49° North, Monday, 3/11/19
Drive time: 1h15min there; 1.5h back
Pros: Amazingly fun terrain, awesome snow, great views
Cons: slippery walk from the parking lot, slow lifts
Favorite runs: Klondike; Silver Ridge/Silver Queen
Really awesome day today at 49° North! Fresh-groomed runs were packed powder, ranging from soft-and-fast to firm-and-faster. Different shades of perfect. The great terrain at 49° North really shines on a day like this--lots of awesome steeps, but also plenty of gently rolling options, and the different facets, gullies, ridges, etc. make it a really interesting mountain to ski. Off-piste was fairly soft when I sampled it, but day-old groom was stiff Styrofoam.
They're only running Angel Peak (in the middle distance in the shot above) on weekends right now, and Lift 4 is down for the rest of the season, so I stuck to Lifts 1 & 5 today. But that encompasses a lot of terrain. And when each run was so much fun, there was way more than I could explore thoroughly in a day. Snow was perfect up top. Perfect down at the base. Perfect in the sun (corn!) and in the shade. East, west, and northern exposures were all skiing beautifully.
I grabbed a quick lunch... overpriced but OK pizza in a somewhat run-down cafeteria. I also noticed two out-of-order urinals and numerous missing trail signs (made figuring out where I was a challenge a couple times)… definitely feels like their might be something to the rumors of an impending sale, as it looks like the current owners aren't making any capital expenditures right now. New owners and progress might be a good thing, but it's pretty hard to argue with what they've got going now when it yields a ski day like today. Replacing some of their creaky old lifts with something faster would be nice, but on the other hand the current layout of Lifts 1 (including midway loading), 2, 4, and 5 seem perfect, and I doubt you're going to get all the same options if they start replacing them with detachables.
Sunshine & scenery were fantastic. Above, I believe, is Calispell Peak with British Columbia in the background.
A nice view of Mt. Spokane, too... makes me all the more eager to try out that new terrain!
On the way out, I stopped into the ticket office to see whether I could apply the cost of today's lift ticket to a season pass (I've been a few places that offered that option in the past). They said no, so I left without a pass. I'm not yet sure whether it'll be this year or next, or on a 49° North pass or the Indy Pass or collections of multipacks, but I definitely plan to experience and explore more of 49° North.
Drive time: 1h15min there; 1.5h back
Pros: Amazingly fun terrain, awesome snow, great views
Cons: slippery walk from the parking lot, slow lifts
Favorite runs: Klondike; Silver Ridge/Silver Queen
Really awesome day today at 49° North! Fresh-groomed runs were packed powder, ranging from soft-and-fast to firm-and-faster. Different shades of perfect. The great terrain at 49° North really shines on a day like this--lots of awesome steeps, but also plenty of gently rolling options, and the different facets, gullies, ridges, etc. make it a really interesting mountain to ski. Off-piste was fairly soft when I sampled it, but day-old groom was stiff Styrofoam.
They're only running Angel Peak (in the middle distance in the shot above) on weekends right now, and Lift 4 is down for the rest of the season, so I stuck to Lifts 1 & 5 today. But that encompasses a lot of terrain. And when each run was so much fun, there was way more than I could explore thoroughly in a day. Snow was perfect up top. Perfect down at the base. Perfect in the sun (corn!) and in the shade. East, west, and northern exposures were all skiing beautifully.
I grabbed a quick lunch... overpriced but OK pizza in a somewhat run-down cafeteria. I also noticed two out-of-order urinals and numerous missing trail signs (made figuring out where I was a challenge a couple times)… definitely feels like their might be something to the rumors of an impending sale, as it looks like the current owners aren't making any capital expenditures right now. New owners and progress might be a good thing, but it's pretty hard to argue with what they've got going now when it yields a ski day like today. Replacing some of their creaky old lifts with something faster would be nice, but on the other hand the current layout of Lifts 1 (including midway loading), 2, 4, and 5 seem perfect, and I doubt you're going to get all the same options if they start replacing them with detachables.
Sunshine & scenery were fantastic. Above, I believe, is Calispell Peak with British Columbia in the background.
A nice view of Mt. Spokane, too... makes me all the more eager to try out that new terrain!
On the way out, I stopped into the ticket office to see whether I could apply the cost of today's lift ticket to a season pass (I've been a few places that offered that option in the past). They said no, so I left without a pass. I'm not yet sure whether it'll be this year or next, or on a 49° North pass or the Indy Pass or collections of multipacks, but I definitely plan to experience and explore more of 49° North.