NASJA had an optional extension to Schweitzer and about 10 of us participated. The Monday powder we had skied at Whitewater was 11 inches here but much wetter. Driving up Tuesday the rain/snow line from that storm just below the ski area is obvious.
I had been here in January 2000 on the first and last days of a 6 day trip from Spokane that also included 2 days each at Red and Retallack. Daytripping in the usual overcast and fog I had barely noticed the base area which included the Selkirk Lodge hotel where we stayed on this trip and the White Pine condos.
Wednesday was supposed to have occasional snow, but it snowed all day. We started with our hosts up the Basin Express and Lakeview lifts but visibility was bad so we moved to the backside of the mountain. The upper mostly advanced part of that terrain is served by the 1,900 vertical Snow Ghost double and the lower mostly intermediate part by the Stella high speed six. The bottom of Stella is 700 feet lower than Schweitzer's base. Some islands of large cedars have been left in place among Stella's groomers.
After lunch I went back out with Jerry Hoffman, president of NASJA West. We were mostly on Snow Ghost but its upper bowls would have been complete vertigo. Snow Ghost has a midstation and we noted that the trees just below us were untouched in the storm, so we took a couple of powder laps there.
Like the other Kootenay areas on both sides of the US/Canada border Schweitzer has excellent tree skiing.
Total 23,800, about 5K of powder.
On Thursday it was still overcast but the cloud was well above the top of the mountain all morning. The lower lifts opened at 8:45, and with a good overview from the previous day I did not wait for other people in our group to meet at 9AM. I figured that the wide open areas with bad visibility yesterday would have the best early morning powder with 5 inches new over the not yet consolidated base from Monday's storm. Here are some people getting the first tracks as I ride up Lakeview the first time.
I took 3 laps here, 4th time up traversed out South Ridge, seen here with part of Lake Pend Oreille at distance.
Looking down from the top of South Ridge to the base and the Great Escape climbing 1678 feet from the base area to the top.
The South Ridge runs face north and Great Escape runs face south. The Great Escape runs had some wind effect at the top but absolutely no melt/freeze as the sun had not been out much in the past 2 weeks.
I took one more run out South Ridge before taking Great Escape up to check out the backside at 10AM. I expected Schweitzer's steepest terrain in Lakeside bowl to be chewed up by then but I was pleasantly surprised to see it only lightly tracked.
The 13 minute ride up Snow Ghost contributes to gradual tracking out of the powder. 70% of Schweitzer's ~225K annual skier visits are locals from the Spokane/Coeur d'Alene area and presumably most of those days are on weekends. So with lift capacity to handle that you can get in a lot of skiing midweek including powder if you're lucky with the weather as we were this time. Supposedly it takes the combination of a weekend and fresh snow to create liftline issues with the Snow Ghost double chair.
I took 3 runs in Lakeside Bowl, one farther north in the trees and one in Stella's trees before meeting NASJA members at lunch. 3 of us headed out again after lunch. The cloud had lowered onto the top of the mountain so we took 3 powder runs from the Snow Ghost midstation before heading back to Selkirk Lodge about 3:30PM. Better view of Lake Pend Oreille on the last run.
25,600 vertical, 10K of powder, best lift-served day of my season so far.
I had been here in January 2000 on the first and last days of a 6 day trip from Spokane that also included 2 days each at Red and Retallack. Daytripping in the usual overcast and fog I had barely noticed the base area which included the Selkirk Lodge hotel where we stayed on this trip and the White Pine condos.
Wednesday was supposed to have occasional snow, but it snowed all day. We started with our hosts up the Basin Express and Lakeview lifts but visibility was bad so we moved to the backside of the mountain. The upper mostly advanced part of that terrain is served by the 1,900 vertical Snow Ghost double and the lower mostly intermediate part by the Stella high speed six. The bottom of Stella is 700 feet lower than Schweitzer's base. Some islands of large cedars have been left in place among Stella's groomers.
After lunch I went back out with Jerry Hoffman, president of NASJA West. We were mostly on Snow Ghost but its upper bowls would have been complete vertigo. Snow Ghost has a midstation and we noted that the trees just below us were untouched in the storm, so we took a couple of powder laps there.
Like the other Kootenay areas on both sides of the US/Canada border Schweitzer has excellent tree skiing.
Total 23,800, about 5K of powder.
On Thursday it was still overcast but the cloud was well above the top of the mountain all morning. The lower lifts opened at 8:45, and with a good overview from the previous day I did not wait for other people in our group to meet at 9AM. I figured that the wide open areas with bad visibility yesterday would have the best early morning powder with 5 inches new over the not yet consolidated base from Monday's storm. Here are some people getting the first tracks as I ride up Lakeview the first time.
I took 3 laps here, 4th time up traversed out South Ridge, seen here with part of Lake Pend Oreille at distance.
Looking down from the top of South Ridge to the base and the Great Escape climbing 1678 feet from the base area to the top.
The South Ridge runs face north and Great Escape runs face south. The Great Escape runs had some wind effect at the top but absolutely no melt/freeze as the sun had not been out much in the past 2 weeks.
I took one more run out South Ridge before taking Great Escape up to check out the backside at 10AM. I expected Schweitzer's steepest terrain in Lakeside bowl to be chewed up by then but I was pleasantly surprised to see it only lightly tracked.
The 13 minute ride up Snow Ghost contributes to gradual tracking out of the powder. 70% of Schweitzer's ~225K annual skier visits are locals from the Spokane/Coeur d'Alene area and presumably most of those days are on weekends. So with lift capacity to handle that you can get in a lot of skiing midweek including powder if you're lucky with the weather as we were this time. Supposedly it takes the combination of a weekend and fresh snow to create liftline issues with the Snow Ghost double chair.
I took 3 runs in Lakeside Bowl, one farther north in the trees and one in Stella's trees before meeting NASJA members at lunch. 3 of us headed out again after lunch. The cloud had lowered onto the top of the mountain so we took 3 powder runs from the Snow Ghost midstation before heading back to Selkirk Lodge about 3:30PM. Better view of Lake Pend Oreille on the last run.
25,600 vertical, 10K of powder, best lift-served day of my season so far.
