Had enough Utah sunshine for a while.
Took the last Southwest flight out of Salt Lake City on Friday (but not before getting a Comma Chute in/ very cool) to Seattle.
Traded my sports car for an ex-girlfriends Subaru and loaded up for the Cascades. Keep a pile of old Gore Tex grubs around my apartment for such occasions. Made sure to pack them up, along with some indigenous Seattle Music (Fleet Foxes and Pearl Jam) and headed to Mt Baker.
Saturday at Mt Baker was a powder day. How much powder probably can't be determined as the winds were very strong. A gust at Mt Rainier was clocked at 155 mph during the day. At Baker it was probably clicking around 60. Fast enough to stop some competitors in the Legendary Banked Slalom in their tracks. Pan Dome closed around noon but other lifts somehow kept running. The new snow was rather like West Rustler on one of the warm windy days earlier this winter. The day finished up with the Legendary Baked Salmon, a full dinner for $8.00.
Left to head up to Whistler. The road to the Sumas Crossing was closed by downed live powerlines (that wind) so after a substantial detour got to Squamish after 4 hours (about how long it would take to drive from Seattle).
Got to Creekside at 8:00 Sunday morning. Whistler charges plenty for a lift ticket so the thought of paying even more to park in lots 1, 2, or 3 did not appeal to the New England part of me. The line for the gondola was out to the pedestrian bridge BEFORE the lift opened. Turned out that was a foreshadow of what was to come. I would say avoid Whistler on good snow weekend days based on my dozen trips here. I read whistlerblackcombsnowreport.com. These guys are locals and they STILL got stuck in a 30 minute line over on the slow Crystal chair at Blackcomb. We never see anything like this in Utah unless there is an historic May Saturday snowstorm and Snowbird is the only game in town.
The snow. Well there was plenty of it. It was thick, which is good because the bottom was crusty in places. There was wind affect. There was avy debris in Couloir Extreme (switched to Blackcomb late morning). Got three runs down Spanky's as I figured that I would rather be taking long runs before getting back in the liftline. Did I mention liftlines? The snow in Spanky's was good. This is amazing terrain. Better than Comma Chute.
Today was great. 14" of snow you could lose your skis in. Snow you could see your tracks in. Snow that you coulld feel the bottom through, not that the bottom was in bad shape. Was at Blackcomb as there is more to ski there when the alpine is closed. And given the heavy snowfall and wind there was no question that the alpine wasn't going to open. Took mutiple laps in Jersey Cream Bowl. Short but it had the best snow. This is propbably because of the limited visibility and brutal chair ride.
Tomorrow I am hoping that it doesn't snow as I want a few more laps in the alpine.
A day of work on Wednesday in Seattle before catching an evening flight back to SLC where winter is scheduled to resume Wednesday night.
Took the last Southwest flight out of Salt Lake City on Friday (but not before getting a Comma Chute in/ very cool) to Seattle.
Traded my sports car for an ex-girlfriends Subaru and loaded up for the Cascades. Keep a pile of old Gore Tex grubs around my apartment for such occasions. Made sure to pack them up, along with some indigenous Seattle Music (Fleet Foxes and Pearl Jam) and headed to Mt Baker.
Saturday at Mt Baker was a powder day. How much powder probably can't be determined as the winds were very strong. A gust at Mt Rainier was clocked at 155 mph during the day. At Baker it was probably clicking around 60. Fast enough to stop some competitors in the Legendary Banked Slalom in their tracks. Pan Dome closed around noon but other lifts somehow kept running. The new snow was rather like West Rustler on one of the warm windy days earlier this winter. The day finished up with the Legendary Baked Salmon, a full dinner for $8.00.
Left to head up to Whistler. The road to the Sumas Crossing was closed by downed live powerlines (that wind) so after a substantial detour got to Squamish after 4 hours (about how long it would take to drive from Seattle).
Got to Creekside at 8:00 Sunday morning. Whistler charges plenty for a lift ticket so the thought of paying even more to park in lots 1, 2, or 3 did not appeal to the New England part of me. The line for the gondola was out to the pedestrian bridge BEFORE the lift opened. Turned out that was a foreshadow of what was to come. I would say avoid Whistler on good snow weekend days based on my dozen trips here. I read whistlerblackcombsnowreport.com. These guys are locals and they STILL got stuck in a 30 minute line over on the slow Crystal chair at Blackcomb. We never see anything like this in Utah unless there is an historic May Saturday snowstorm and Snowbird is the only game in town.
The snow. Well there was plenty of it. It was thick, which is good because the bottom was crusty in places. There was wind affect. There was avy debris in Couloir Extreme (switched to Blackcomb late morning). Got three runs down Spanky's as I figured that I would rather be taking long runs before getting back in the liftline. Did I mention liftlines? The snow in Spanky's was good. This is amazing terrain. Better than Comma Chute.
Today was great. 14" of snow you could lose your skis in. Snow you could see your tracks in. Snow that you coulld feel the bottom through, not that the bottom was in bad shape. Was at Blackcomb as there is more to ski there when the alpine is closed. And given the heavy snowfall and wind there was no question that the alpine wasn't going to open. Took mutiple laps in Jersey Cream Bowl. Short but it had the best snow. This is propbably because of the limited visibility and brutal chair ride.
Tomorrow I am hoping that it doesn't snow as I want a few more laps in the alpine.
A day of work on Wednesday in Seattle before catching an evening flight back to SLC where winter is scheduled to resume Wednesday night.
