Dec 29, Alpy Again

Hooked up with my brother Kelly and his wife Jen for a Nash lap.  Little wind up top, but still pretty sweet  in the middle.

Jennifer Curd,   International, Alpental.

Dec 28, Alpental

Woohoo!   Awesome day at Alpental with good snow, good weather, and a good group of friends.   Nash was so good the first lap, I made a solo second lap to the top.    Starting to feel like the season is really starting.

Renata, Scott, and Dan

Tom and Scott climb up Rollen



Scott slides in, looking for a rock free entrance to nirvana



Got it.       Scott





Dan

Tom



Eric Noll skied through.



Scott



Renata



Dan

12/27 Summit West, Snowing up top, raining at the bottom

Quick west lap with Scott.  One and done.

Scott

Dec. 26, Summit West - Ready for snow.

Skinned up little thunder chairlift, which was actually groomed.  Did a short lap from above Little Thunder to the maintenance shed, then skinned to the top and skied the face.   Coverage was a little thin on the lower face, but didn't hit any rocks today.   Hoping for the snow gods to deliver over the next couple of days.   I imagine if the ski area does receive any snow, they will have something running on Sunday.

Fresh tracks, looker left of Little Thunder
 

Dec. 19/20 Mt. Bachelor

Skiing was so good last week, we hopped in the car and went back.   We invited several friends, but only Sue Taylor was able to make it.   We got opening day of the Summit Chair last week.  This week it was opening day of the Outback chair.  We made the mistake of starting Friday on our skinnier skis.  The fresh powder on Outback was pretty sweet, but we could have used our powder skis for the slightly thick snow.   After 2 runs on Outback we headed to the car and got our fat skis for the rest of the trip.   Worked the ski hill pretty well, skiing everything that was open and lasting until almost four o'clock.  Saturday morning brought more powder, Sue and Francine enjoyed making almost first tracks down Old Skyliner run.   Lots of fresh snow, but rapidly warming.  By 2:00 the snow was pretty cooked, but so were our legs.

Sue and Francine

Morning line-up.  We were about 10 chairs back from the front.

Fresh snow, on the car, at the end of our trip

Dec 15, Moto Hyak

Well no snow at home, so jumped on the dirtbike and checked out the neighborhood.   New chair at Hyak has the cable strung, and they are splicing it together today.  Looks like bottom lift shack still needs work.   Rode out to the gun-range and checked out the tree thinning and then poked around at the lake.   Snowing today, so hopefully the moto will stay in the garage.

December 11-13, Mt. Bachelor

Tired of the lack of snow at Snoqualmie Pass, we had two options:  Go North to Whistler or go South to Bachelor.   Both area were forecasting snow and had a good base.   We have not been to Bachelor in years and decided to head South.   The drive down the east side of the Cascades was definitely more pleasant than the I5 corridor.   From our house the drive is about five/ five and a half hours,  same as Whistler.    The weather was windy our first day, with about an inch of wet snow falling.  Second day was a little better, with just Skyliner and Pinemarten chairs running.  Saturday broke out bluebird and the Summit chair opened up with nice windpacked powder.   Great trip, sure nice to finally go skiing.

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This is the morning liftline on Saturday 15 minutes before opening.
Nice!  Definitely not as crowded as Whistler

Fresh corduroy, Saturday morning.

Francine

Francine skies the bowl off the Summit chair

Kevin at the top.

Nov 24, Day 3, Summit West Groomers

Very happy to see three groomers working on getting the ski slope ready.   Made two laps on the fresh groomers.  Started to rain at 1:45 as I was driving home.   Francine hooked up with me for the second lap.

Day 2, In the backyard, Hyak

Thick, heavy, dense, snow.   Wuhoo, first snowfall at Snoqualmie Pass.  Toured up the access road to the top of Hyak.  Not really enough coverage to ski the ski slopes yet, but getting very close.

Nov. 19, Nisqually Chutes. Mt. Rainier

Kevin, Nisqually Chutes

Met Greg in Four Corners, Maple Valley at 8:15.   Greg was driving his newer Audi wagon, so he insisted on driving.   The benfit of absolutely no new snow, meant that we could take the back way to Paradise.   We went out through Greenwater on 410, then took the Stevens Canyon road up to Paradise.   Due to the cold temps we have been having there was quite a bit of frozen waterfalls and plenty of ice falling on to the roadway, especially near the tunnel entrances.  Ski approach from Paradise parking lot, was much longer than year's past.   We kept our sneakers on until above Pebble Creek.   Finally stuck our skis on about 7,400.   Traversed up and over to 8,200 feet and the Nisqually chute entrance.   Chute was smooth and steep.   We made the mistake of transitioning from skinning to downhill mode, far to close to the chute entrance.  The snow was very firm and a fall here, would have put a person sliding through the rocks adjacent to the chute proper.  Luckily I had a small rock, jutting out of the snow to perch on.   I am not quite sure how Greg maintained his balance during his transition.  Chute skied firm but well.   2000 feet of descent.   A whole day of travel and hiking for only 2k of skiing.   Oh well, weather was super pleasant, and good to get out with Greg.   Day NUMERO Uno for new season!

Greg with Pan point to the right

Finally skis on at 7,400"

Greg  -  smooth

Hiking again,  booted out of drainage,  back to below Pan Point

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Nov. 10, Sage Hills, Wenatchee

Wenatchee Day 2.  Rain up near Mission Ridge Ski area meant we couldn't ride up by Marion/Clara Lakes and the top of the Mission Ridge/Devils Gulch loops, so we stayed low and made our way to the Sage Hills System.  Parked at the bottom by Sage Hills Road.  We were hoping to make the climb all the way to the Apricot Crisp Trail so we could descend the Lightning Trail back into the Sage Hills trail system, but we were turned around by extreme wind and rain.  Of course we didn't know that the system would blow over.  14.5 miles.  3,796 feet of total elevation.

Climbing "Lone Fir" trail

Climbing "Lone Fir" trail thru the Hoodoos

Ascending "Homestead Trail" before wind/rain turned us back.

Descending "Jackhammer" Trail, near the bottom