After almost 3 weeks of skiing with virtually no sun, the weather did a 180 and there were clear skies even at Schweitzer. There is a snowcat operation of 3,000 acres on the west flank of the lift served skiing at Schweitzer, Selkirk Powder Company. Thursday lunch we heard there might be 4 open slots for us NASJA members to fill the next day. But the ideal combination of good weather and second day after new snow attracted last minute customers so there was only one seat left. We decided photographer Randy Boverman, who had the latest flight out of Spokane, should take that seat while Karl Weatherly and I would check out Silver Mt. and then I would take him to his earlier flight before heading east into Montana.
Silver has a 3.1 mile 20 minute access gondola from the town of Kellogg on Interstate 90. Karl phoned but we did not meet the marketing director. He advised our first run in a moderately pitched gladed area South of the Border to skier's right of the Sunrise trail. This area faces SE and has a quite long traverse exit so had been very lightly skied in the 5 inches new snow the day before. Karl almost hidden near the trees.
Karl got a couple of better shots there, which I should find eventually.
South of the Border was not typical of Silver Mt. Most of the area faces north, so even though it doesn't get quite as much snow as Schweitzer coverage was fine and nearly everything stayed packed powder despite full sun and temps in the 30's. We spent about 2 hours on the chair 2 runs on Kellogg Peak. Riding up that lift next to the terrain park.
Chair 2 has a nice mix of intermediate and advanced runs. Looking down Tall Paul, one of the steeper runs.
We left chair 2 via the North Face Glades, Wardner Peak at distance.
I managed an interesting fall in there, sliding below a tree that hooked my ski. Fortunately I was able to reach up and pop the binding with my pole or I would have needed Karl's assistance to get loose. View of the nicely spaced trees from the Centennial groomer below the North Face Glades.
We then moved to chair 4, which rises to a knoll between Kellogg and Wardner peaks. Some powderhounds had hiked Wardner yesterday.
Skier's left at the top of the lift we found a couple of pockets of untracked. We reloaded chair 4 twice from its midstation, then skied a couple of groomers on chair 3 before we had to stop skiing at 2PM so Karl could catch his flight. View riding down the gondola.
We skied 15,100 during our short time at Silver. Whether due to weather or a Toyota promotion, there were quite a few casual skiers/riders there and lots of kids even though it was a Friday. There were no significant liftlines but we needed to be careful at trail junctions, etc. But we were both pleasantly surprised by the terrain and snow. There is plenty of interesting terrain to make Silver a worthwhile stop for advanced skiers, and it's very convenient if you're on a Northern Rockies road trip like I am now.
Silver has a 3.1 mile 20 minute access gondola from the town of Kellogg on Interstate 90. Karl phoned but we did not meet the marketing director. He advised our first run in a moderately pitched gladed area South of the Border to skier's right of the Sunrise trail. This area faces SE and has a quite long traverse exit so had been very lightly skied in the 5 inches new snow the day before. Karl almost hidden near the trees.
Karl got a couple of better shots there, which I should find eventually.
South of the Border was not typical of Silver Mt. Most of the area faces north, so even though it doesn't get quite as much snow as Schweitzer coverage was fine and nearly everything stayed packed powder despite full sun and temps in the 30's. We spent about 2 hours on the chair 2 runs on Kellogg Peak. Riding up that lift next to the terrain park.
Chair 2 has a nice mix of intermediate and advanced runs. Looking down Tall Paul, one of the steeper runs.
We left chair 2 via the North Face Glades, Wardner Peak at distance.
I managed an interesting fall in there, sliding below a tree that hooked my ski. Fortunately I was able to reach up and pop the binding with my pole or I would have needed Karl's assistance to get loose. View of the nicely spaced trees from the Centennial groomer below the North Face Glades.
We then moved to chair 4, which rises to a knoll between Kellogg and Wardner peaks. Some powderhounds had hiked Wardner yesterday.
Skier's left at the top of the lift we found a couple of pockets of untracked. We reloaded chair 4 twice from its midstation, then skied a couple of groomers on chair 3 before we had to stop skiing at 2PM so Karl could catch his flight. View riding down the gondola.
We skied 15,100 during our short time at Silver. Whether due to weather or a Toyota promotion, there were quite a few casual skiers/riders there and lots of kids even though it was a Friday. There were no significant liftlines but we needed to be careful at trail junctions, etc. But we were both pleasantly surprised by the terrain and snow. There is plenty of interesting terrain to make Silver a worthwhile stop for advanced skiers, and it's very convenient if you're on a Northern Rockies road trip like I am now.
