ExcelsiorTheFathead Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 Monday 1/3 was a nice sunny day. MikeG was up today. Just plain 'ol hardpack everywhere and only a minor crowd. A few icy spots on Skyline, in particular where Barrier Ridge and Skyline neck together. I'll be up tomorrow to catch another sunny day before new snow comes in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sultan Guy Posted January 9, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2011 Tuesday mornings until Noon-then straight to work Thursday nights Sunday mornings If anyone wants to ride up these days let me know. Leave Sultan area at 7:30 AM or evenings at 3:30. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sultan Guy Posted January 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 Tonight: Snow. Temperature falling to near 13 by 8pm, then rising to around 18 during the remainder of the night. Southeast wind between 15 and 17 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 10 to 14 inches possible. Wednesday: Snow. High near 30. West southwest wind around 17 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 7 to 11 inches possible. Wednesday Night: Snow. Low around 25. West southwest wind between 14 and 17 mph becoming light. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 8 to 12 inches possible. Thursday: Snow. Snow level 5300 feet. High near 33. Light wind becoming west southwest between 10 and 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 7 to 11 inches possible. Thursday Night: Snow. Snow level 5900 feet. Low around 25. Breezy. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible. Friday: Snow. High near 32. Breezy. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of 5 to 9 inches possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExcelsiorTheFathead Posted January 20, 2011 Report Share Posted January 20, 2011 Went up on Tuesday after the rains let up. Crusty w/cookies down low and decent conditions higher up. Creeks undermined the snow in a bunch of places, but not on any important runs. Today was better because of another grooming and a little bit of fresh snow. Skid Road was the best, but the higher elevations were good in general. The grooming crew had patched up a bunch of the holes. Coming down Skyline under the Brooks chair I did a deep heelside and while on the traverse got torpedoed by a runaway ski. The ski whacked right into the front binding and caused it to rotate 10 or so degrees. I got out the screwdriver and set it back. Except for a little topsheet ding and a mar in the binding, I think that I'm damage-free. What a weird thing to happen... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sultan Guy Posted January 24, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2011 Rain and fog this morning. First busted day of the season for me. Gave up after 4 runs. Just could not see anything.... This winter was supposed to be wetter and COLDER then normal. So far it IS wetter, but where is the colder?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExcelsiorTheFathead Posted January 26, 2011 Report Share Posted January 26, 2011 Up with Sultan Guy this morning. Foggy. Harder and a little crusty at the higher elevations, transitioning to slushy and mushy down low. Every run required varying riding styles depending on the elevation and visibility. Saw a softbooter going down Skyline carving hard and tight. Projected overnight low of 32 and high tomorrow of 43? SLUSH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExcelsiorTheFathead Posted January 26, 2011 Report Share Posted January 26, 2011 Frozen slush at open. Crusty and hard. Around 10 it started to soften a bit, by 11 it was soft, at Noon the sun came out and stewed over the whole place. Freaky warm T-shirt weather. Carving was ok for an hour or two while things softened, but then everything got pushed around and cut up. The grooming was uneven to begin with. Tomorrow looks like more of the same, so I'm staying home. There might be some firm snow in the early morning, but the place will be a cut-up slushy mess by lunchtime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sultan Guy Posted January 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2011 45F at 3 PM! Super hard and crusty underneath with uneven loose corn snow on top. Tough conditions on the legs. Very weird conditions. At least there was great visibility and totally deserted slopes. Am planning on Sunday AM for a few hours. Need snow bad! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sultan Guy Posted February 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2011 Saturday 2/5 Fair visibility but very hard and icy surface. Poor grooming with wet slushy snow that froze. Ran into another carver on hardboots with an old Rossi slalom board. Did a few runs together. He just moved to the area from CA and this was his first day of the season. Left at noon. Sunday 2/6 Website said 1 inch of new snow. There was 3 inches in the parking lot and about 5 inches at the top of Skyline at 9 AM. Snow was very wet and clumpy. Snowed medium hard all morning. First hour was awesome and then very bumpy. Lots of fog. No crowds. Used the Axxess. Left at 11. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sultan Guy Posted February 9, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 Butter soft groomed fresh powder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sultan Guy Posted February 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2011 EPIC night of carving! Perfect snow conditions, no ice, no moguls, great visibility, and less then half the crowd from Tuesday morning. Started on the 172 Axxess but it was so good I switched over to the 179 FC. Board was really railing. Went so hard I could barely walk to the car. :) Met up with a guy on softies who was carving pretty good on a Lib Tech something. We did some runs together. He used to race on a carving board with plates. Best night of the season so far! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExcelsiorTheFathead Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 Weird day. I thought that the weather would be a little crappy, but I arrived on the hill to sunshine and broken clouds. Maybe an inch of new over the groom. For some reason the grooming on the Rock 'n Blue was the worst I've ever seen this season, something like a vertically striped washboard. Everything from Skyline was the preferred run of the day with hero-ish conditions until noon when it got a little loose and cut up. Probably going tomorrow unless it seems like it will snow a lot. Snohomish schools have Friday off, so that day will likely be full of kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sultan Guy Posted February 21, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2011 Got first chair at 8:45 sharp! Killer morning with few crowds until about 10:30. Bluebird and perfect snow. Rode with Bill (instructor at Stevens) for a bit. The mountain is in the best shape this past week of the entire season Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sultan