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

[dovski]

We must ski at different Alpentals. The chair 2 line was 30+ min on Sunday till at least noon, and the only times I've seen weekend lines in the 5-10 min range this year have been when the vis was zero, snow was bad, or something else was less than ideal up top.

It is possible Saturday was a little bit better, also I am always there early so I do not have to wait to long for first chair and can try to get in two laps on chair 2 before the line ups get too long. One of the challenges lately has been the delayed openings due to avalanche work. On Saturday first chair was delayed by an hour while they blasted. So by the time they opened Armstrong the lineup was the longest I had ever seen, luckily I was look back from the entry to the gates. From there the wait was 10 min to load followed by another 10 on chair 2. In the afternoon Armstrong was about 5 min and chair 2 was about 15 min. Only did two laps on chair 2 but skied lots of Pow on the lower mountain in between. The previous weekend was also a POW day but line ups were much better so got in 4 laps on Chair 2 top to bottom while my daughter got in 6. Again we always get there early for first chair and ski through the lunch rush which makes a big difference.

 

[dovski]

Most skiers around these parts have heard of Alpy but it often gets associated with the rest of Snoqualmie and blown off. They've "heard" of it but don't "know" it. I had a season pass there for about 5 seasons in the late '90's-early '00's and it's a gem. My friends that ski Crystal would always ask way I'd ski there and my response was if you spent a few days there you'd know why. Plus the passes were cheap! I haven't skied Alpental since I bought a pass in 2013-14 as a one-off but planning on getting up there in the spring with my Ikon.

I think you explained it better then me Once you know it, it is a whole different ball game.

 

[John O]

I have been skiing Alpental pretty much every Saturday for the last 5 years (kids have Freeride every weekend), and yes this past weekend was the worst I have ever seen it, and the previous weekend was bad but not nearly as bad. That said aside even with this the longest wait I had at chair 2 was 15 minutes and most weekends it was less than 5-10 min.

If that's what you're seeing lately, I agree that's not terrible.

We must ski at different Alpentals. The chair 2 line was 30+ min on Sunday till at least noon, and the only times I've seen weekend lines in the 5-10 min range this year have been when the vis was zero, snow was bad, or something else was less than ideal up top.

This is more like what I remember. I finally threw in the towel regarding Saturdays at Alpental after a day several years ago where the chair 2 line was a legit 45 minutes, no exaggeration. That was my breaking point.

 

[David Chaus]

I've been skiing Fridays at Alpental and the only lines were on powder days where they delayed opening. Oh, and the week of President's Day it was a f&*king zoo, with long lift lines on Chair 2 until it closed.

But damn! all that snow......great skiing.

 

[dovski]

If that's what you're seeing lately, I agree that's not terrible.



This is more like what I remember. I finally threw in the towel regarding Saturdays at Alpental after a day several years ago where the chair 2 line was a legit 45 minutes, no exaggeration. That was my breaking point.

Ok looking at my slopes app for this past Saturday, initial wait in line for Armstrong was about 10 minutes followed by 21 min wait for chair 2. For all other runs wait on Armstrong was under 5-10 minutes and my afternoon wait time for chair 2 was about 15 minutes. This was by far the worst lines of the season. Previous weekend though my wait for first chair on Armstrong was less than 5 minutes and I was able to ski onto chair 2 and skied top to bottom where I had a 7 minute wait for Armstrong followed by a 10 minute wait for chair 2. Afternoon wait times for chair 2 were 12 minutes and 10 minutes according to my slopes app. Looking at my previous trips to Alpental this season my longest wait time for chair 2 has been 10 minutes according to my Slopes app. Full disclosure I use my strategy as outlined in this thread to minimize my time waiting in line and maximize my ski time, so I am sure that at times you could easily have a longer wait, I just try to avoid that when possible.

 

[pchewn]

Day 39 of the ski season, Monday I went to Mt. Hood Meadows for sunny spring-like skiing. The snow drifts are huge due to the big storm we had earlier. I had lunch/beer at the top of a closed lift and some birds were begging for food. After skiing, I flew my model plane (with skis for landing gear) at the White River snowpark.



A day of rest tomorrow, then off to the beach for 2 days. I love retirement.

 

[RJS]

On the topic of Alpental lines, here were my experiences this season:

2/5 (Friday): 17" of new snow, but it was very wet, heavy snow. Nothing more than 5-10 minutes, and close to ski-on by noon.

