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Tough days 4 PNW

post #1 of 22
1/9/09 at 3:32pm
Thread Starter 

111111111111111111111111


Edited by slider - 1/30/11 at 4:00pm
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post #2 of 22
1/9/09 at 4:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by slider View Post
The first nice day.
I love this picture
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post #3 of 22
1/9/09 at 4:57pm
Were you up there today? We hit it this afternoon. What's with the blue ice pack? Apparently the stuff off Rainbow is in good condition. (We had to leave before we could get up there). The stuff east of Sunrise is also in good condition.
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post #4 of 22
1/9/09 at 4:58pm
"Four additional logging crews are hard at work across the mountain cutting and moving timber"

They had some impressive video of them moving trees with the snowcats.
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post #5 of 22
1/9/09 at 5:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by newfydog View Post
"Four additional logging crews are hard at work across the mountain cutting and moving timber"

They had some impressive video of them moving trees with the snowcats.
Crystal is still clsoed (3 days now, I think) and looks like they may get opened Sunday! Not tomorrow!

Water & Trees across the road I hear.

Brutal!

Crystal received 100" inches of new between Christmas day and Jan. 2nd! And a whopping 216" total this season but then it rained about 10" and the road has been closed!


Slider, your shot really makes me miss skiing at Bachelor!

A very close friend of ours got hit by an avalanche at Crystal last Friday right In-Bounds in Campbell Basin within Easy view and walking distance of the Campbell Basin Lodge. (New Lodge at the top of forest Queen Express) this is an area that is skied all the time and is totally right smack in the middle of constantly skied lift served in-bounds terrain! He got swept about 100 Yards, went down out of sight 3 times and got spit out at the end with no skis or poles! He was OK. Found 1 ski only the next day!
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post #6 of 22
1/9/09 at 6:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Atomicman View Post
A very close friend of ours got hit by an avalanche at Crystal last Friday right In-Bounds in Campbell Basin within Easy view and walking distance of the Campbell Basin Lodge. (New Lodge at the top of forest Queen Express) this is an area that is skied all the time and is totally right smack in the middle of constantly skied lift served in-bounds terrain! He got swept about 100 Yards, went down out of sight 3 times and got spit out at the end with no skis or poles! He was OK. Found 1 ski only the next day!
An avalanche on Crystal's front side???

Glad to hear he's okay, but sheeesh!
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post #7 of 22
1/9/09 at 6:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Acrophobia View Post
An avalanche on Crystal's front side???

Glad to hear he's okay, but sheeesh!
YIKES!!!! Is right!

So nice to hear your voice!!
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post #8 of 22
1/9/09 at 10:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Atomicman View Post
A very close friend of ours got hit by an avalanche at Crystal last Friday right In-Bounds in Campbell Basin within Easy view and walking distance of the Campbell Basin Lodge.
Wow, seriously? I hadn't heard about this one. I almost went to Crystal last Friday... I might have been there, I like Campbell Basin a lot.

Decided to try Stevens instead that day. We took a chance on Hwy2 opening up and it did open up around 8am. Morning was super empty at Stevens 'cause I guess a lot of people waited to head up until they knew the road was open. Kinda glad we ended up there, just in case.
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post #9 of 22
1/9/09 at 11:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Atomicman View Post
He got swept about 100 Yards, went down out of sight 3 times and got spit out at the end with no skis or poles! He was OK. Found 1 ski only the next day!
Wow! Holy Sh**!

When I got hit with the Fernie Avy, it was like "this is not normal. this could be rather bad. Avalanches are not supposed to come this far"

That scene will replay in his head every 20 minutes for a while. Tell him to PM me if he wants.
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post #10 of 22
1/10/09 at 7:21am
I was at Stevens yesterday (Friday) and the skiing was great. The area didn't open until noon. While the snow was quite heavy in many places, we were able to find some very nice places for a few deep, relatively light powder runs. Nobody else found them all day.
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post #11 of 22
1/10/09 at 9:28am
Here's the Bachelor summit lifthouse. Might take some work to get it up and running.

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post #12 of 22
1/10/09 at 9:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Posaune View Post
I was at Stevens yesterday (Friday) and the skiing was great. The area didn't open until noon. While the snow was quite heavy in many places, we were able to find some very nice places for a few deep, relatively light powder runs. Nobody else found them all day.
Damn, I just plain assumed with all the weather and closed roads you'd have skipped the Stevens trip. Heck, I didn't know you could even get to your usual hangout until yesterday... I'm way bummed I missed you. I was up with the boys for a couple hours in the afternoon. We almost bagged it early in the drive when I carelessly took my usual route & dead ended where the road descended into a mile wide "lake".

