ChrisC
Well-known member
Silver Mountain: the Riblet Double Chair tour of the NW continues.... :-D
More stable Spring conditions - cloudless, low 20s/high 40s, great preservation on north aspects, follow the sun on east/west faces
Another Indy Pass mountain - but only received a discount since it was a 'blackout date'.
As noted in other reports, Silver Mountain's 3.5-mile access gondola is a unique way to gain entry to the mountain - more akin to Europe versus America. I am sure this has been a bottleneck on weekends and holidays this year due to COVID capacity restrictions. However, the crowds were no longer a problem by mid-March.
Again, another slow chair mountain so you had to be aggressive to ski significant vertical.
Access Gondola:
Upon arrival at the gondola summit, I started skiing the east-facing runs off of Kellogg Peak - a mix of groomers and a couple of north-facing chalky bumps.
Much better visibility than my previous experience at Silver / more typical NW:
Beautiful, sunny spring day, no complaints:
View to Wardner Peak
Some of the afternoon was spent on the traverse around Wardner Park and skiing various lines off of it. In particular, I would take the traverse out to the Silver Basin Junction that had a couple of variants to ski.
Skiing some of the lines into both 'The Meadows' and 'Silver Basin' I surprisingly found untracked snow - so that got repeated. The last snowfall must have been days prior.
Riding the Old Chair #4, a local explained that there are now lots of formal gates since the in-bound avalanches. In fact, he said you can ski into town under the gondola when the conditions are right. A bit like Heavenly.
Riblet Chair
At the end of the day, there was a backup downloading the gondola so it was a good time for a beer and protein bar.
Silver Mountain is an excellent inland NW gem with steeps, glades, and low-capacity lifts to preserve snow.
More stable Spring conditions - cloudless, low 20s/high 40s, great preservation on north aspects, follow the sun on east/west faces
Another Indy Pass mountain - but only received a discount since it was a 'blackout date'.
As noted in other reports, Silver Mountain's 3.5-mile access gondola is a unique way to gain entry to the mountain - more akin to Europe versus America. I am sure this has been a bottleneck on weekends and holidays this year due to COVID capacity restrictions. However, the crowds were no longer a problem by mid-March.
Again, another slow chair mountain so you had to be aggressive to ski significant vertical.
Access Gondola:
Upon arrival at the gondola summit, I started skiing the east-facing runs off of Kellogg Peak - a mix of groomers and a couple of north-facing chalky bumps.
Much better visibility than my previous experience at Silver / more typical NW:
Beautiful, sunny spring day, no complaints:
View to Wardner Peak
Some of the afternoon was spent on the traverse around Wardner Park and skiing various lines off of it. In particular, I would take the traverse out to the Silver Basin Junction that had a couple of variants to ski.
Skiing some of the lines into both 'The Meadows' and 'Silver Basin' I surprisingly found untracked snow - so that got repeated. The last snowfall must have been days prior.
Riding the Old Chair #4, a local explained that there are now lots of formal gates since the in-bound avalanches. In fact, he said you can ski into town under the gondola when the conditions are right. A bit like Heavenly.
Riblet Chair
At the end of the day, there was a backup downloading the gondola so it was a good time for a beer and protein bar.
Silver Mountain is an excellent inland NW gem with steeps, glades, and low-capacity lifts to preserve snow.