2/7 (Sunday): 2+ feet of new snow. I got in line by 8:15-8:30 for Armstrong, but the lift didn't start running for three hours. Skied almost bell-to-bell, got only 4 top-to-bottom runs in, and I don't think it would have been possible to squeeze in another top-to-bottom run.

2/9 (Tuesday): 2+ feet of new snow. I got in line by 8:30 for Armstrong, the lift started running around 9:30-9:45. Insanely crowded, maybe more so than Friday, got 5 top-to-bottom runs in, but I probably could have squeezed in an addition top-to-bottom run if I was being quicker and stayed a bit longer.

Compared with Crystal on powder days, lines at Alpental have definitely been worse, at least in my limited experience. After the initial rush, I don't think I waited in line at Armstrong for more than 20 minutes, but I definitely had some lines for Chair 2 in the 40+ minute range. Lapping Armstrong after getting a quick lap or two on Chair 2 per @dovski's strategy is probably the way to go here. I was in some awful lines this season for Chair 6 and Northway at Crystal, and I think those probably maxed out around 30 minutes or so, but eased up throughout the day quicker than the lines at Chair 2 at Alpental eased up.

Again, I feel like Alpental is quality over quantity. Top-to-bottom runs on Shot Six or International stack up against some of the best runs I've skied anywhere. That said, based on my one Saturday at Hyak, if I was living in Seattle I would consider skiing at Hyak on crowded weekends when the snow levels are lower.

 

[RJS]

@pchewn I was at Meadows today too! I just skied in the afternoon, and got the spring-like conditions I was looking for. After the crazy lines (and crazy snow) at Skibowl on Saturday, it was refreshing to have no lines and sunshine. I got to ski Heather and PR for the first time, which was a lot of fun. Surprisingly, at least to me given the temperatures, the snow quality in the shaded areas of Heather was soft/fluffy and hadn't gotten heavy like most of the mountain. Cascade is supposed to open tomorrow for the first time in a long time. I'm hoping to go back tomorrow morning, as my next big work project starts on Wednesday.

 

[dovski]

On the topic of Alpental lines, here were my experiences this season:

2/5 (Friday): 17" of new snow, but it was very wet, heavy snow. Nothing more than 5-10 minutes, and close to ski-on by noon.

2/7 (Sunday): 2+ feet of new snow. I got in line by 8:15-8:30 for Armstrong, but the lift didn't start running for three hours. Skied almost bell-to-bell, got only 4 top-to-bottom runs in, and I don't think it would have been possible to squeeze in another top-to-bottom run.

2/9 (Tuesday): 2+ feet of new snow. I got in line by 8:30 for Armstrong, the lift started running around 9:30-9:45. Insanely crowded, maybe more so than Friday, got 5 top-to-bottom runs in, but I probably could have squeezed in an addition top-to-bottom run if I was being quicker and stayed a bit longer.

Compared with Crystal on powder days, lines at Alpental have definitely been worse, at least in my limited experience. After the initial rush, I don't think I waited in line at Armstrong for more than 20 minutes, but I definitely had some lines for Chair 2 in the 40+ minute range. Lapping Armstrong after getting a quick lap or two on Chair 2 per @dovski's strategy is probably the way to go here. I was in some awful lines this season for Chair 6 and Northway at Crystal, and I think those probably maxed out around 30 minutes or so, but eased up throughout the day quicker than the lines at Chair 2 at Alpental eased up.

Again, I feel like Alpental is quality over quantity. Top-to-bottom runs on Shot Six or International stack up against some of the best runs I've skied anywhere. That said, based on my one Saturday at Hyak, if I was living in Seattle I would consider skiing at Hyak on crowded weekends when the snow levels are lower.

Here are some pic of my daughters Freeride team practice at Alpental from this Saturday. With apologies to @CascadeConcrete as Sunday's conditions were not as good.



Far left is my daughter getting ready to drop in

This is her coach leading the way

and this is the landing zone.

With this much powder these kids can try pretty much anything.

And yes RJS clearly a case of quality, though one could also argue quantity too with waist deep POW. Personally I am willing to wait a little longer in line to ski conditions like this.

 

[RJS]

@dovski do you know if Snoqualmie has historical snowfall statistics for Alpental released anywhere? I'm very curious what the yearly snowfall numbers look like for Alpental versus the Snoqualmie areas across the highway. I was able to find an amazing resource of snowfall statistics from the base of Hyak going back to the 1930s, but nothing similar for Alpental. Tony Crocker gives his annual snowfall estimate at 3,000 for Snoqualmie at 385", but the top of Alpental certainly gets a lot more than that. Now, I don't know if the summit of Alpental typically gets more or less snow than the summits of Crystal or Steven's, but what is clear is that if there is a difference in the negative direction, it's not large. My hunch is that Alpental probably gets more snow than Crystal but less than Steven's.