Guy Posted February 23, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2011 Epic powder day at Stevens! About 12" by 9 AM on top of the mountain. Snowed another 8 inches by noon. Stayed all morning on the back mainly near Southern Cross chair. Rode my Burton 167 Custom wide with the bindings set all the way back. Makes a decent powder board. I forgot how much fun a big powder day can be. It was fun to apply my carving technique in powder. :) Driving both ways was an adventure. Cars spun out everywhere, trucks blocking lanes, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sultan Guy Posted March 2, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2011 Super soft runs today. The groomed runs were the softest that I have seen in a very long time, certainly this season. Carving was challenging because I kept cutting too deep and booting out. Broadway was a bit firmer. Axxess 172 was a good choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExcelsiorTheFathead Posted March 2, 2011 Report Share Posted March 2, 2011 That was kinda my suspicion. I figured that it would take at least a couple of days for so much new snow to settle, and some smaller amounts of new are still coming down. I'm looking to go up on Friday and Sunday. Next week is looking good for better weather too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExcelsiorTheFathead Posted March 3, 2011 Report Share Posted March 3, 2011 I went up today cuz a non-carving friend wanted to go regardless of the conditions. Anywhere from 3 to 6 inches of new over soft groom, with some places even deeper. The first runs were great, but things quickly turned to chunder and piles of stuff pushed all over the place. It snowed the whole time, sometimes heavy. At least 2 inches of new from 9 to noon. Even if it stops snowing now, I wonder if the Friday grooming will be good? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sultan Guy Posted March 9, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2011 Well, well, well. Today was a great lesson in how quickly things can change in the mountains. Morning snow report said 0" inches overnight but snowing lightly at 5 AM. Drive up from Sultan at 7:30 in pouring rain which changed to wet snow by Index and all snow on road by Baring. Saw a van upside down in the ditch just past Skykomish. Arrived at the lower parking lot at 8:30 to find 6 inches of new snow and snowing hard. Nice fluffy stuff! No powderhounds showed up. The smallest crowd I have seen this season. :) Groomed runs were all buried but great fun. By 10:30 it was starting to warm up and the snow got sticky and then really lumpy. Visibility was nonexistent at 9 but pretty good by 10:30. Snow had tapered off by midday. Left the mountain at noon and was on wet roads most of the way back. Donek Axxess Metal 172 rocked today. I love how versatile that board is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike g. Posted March 10, 2011 Report Share Posted March 10, 2011 hey Andy, ask Art how the Japanese Board went. i think he'll take your $ 170, now. I didn't see him ride it, but he told me about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExcelsiorTheFathead Posted March 17, 2011 Report Share Posted March 17, 2011 Sunny and Springy. Rode with West for much of the day and had him try my 4WD to see how it compares to his ATV. Snow was a little soft at open, and got mushy by noon. Grooming should get better as the snowpack settles with little new in the forecast, but temps are pretty high. Yeah, that Ogasaka was built for big fat Japanese guys. I have to be moving pretty fast to generate the Gs necessary to bend it. It needs a bigger resort than Stevens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExcelsiorTheFathead Posted March 18, 2011 Report Share Posted March 18, 2011 Winds were howling from E to W when I got to the parking lot around 08:15 with lots of blowing snow. I thought that I was in for an awful day, but most of the runs were sheltered from the wind. Just a dusting to one inch of new on the groom, with a gentle constant sprinkling of dry falling snow. Skid Road was traction city with the best grooming. Showcase was working as well. Did laps on Rock 'n Blue after lunch, but lots of people showed up to clutter up the place. Rode my dainty, effeminate 163 MFC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohob Posted March 18, 2011 Report Share Posted March 18, 2011 Butter soft groomed fresh powder. ahh! this brings back some memories! I used to terroize Stevens with my old Nitro Asym EFT and fritchi plates! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sultan Guy Posted March 20, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2011 Tuesday 3/15 Another big powder day. All the groomers had 4-9 inches on top. I took one of my suppliers for a tour of the mountain. We did every lift but spent most of the time on the backside. Snow did not get sticky until about noon. Business was done on the lifts! He bought me lunch in the lodge. Made an appearance at work at 2:30 :) Saturday 3/19 Claim of 7" overnight but every groomed run had no new snow on it so the dump must have been around midnight. Tried to carve but everything was way too soft. 6" inch trench type conditions. Runs got chewed up very fast so just rode trees and off piste all morning. Sticky snow by 10:30 everywhere due to sun. Crowds minimal for a Saturday. There is a Masters ski race today thru Monday which is closing one side of Skyline(left when you are facing up). Both days on Donek Axxess. Great board for these days. Sunday should be fantastic with a bit of sun on this new snow and then a frosty night of grooming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sultan Guy Posted March 21, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2011 Yesterday was spring, today was winter. Windy, cloudy, snow flurries, and never got above freezing. Grooming today was VERY inconsistent...some of the worst I have seen all season. Lots of ruts, grooves, and chunky areas all frozen HARD. Some areas were great and then you would hit ice patches with balls of ice on top. After several runs I quickly figured out where the bad and the good places were. Certain areas were awesome but no one run was all good. They must have groomed when everything was wet. On the plus side it was FAST and no moguls even by midday. No line all day on Skyline. It needs to warm up and be groomed a few more times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExcelsiorTheFathead Posted March 22, 2011 Report Share Posted March 22, 2011 Up with Sultan Guy for a morning's ride. A mixed bag but overall pretty good. Some lower areas were crusty. Skid Road was nice with 2-3" of new over not-too-crusty base. Rock 'n Blue was a crust-o-rama, but the Hog Heaven side was butter. Skyline/Broadway was good except for the flat light. Marmot Meadows is groomed really wide, but is just a featureless field of white unless the sun comes out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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