Mar 29 2021 - Goofy Powder and Long Lines

Since breaking the rib in December, it's been pretty tough to ride switch or Goofy and I typically set up for regular and try to only ride switch to take a break for a bit... but of course, after warming up enough on a twin board, I inevitably find myself riding switch too aggressively.... which is why it takes me three to four days to recover from each half day of riding.

With the season coming to an end soon, if not after today... I decided to give it one last go with a dedicated goofy day on the LibTech Orca... a day that did not disappoint in the least!

Powder powder powder powder, spraying everywhere!!!! I showed up around 9:30 today and the parking lot was packed...perhaps more so than a typical weekend day and maybe due to Spring Breakers... it dumped 11-14 inches overnight and nobody wanted to miss out on this epic morning. The lines were pretty short on the front side but the Double Diamond line to get to the backside was pretty backed up... which is typical on weekend mornings since it often starts operating around 9:30.... but today was different, a special day... I mostly rode through knee deep pow throughout and although half of my tracks weren't fresh it was a blast, that is, until I reached the lift lines on the backside @_@

This was by far the longest line I have ever waited in at Stevens Pass and reminded me of a pow day at Whistler/Blackcomb. Unfortunate for most that found their way back here, Jupiter Express was not running at all, which is the Intermediate friendly lift and only Southern Cross was running, which only gives backside access to difficult terrain. After about a 45 minute wait, I found myself atop Southern Cross and hiked over a bit to get access to some fresh lines heading into the trees, starting out of bounds and working my way back across. I was betting that anyone in that line learned their lesson and went back to the front side and that only the die-hards would remain....and I was right. By the time I reached the lift the lines were a quarter of the size and they stayed pretty small for the remainder of the day.

In addition to the heavy traffic, there were a few injuries that slowed the lines down as ski patrol worked hard to safely extract the injured individuals (hopefully nothing too serious)...and then, Southern Cross broke down. It was looking pretty grim on the backside but the lifties got Jupiter Express up and running in only 10 to 20 minutes, impressive! It was pretty hard to go anywhere and not find a fresh stash of powder so I spent a good part of the day just exploring and hootin as I floated down the steeps on the Orca. What an amazing day and if it's the last of the season....what a way to end it! I really needed a full goofy day to get back some of the skills that were going rusty. ^-^ also, a great use of my "floating holiday"

Mar 24 2021 - Powder in the Spring

Last weekend the weather report predicted not much snow until Monday and Tuesday with the heaviest precipitation coming Wednesday.... well, here we are on Wednesday but looking at a slightly different outcome; or so it seemed...

I checked the weather report last night and it wasn't looking great... it hadn't snowed in a few days and there were only expectations of 1 inch overnight and a few inches in the morning. On the drive in, it started snowing about 30 minutes away from the resort.... a sign of hope! As I got closer and closer the roads became much harder to drive on since the plows hadn't made their first pass yet...

I arrived, parked, and stepped out into about 3 inches of fresh powder... light and soft... fluffy!! Most of the mountain had 3-6 inches of snow early on in the morning but the snow just kept coming down... it was quite windy as well... some of the steep slopes near the Southern Cross lift had only a few inches covering a thick icy crust but the majority of the trails were loaded and primed for rippin'... it looks like we got around 11 inches today!!

It was a typical mid week day with no lines for the lifts and very few people on the slopes, as compared to the busy weekends... with all this fresh soft snow, I found myself flying through familiar areas much faster than I am regularly able to and even stumbled across some new paths that had previously looked quite sketchy. I was out on the LibTech Orca today riding regular, so it was a pretty one-sided workout but it also made it quite easy to stay on top of the snow and keep my speed up through the deep sections of powder... I managed to find some time to do a couple 180s but slaloming through the woods was the highlight of the day... I'm so glad I took off work today and drove out for this end of season blessing ^-^

Mar 13 2021 - Warm and sunny

The GoPro was pretty awful today... on most runs I would lose connection to my remote control and would have to restart both the controller and the camera in order to reconnect... but overall it was just a minor setback... today, I was out on a mission... because it was a warm and sunny day with excellent visibility...

My mission was to ride every lift at the resort and capture them with a time lapse... I want to make a couple videos based on these that can be used as reference when trying to plan routes for the day... hopefully others find them helpful as well.

It was a bright and clear day... even up at Seventh Heaven and with the sun baking the entire exposed mountain face, the snow was very soft... Most of the mountain had fairly decent conditions except for some of the shaded steep slopes... I found myself on one of these treacherous slopes as I was trying to head back to the front side but was detoured around Double Diamond by the Ski Patrol, who were closing off that trail presumably because it was as sketchy as the run I was about to embark down...

It was a pretty bad scare heading down Wild Katz... as I hit a patch of ice and slipped out on one of the steepest sections of the trail. For a moment, I was heading sideways down the mountain with a feeling of weightlessness... but I managed to get a little grip with my toe edge and spin around before gaining too much momentum and tumbling down into the trees below... it couldn't have gone any better and it wouldn't have ended well otherwise.... I'm counting my blessings for now and planning to avoid these sketchy areas as the season closes out.

Mar 06 2021 - A Mostly Crusty Day

Moss on trees near entrance of Wild Katz

It hasn't snowed for a few days at Stevens but that's no excuse to stay home... half way to the mountain I realized that I left my jacket (and lift pass) at home and had to turn back... my sweetheart girlfriend volunteered to drive out towards me and met me half way, cutting about 40-50 minutes off of my mistake <3 ... I still got to the resort pretty early and didn't have trouble parking.

I was expecting a pretty icy and crusty day, which it eventually became but this morning started out with a decent amount of snowfall over most parts of the mountain; providing just enough (~3 inches) freshness to soften up the morning runs.

Since I tend to be distracted by the GoPro when it's recording, I decided to leave it in my pocket for most of the day in order to better focus on my riding... since it definitely uses up brain cycles when it's on: starting, stopping, checking battery, wiping off snow, etc.

Although I thought I had warmed up enough on the first run, I tweaked my back on the second one after about 5 minutes of nonstop aggressive riding down a challenging line though the trees... this setback left me managing the pain for the rest of the day and directing much more focus into using my abs and legs to turn.... mostly disconnecting lower and upper body movements unless absolutely necessary.

Despite the somewhat sketchy crusted conditions, I found myself going pretty quickly down the mountain and built up a solid leg burn... even an occasional quads cramp here and there. I mostly stuck to familiar runs but did manage to veer out into a couple paths that I normally don't travel... it was a pretty fun day to be out at Stevens.

I finished the day off with a small hike up to Wild Katz...turned on the GoPro... and challenged myself with the steep, gladed, and mostly crusty terrain... the video captures start to finish including the several times I had to stop to catch my breath... what a great workout!!