In Googling for historical Alpental weather data, I came across this blog explaining the microclimate of Snoqualmie Pass. It's worth a read if, like me, you're interested in why certain areas get the snowfall that they do. Here's an exerpt:

The problem in the Cascades isn't moisture, it's temperature. West of Snoqualmie Pass and along much of the western slopes of the Cascades, skiing isn't viable at 3000 feet elevation, the base elevation of the ski areas in Snoqualmie Pass. If you drive to Snoqualmie Pass from Seattle, the snow line is often above 3000 feet, but turn the corner and enter the pass and you find a huge snowpack.

There's one main reason for this: cold easterly flow. For much of the winter, the Cascades separate relatively mild marine air to the west from colder continental air to the east. This cold air frequently pushes into Snoqualmie Pass, resulting in locally lower snow levels than found to the west.

 

[dovski]

@dovski do you know if Snoqualmie has historical snowfall statistics for Alpental released anywhere? I'm very curious what the yearly snowfall numbers look like for Alpental versus the Snoqualmie areas across the highway. I was able to find an amazing resource of snowfall statistics from the base of Hyak going back to the 1930s, but nothing similar for Alpental. Tony Crocker gives his annual snowfall estimate at 3,000 for Snoqualmie at 385", but the top of Alpental certainly gets a lot more than that. Now, I don't know if the summit of Alpental typically gets more or less snow than the summits of Crystal or Steven's, but what is clear is that if there is a difference in the negative direction, it's not large. My hunch is that Alpental probably gets more snow than Crystal but less than Steven's.

In Googling for historical Alpental weather data, I came across this blog explaining the microclimate of Snoqualmie Pass. It's worth a read if, like me, you're interested in why certain areas get the snowfall that they do. Here's an exerpt:

Typically Alpental always gets significantly more snow than Crystal or Stevens. Typically it is a toss up between Alpental and Baker around who gets the most snow. I could not find much historical data but I did find this which gives some data.
Alpental At The Summit Snow History (snow-forecast.com)

The key take away is that they get a lot of powder days for an PNW resort and they get a lot of snow. The down side is they also get warm wet weather in between, so when it is good it is very very good and when it is bad you are soaked. That said I have been rained on at pretty much every PNW ski resort, mind you at Whistler the Vail customer service team explained to us that the rain came from imported sparkling water and that this was a feature they would charge us extra for I think they also told us it was our fault it rained and to stop complaining .... oh wait sorry topic drift this isn't the Anti Vail Sentiment thread

 

[DanoT]

That said I have been rained on at pretty much every PNW ski resort, mind you at Whistler the Vail customer service team explained to us that the rain came from imported sparkling water and that this was a feature they would charge us extra for

Whistler used to give out large plastic bags with their logo and the arm and neck holes already cut out. Now they sell them, although this practice predates Vail's ownership of WB. Either way, imo a ski area shouldn't have to be that prepared for rain. So that is one of the reasons that I rarely ski WB. That and the fact that at WB you have to line up and overpay for everything.

 

[pchewn]

February was a very good month for snow accumulation. Here's the graph of the historical average snow depth at Timberline Lodge alongside this year's depth. Graph is here: https://www.timberlinelodge.com/mountain/historical-snow-data

We are at 182" depth now, average for March 1 is 145"

 

[Andy Mink]

Well, the first day at Bachelor was awful. Too much sun, not enough wind. We didn't know what to do! @Tricia, @Philpug, @AKMINK, and I skied with Mike from @Blossom Skis on some of next year's skis. (Reviews etc to come in a different thread.) Anyway, crowds were small and views were fantastic, phenomenal, and just downright really spectacular. One thing to get used to is the huge number of intersections/trail merges. Crazy!

Snow was mixed with frozen marbles at the top in the morning (we had to take the summit chair while the getting was good) and softening as the day wore on down lower. I'm looking forward to bopping over to Northwest chair tomorrow.

Tricia and Phil


I like the Code on the towers.


Bluebird day!

 

[slowrider]

Check it before you wreck it

 

[pchewn]

Well, the first day at Bachelor was awful. Too much sun, not enough wind. We didn't know what to do!

