We haven't had a single good powder day since before Christmas, even though we've had a few storms. The snowpack is holding up fine, but I've been jonesin' to get back into the woods. Our favorite lifty was saying it was coming in early this week; the weather report was for a slow buildup to the big storm on Friday. Mother Nature delivered the goods last night.
I got up at 6:30am and checked the Pass conditions report and the DOT road report. Both said 14" overnight ant 16" in the last 24 hours. Game on!
You have to be at rope drop on a powder day or you miss the goods (technically, Willamette doesn't do rope drop--you just queue up in line until they let you on). We boarded our first chair at 8:57.
Conditions on the hill...ideal.
Base is pretty healthy.
Diane got me a GoPro video camera before we went to Mexico last year. I've been waiting for a good day to use it. Today was a good day to use it. It's got a nice chest harness where it is easy to get to and stays out of the way.
Through the trees on SDN. There's not many things that I like more than a 45 degree pitch through the woods in knee deep snow. Exhilarating.
Ran into a crew from the University. Steve is one of my project managers and a good skier to boot.
Dylan shreds SDN.
Dylan's been waiting a while to build a booter on the rock at the bottom of SDN so he could work on the frontside Rodeos. He nailed it the first time. Subsequent attempts were ok, but he scrubbed the landings.
Back home to make some tasty enchiladas and enjoy a bottle of Rogue Brewery's fine Yellow Snow IPA.
The mountain was pretty well ravaged by noon. They definitely had a bigger than usual crowd...good for them, not as great for us. This storm has passed and we probably won't go up tomorrow. I have a bunch of work to do to prepare for a busy week that includes a plane flight to Seattle and two intense days of meetings in Skagit County, Washington.
I suppose that's a fair trade to feed the habit.
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