Basin

Kalispell Peak and North towards Canada.

 

[pchewn]

It was snowing and refreshing the trails today at Timberline Lodge. The colder weather is really nice for the snow. Easy to turn on packed powder. Excellent day.

I took a picture of this lady with a polychromatic reflective ski outfit. It looks so cool!

 

[Tom Co.]

Stevens Sunday Night







The ice layer is still alive and well. There was some good skiing on the edges of runs where are there were piles of sugar snow. However you could run out of the good stuff and be stuck on a big patch of glacier ice before you got to another area of decent skiing. The most consistently good snow was on the Blue Trail terrain park on the Hoggsback lift. Fortunately it was empty and so you could make a run by bobbing and weaving around the features. It got cold which was made worse by not having any off piste bumps to ski in and warm up. There were no lines anywhere, even early on. The snowstorm petered out and I only had about 1/2 of an inch of snow on the car when I left. That was just enough to make for scraping the windows. It was worth going but man I'm getting tired of the ice layer.

 

[DanoT]

The most consistently good snow was on the Blue Trail terrain park on the Hoggsback lift. Fortunately it was empty and so you could make a run by bobbing and weaving around the features.

@Tom Co. You have just described one of my go to tactics when I am at an unfamiliar mountain on a powder day: Find the Terrain Park, make powder turns around the features that the Bros haven't touched cause they are on the features.

 

[slowrider]

Did that today.

 

[pchewn]

Today (Monday) was a nice sunny day at Mt Hood Meadows. There was a bit of new snow. The lift lines were not bad at all. And the temperature is great for preserving the snow.

 

[slowrider]

Classic p0wday @ bachelor. Boot top & deeper. It was delightful to ride a 110mm waist ski in deepish snow. Fat skis carve'n the groom.

 

[Posaune]

Stevens Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday:

It snowed a little bit each day and it began to improve over the days, but it was still bulletproof in a lot of places. We stuck to low angle runs since they were not so scraped off. Front side and back side were similar. It was tough to not launch into something steeper than a blue run since it looked good, but it skied like crap. Brooks was really nice while even Skyline had problems.

I noticed that the snow at Stevens was what I had expected from the snow at Baker, but you could set an edge at Baker on the hard stuff and I couldn't on a lot of the stuff at Stevens, even though they had very similar weather.

 

[pchewn]

Best day of the season so far, day 22. Started 0845 at Mt. Hood Meadows . 8" of cold fresh snow fell last night and another 2" during the day. Lots of powder smiles -- it was a powder extravaganza.

The powder started getting tracked out by 2pm, so I headed to the car for lunch and then drove to Mt. Hood Skibowl. They are open 3pm-10pm for night skiing. So I got "Bonus Powder" runs at Skibowl. Until my legs gave out around 6pm under the lights. Skibowl had received less snow and it was higher density. But still great skiing.