That's just not Bachelor if you don't have to struggle to see the next fog marker on the Summit Crossover traverse trail. Often the next fog marker (20') is not visible.

 

[RJS]

Had a really fun morning at Meadows. All of the gates opened up. I got to check out upper Heather and Clark for the first time. The journey from A-Zone to Clark all the way to the Heather lift was fun, but the snow wasn't amazing (it was decent, but Twilight was much better, see below) - the northern aspects didn't have a ton of wind buff, but also weren't entirely soft. South/East aspects in Clark were spring-like. The best part was seeing the big waterfall that is roped off! The worst part was a boarder who decided to stop and take her board off in the middle of the traverse from Heather into Clark - how hard is it to step just off of the traverse when there is plenty of room on both sides?

My favorite run was Twilight Bowl, which I lapped many times, where there were fantastic stretches of wind buff that were almost as fun to ski as powder. The wind buff was at a bit of an angle to the fall line, so I either made longer left turns than right turns, or skied from one section of wind buff to another which was super fun. I usually park in the main lot, but parked in HRM planning to do a PR lap to the car at the end of the day, but opted to do a final Twilight lap instead and just do the long traverse out to the lot.

Great day of skiing. No lines, fun snow, great to see everything open.

 

[gilligan]

Just received an email from Crystal with this info:


" . . . That said, the Ikon Pass is an evolving product that has continuously evolved since its introduction in 2018 to best suit the guest experience across the variety of destinations. We at Crystal have thought long and hard about the best approach for next season. We are pleased to announce some small but significant changes for the 21/22 season:

• The Ikon Base Pass will be limited to a maximum of 5 visits with holiday blackout dates at Crystal.
• The Ikon Pass will continue to offer unlimited access to Crystal Mountain . . ."

The base pass no longer gets unlimited access so that decides it for me. I'll be getting an Ikon and not the base pass next year as I was contemplating. I got the full Ikon this year because I went Jackson Hole and Aspen which weren't included on the base pass this season. I don't know if this will reduce the crowds at Crystal, as they're claiming, or just in bring more revenue from Puget Sound-area skiers.

 

[Ecimmortal]

Going up 26 to get to Skibowl this morning was awful. We left Portland at 6:45 and were making good time until finally running into the usual weekend traffic in Rhododendron at about 7:45, and then it took another hour and 15 to finally get to Skibowl. There were so many cars having traction issues and blocking a lane of traffic trying to put on their chains well past the chain-up areas. An official ODOT vehicle had to help a van put their chains on. A school bus of Lake Oswego kids was pulled over having traction problems too. I've never seen 26 quite like this before.

Skibowl was by far the most crowded I've ever seen it, even though I've skied at Skibowl before when the parking lots are full. Perhaps people who couldn't get up to Timberline or knew they wouldn't get a spot at Meadows decided to cut their drive short and ski at Skibowl? Upper Bowl lines were 20-30 minutes from opening to 10:30-11:00...before today even when there are crowds I don't think I've waited more than 7-10 minutes for Upper Bowl. The snow was great, with all of the wind there were some ice patches, but also plenty of deep pockets. I got to ski the Outback for the first time, which was fun. The crowds were starting to die down around noon, with Upper Bowl lines being closer to 10 minutes. I'm hoping that today was an anomaly for Skibowl being a Saturday with fresh snow and major road issues ? I figure if I have to wait in these kinds of lines, I might as well be at Meadows.

So my Saturday experience with Ski Bowl was similar to every other Saturday I have attempted there this year....Crowded. There is a full race academy there on every Saturday which probably doubles the lines you would normally see.

What made up for it was some of the best turns all year, Outback, and a pretty high level of stoke in the lift line especially when everyone was ripping those first drops.

 

[Tom Co.]

Crystal, a tale of two days.

Tuesday at Crystal was mediocre. In and out fog, flat light at times, and crunchy snow off piste. The main positive was there were no lines anywhere. We skied all over the place trying to find good snow and we're only marginally successful. Even the reliable north faces weren't all that great.

Now today, Thursday, was a different story. There was no new snow, however what was there had turned to nice chalk on the north aspects, some sunny softening on south faces, and spring snow on the lower mountain. It was a beautiful mostly sunny day with some high filtered overcast but visibility was really nice all day. There were a few minor lift lines but nothing bad. Nothing over five minutes and that was only on REX and Forest Queen. Stoke-o-Meter and Fun Factor were both way up there.

Crystal is going to stay open daily until April 18 and then Friday Saturday and Sunday until May 9. Hooray!