Yeah, Stevens held up pretty well - but the groomers were pretty hard packed compared to what we've had, and if you found light rather then packable/trackable "powder" then I'm super-extra bummed I didn't find you We found a few excellent floaty fresh turns, but I'm gonna confess to finding the light on 7th and the trackiness of much of the off-piste stuff a bit interesting. Still, [anti-jinx] the snowpack seems to have come through OK [/anti-jinx].

Hope you had a great time!

Any word on Baker? Looks like they are slated for a ton of snow & then maybe some rain... What's the local's scoop?
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post #13 of 22
1/10/09 at 9:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by newfydog View Post
Here's the Bachelor summit lifthouse. Might take some work to get it up and running.
What the f_ _K?
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post #14 of 22
1/10/09 at 1:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Atomicman View Post
What the f_ _K?
Yep.:


Message from the GM - The recent ice storm that brought 48 hours of rain in below freezing temperatures had a minimal impact on the east side of the ski area. It is skiing well. That is not the case from Pine Marten and to the west. So far we have documented a lift tower lifting arm that was bent by the weight, many chairs that have had the safety bars ripped off, broken communication lines, hundreds of downed trees, and many other challenges that continue to present themselves associated with the ice storm. We are actively working to address all of these issues, while keeping safety at the forefront. The aftermath of this storm will impact our operation for the coming days including this weekend. Our best wishes go out to our neighbors to the north in Washington who have seen season-long effects from the recent storm.
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post #15 of 22
1/10/09 at 4:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by spindrift View Post
We found a few excellent floaty fresh turns, but I'm gonna confess to finding the light on 7th and the trackiness of much of the off-piste stuff a bit interesting.

Any word on Baker? Looks like they are slated for a ton of snow & then maybe some rain... What's the local's scoop?
I'm not saying where we found the goods, but it wasn't on 7th. My buddy Mike and I skied about 22 runs in 5 hours. We were busy.

I don't know about Baker, but it looks like spring like conditions during the week. I'll try to get up there 2 or 3 days this week to prep for Whistler next weekend. Then the following week I'll probably be back up to Stevens at the end of the week. My cabin sustained some wind damage and I'll be trying to fix up the nearly flattened out-building as well as make some turns on Wed.-Fri.
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post #16 of 22
1/10/09 at 5:11pm
Wow! Some shocking and beautiful pics in this thread. Glad you're all still reporting.
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post #17 of 22
1/10/09 at 8:16pm
How do they deal with the thick, blue ice on the slopes? It was unlike anything I've seen.
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post #18 of 22
1/10/09 at 8:47pm

Baker skiing today

I skied Baker today and it was surprisingly good and the least amount of folks up there I have experienced all year. Skied the whole mtn incl chairs 6 & 1 (stickey, north, chicken ridge, pan, pea garden, hotel, chute, gabl's once) it was all good, lightly snowing all day, about 27'. rained hard all the way down the mtn, and the road was stopped for maybe 20 - 30 minutes near Marshall Hill (impressive avalanche). Patroller I know said tomorrow will be a close call regarding freezing levels but today was one of my favorite times up there all year (8 times). Conditions were wind blown powder, easy to find some deep stashes in stickey, pea garden and chicken ridge, some chunked out but not much. For first time lodge was sparse of people, loved that, it has been ridiculously busy at white salmon this year.
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post #19 of 22
1/11/09 at 6:10am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by mtnbikegirl View Post
How do they deal with the thick, blue ice on the slopes? It was unlike anything I've seen.
If it's on Equipment then they break it off or it melts. If it's on the runs Eastern skiers call it hard pack and they ski it.
Winter is just starting,be careful out there.
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post #20 of 22
1/11/09 at 9:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by slider View Post
If it's on Equipment then they break it off or it melts. If it's on the runs Eastern skiers call it hard pack and they ski it.
Winter is just starting,be careful out there.
I was considering heading down there to try to sell them an industrial strength Flame Thrower!
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post #21 of 22
1/11/09 at 2:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by slider View Post
Even the Sled dogs wer enjoying the Sun.


Beautiful but stay away.


Only 2 lifts were spinning. I wonder why.
I'm getting major shrinkage just thinking about sittting on that lift
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post #22 of 22
1/11/09 at 4:01pm
Thread Starter 

Balls or Brains

Today started out w/ the R-word but quickly improved to a marvelous sunny spring day. Groomers were big time railing conditions. However, the off-piste was something I have never encountered before. An Ice crust on top that sprayed you in the face at speed and 6" of soft snow w/ an Ice base underneath. Didn't have any traffic issues out there. Fact is I didn't see another sole except for my ski partner that was stupid enough to even venture into the Forbidden Zone. SL skis were the tits for those conditions.
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