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Stevens PassSubmit a report
02/01/10 An easy but fun day just cruising. No crowds and buffed out grooming made for a fast day. Never really warmed up but even the light crowd scraped off a couple of inches of duff on the edges that made some sweet runs. Some fog at times but not too bad. Double diamond/Southern cross closed due to mechanical problem, hogsback running on deisel but at full speed.
1/22/2010 WARNING: Blue ice at entrance to Big Chief bowl.
I had a fine day mostly skiing with my wife on Hogsback. The longest line on Stevens busiest chair was only a couple of minutes and only because people did not quad up. The snow was firm but very skiable. Just don’t take any big falls. We skied all the normal blue runs together. When I got my chance to take a solo run, I headed for 7th Heaven. It was also in the firm category but a pleasant change of pace. The Cloud 9 area even had some soft stuff in places. Ended up at the top of Hogsback and tried one of the side hills under the chair near the top. Not very pleasant. After lunch it was more Hogsback blue runs and a couple of Tye Mills. The snow was slightly better there on the main blue run back to the chair. For my afternoon solo time I started for Corona Bowl. It was starting very firm and not very nice but I noticed a line to skiers left that I don’t think I have ever seen before. It is a little narrow but shaded from the sun so the snow was well preserved and soft, at least for a bit. The next run was Aquarius face that was decent but a bit of a struggle. Then a run under Southern Cross chair that was, uh, challenging. Hard, lumpy, bumpy, and a real workout. Finally back to the frontside to see my bride. Double Diamond start was icy in spots but the real treat was getting into Big Chief bowl. The corner before, and in, the entry had blue ice that I have only seen before when East Coast skiing. I could not stop before hitting the traverse into the bowl. I was lucky to maintain my balance and slide into the traverse without incident. The bowl was actually very pleasant with several inches of soft on top of the firm with avalanche debris thrown in for fun. All in all a nice day and way better than going to work!
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01/14/10 Nothing like low expectations to make for a better than it should have been ski day. Things started out with warmish temps and 5 or 6 inches of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter fresh, combined with some filtered sun. Off the groomed really only made sense for snowboarders and only a little. They were struggling with the mank over rain crunch. But struggle they did along with most of the skiers, leaving the remarkably good groomers in great shape all morning long. They were silky at the top turning to softish spring-like conditions at the bottom. On a day like this Stevens gets huge credit for grooming literally everything they could get a cat to - it was as though I'd driven to Stevens but somehow wound up in Sun Valley. No lines all day, virtually empty 9 - 10:30, at which point the college people started to trickle in. By 1:30 it had cooled down with snow coming down in earnest. By that point the stuff off the groomed had gone from heavy poo to set up day-old crust coated oatmeal and the slopes, chairs, everything but the bar were completely depopulated. Called it done about 3:00 after more runs than I could count. JG
01/04/2010 Was expecting possible rain but it snowed all day. Made for some sweet runs all over the mountain. Get up if you can tommorrow
11/19/2009 Caught opening day, managed to get on maybe the 20th chair up Big Chief. Deep 32 degree snow equaled fun but awfully easy to come to a stop and eject on the steeps, or just come to a stop and stop on the not-so-steeps. Neither back side nor seventh heaven opened so the rest got skied out by noon unless you went hunting, so hunt we did. Heading into the meadow and then trees skiers right of main Big Chief run (I have no idea what it's called) turned out to be a bad idea at first. Steepness was your friend and anything else was not, in the form of a long slow trudge. When we got to where it rolls off, things got good, but we knew not to go down to the parking lot or highway - way too much moderate terrain in there. Snowed hard all day, probably 6 inches. By about 1:30 the slopes and the chairs had almost completely emptied out. JG Seattle
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