While no new snow was reported overnight, it was dumping heavily when we woke up in Sandpoint and continued all Thursday morning. Even though I had been there before, it took a while to park, ride the Musical Chairs lift and get tickets. We had a warmup run on Basin Express before taking Great Escape to the Backside. I remembered enough from prior visits that there was abundant tree skiing back there which we would need on such a foggy day.
The quality of skiing was immediately revealed on Shoot the Moon.
Even the runout to the lifts was mostly untracked. In addition to the 4 inches this morning was probably much of the 5 inches from earlier in the week. As in my prior visits in 2000 and 2012 Schweitzer was very quiet midweek and the powder was not competitive at all with so much acreage.
Since 2012 the old Snow Ghost double has been replaced by two lifts. The Cedar Park Express follows a similar path as the old lift but ends around tree line short of the steep upper bowl. That bowl is serviced by the new Colburn triple now. Cedar Park was a good place to be on a bad visibility day. Here we had uncontested powder right by the lift.
We took two runs here and another two farther away on either side of the lift. The top of Cedar Park was in the fog but the trees provided good orientation.
We took a break at the Outback Inn at the bottom of Stella. Stella is Schweitzer’s lowest lift but it is north facing and we found more lightly tracked trees in Kathy’s Yard Sale.
After another tree run near G3, we took Colburn to the top. View riding Colburn of the SE facing trees below the Cedar Park ridgeline:
The upper bowl was pea soup so we exited right along North Ridge and eventually dropped in around Siberia. Powder here was deep enough to enjoy despite the fog.
But soon enough we get into the spaced trees that make it easier.
Eventually we hit the Gitback runout.
We skied to the bottom and took Stella to head back to the front side. We were lured into lower Abracadabra which was slightly tracked but led to the closed Sunnyside lift. Fortunately there’s an exit trail to the Musical Chairs lift, which we rode up to our parking.
Thursday was 17,200 vertical, 10K of powder, best day of the season so far.
The quality of skiing was immediately revealed on Shoot the Moon.
Even the runout to the lifts was mostly untracked. In addition to the 4 inches this morning was probably much of the 5 inches from earlier in the week. As in my prior visits in 2000 and 2012 Schweitzer was very quiet midweek and the powder was not competitive at all with so much acreage.
Since 2012 the old Snow Ghost double has been replaced by two lifts. The Cedar Park Express follows a similar path as the old lift but ends around tree line short of the steep upper bowl. That bowl is serviced by the new Colburn triple now. Cedar Park was a good place to be on a bad visibility day. Here we had uncontested powder right by the lift.
We took two runs here and another two farther away on either side of the lift. The top of Cedar Park was in the fog but the trees provided good orientation.
We took a break at the Outback Inn at the bottom of Stella. Stella is Schweitzer’s lowest lift but it is north facing and we found more lightly tracked trees in Kathy’s Yard Sale.
After another tree run near G3, we took Colburn to the top. View riding Colburn of the SE facing trees below the Cedar Park ridgeline:
The upper bowl was pea soup so we exited right along North Ridge and eventually dropped in around Siberia. Powder here was deep enough to enjoy despite the fog.
But soon enough we get into the spaced trees that make it easier.
Eventually we hit the Gitback runout.
We skied to the bottom and took Stella to head back to the front side. We were lured into lower Abracadabra which was slightly tracked but led to the closed Sunnyside lift. Fortunately there’s an exit trail to the Musical Chairs lift, which we rode up to our parking.
Thursday was 17,200 vertical, 10K of powder, best day of the season so far.