tseeb
Well-known member
My previous trip to Ashland three years ago was a PM stop while going S and included a lot of firm snow and a crash that bruised at least one rib and hip. viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12075
This time I stopped on drive N and skied 7” very dry new with 34” reported in the last 7 days. I did not hear until following day that a patroller died after falling into a tree well the previous day after two other patrollers he was skiing with pulled him out and could not revive him. A reminder to be careful. See https://www.kdrv.com/content/news/Ski-P ... 54011.html
I left San Jose at 6:40 AM and with minimal stops and speeds high enough to put my 16 year-old SUV well under the usual 20 mpg, I arrived Ashland about 12:20 PM. It was President’s Day and parking was full, but it was late enough that people were leaving and I scored with a spot 3 spaces from ticket office. I bought $45 half-day ticket that I’m not sure was ever checked and a $6 Snow Park day pass for my dash and was on the hill before 1.
The Ariel chair had a short line and I rode with a local snowboarder who I ended up skiing with all day. He showed me a good line under the Windsor chair that we rode to Ashland’s cloudy 7500’ top. We went past the Cirque (somewhat difficult on a board) and skied untracked down the shoulder past it, then tight trees above the catchline before rejoining mostly groomed run to the bottom. It was good enough that we repeated it 4 more times, sometimes pushing a little farther to the W and staying in the tree to the steep in places catchline. Lines quickly went down to at most a minute.
We then skied the S side of Ashland back to parking lot. The snow was deep and lightly tracked but somewhat sun affected. We found better snow where trees protected it, then I found a rock on steep untracked pitch that got me almost to end of parking lot. I had to pole backwards for about 30 feet to find a spot where I could come down off 6-8’ bank that was partially burying some vehicles. We hiked back to our cars where we each had sandwich we’d brought and split a beer I had before returning.
We tried to repeat earlier runs past the Cirque, but they’d already been roped off so we were forced into the Cirque for a lap then skied lookers left of the chair once. I had spotted some not totally tracked snow, but think we went too far and missed some of it before coming back and getting a little. Last run started at close to 4 PM and was mostly an Easterly route from top to parking lot. 11 lifts/10.5K vertical
I don’t have time to write up the rest of my week so here’s my summary.
Monday 2/18 Crystal Mtn, WA with Tony Crocker and Larry Schick
I got there ahead of them and took two laps to the top. Highlights included Employee Housing, Bear Pit and a long traverse to a little untracked from one of our two? rides on chair 6. One lap to Northway. 13 lifts (probably under counted due to consecutive lifts/22.4K
Tuesday 2/19 2/20 Crystal Mtn, WA with Tony Crocker and Larry Schick
We stayed on mountain which was busier and more expensive than usual due to Seattle school vacation week. Highlights were Powder Bowl from chair 6 in marginal visibility and Brand X which is W end of Northway. Quit early to drive to Monroe to save ourselves for predicted 8-15” new. 16K
Wednesday 2/20 Stevens Pass, WA with Tony Crocker and David Chaus - 5” new
Storm under-delivered and new snow not deep enough to cover firm layer on very busy mountain. Highlight/lowlight was getting run into by snowboarder in very uncrowded Big Chief Bowl. After some discussion on hill he waited at bottom and wanted to take it into the parking lot which I told him was as illegal as him running into me. Ended day with some good powder below 7th Heaven. 20K
Thursday 2/21 Apex, BC with Tony Crocker
They had 6” previous day and we found a lot of it was very lightly skied. 11 lifts/20.7K
This time I stopped on drive N and skied 7” very dry new with 34” reported in the last 7 days. I did not hear until following day that a patroller died after falling into a tree well the previous day after two other patrollers he was skiing with pulled him out and could not revive him. A reminder to be careful. See https://www.kdrv.com/content/news/Ski-P ... 54011.html
I left San Jose at 6:40 AM and with minimal stops and speeds high enough to put my 16 year-old SUV well under the usual 20 mpg, I arrived Ashland about 12:20 PM. It was President’s Day and parking was full, but it was late enough that people were leaving and I scored with a spot 3 spaces from ticket office. I bought $45 half-day ticket that I’m not sure was ever checked and a $6 Snow Park day pass for my dash and was on the hill before 1.
The Ariel chair had a short line and I rode with a local snowboarder who I ended up skiing with all day. He showed me a good line under the Windsor chair that we rode to Ashland’s cloudy 7500’ top. We went past the Cirque (somewhat difficult on a board) and skied untracked down the shoulder past it, then tight trees above the catchline before rejoining mostly groomed run to the bottom. It was good enough that we repeated it 4 more times, sometimes pushing a little farther to the W and staying in the tree to the steep in places catchline. Lines quickly went down to at most a minute.
We tried to repeat earlier runs past the Cirque, but they’d already been roped off so we were forced into the Cirque for a lap then skied lookers left of the chair once. I had spotted some not totally tracked snow, but think we went too far and missed some of it before coming back and getting a little. Last run started at close to 4 PM and was mostly an Easterly route from top to parking lot. 11 lifts/10.5K vertical
I don’t have time to write up the rest of my week so here’s my summary.
Monday 2/18 Crystal Mtn, WA with Tony Crocker and Larry Schick
I got there ahead of them and took two laps to the top. Highlights included Employee Housing, Bear Pit and a long traverse to a little untracked from one of our two? rides on chair 6. One lap to Northway. 13 lifts (probably under counted due to consecutive lifts/22.4K
Tuesday 2/19 2/20 Crystal Mtn, WA with Tony Crocker and Larry Schick
We stayed on mountain which was busier and more expensive than usual due to Seattle school vacation week. Highlights were Powder Bowl from chair 6 in marginal visibility and Brand X which is W end of Northway. Quit early to drive to Monroe to save ourselves for predicted 8-15” new. 16K
Wednesday 2/20 Stevens Pass, WA with Tony Crocker and David Chaus - 5” new
Storm under-delivered and new snow not deep enough to cover firm layer on very busy mountain. Highlight/lowlight was getting run into by snowboarder in very uncrowded Big Chief Bowl. After some discussion on hill he waited at bottom and wanted to take it into the parking lot which I told him was as illegal as him running into me. Ended day with some good powder below 7th Heaven. 20K
Thursday 2/21 Apex, BC with Tony Crocker
They had 6” previous day and we found a lot of it was very lightly skied. 11 lifts/20.7K
