Skiing in Sasquatch Country

Bigfoot sightings are common in Washington State. I’m no expert on this particular topic, but after this weekend it’s pretty clear to me that Bigfoot is happily hanging out for the winter at Forty Nine Degrees North. I assume Sasquatch is too large to fit on the old double chairs here, but he’s certainly happily hiking around the ski hill, as the indisputable photographic evidence shows ;}

The locals must be keeping bigfoot’s winter vacation at their ski hill a secret. But that’s not a surprise, as I suspect they’re good at the secret thing. After all, they have a decent size ski hill with excellent cruising terrain, enticing glades and reliable snow on their doorstep. And no one knows about it.

We headed up to 49 Degrees North for President’s weekend. Traditionally one of the busiest of winter, we spent a whole weekend without a single lift line. The groomers were the place to be, as freeze-thaw weather in the Pacific Northwest had left the trees and off-trail variable. By Saturday afternoon, the snow softened leaving pleasant goop to carve in the glades up high, but Sunday saw a deep freeze and icebergs anywhere that hadn’t been corduroyed. It was all fast and furious entertainment.

We stayed in Chewelah at the Chewelah Creek Inn. A pleasant double room and two lift tickets for $100 a night is a bargain by anyone’s standard. Chewelah isn’t exactly a hub of wild nightlife, but we found decent food in the local Chinese restaurant on Friday, and the Sportsman’s Bar had good rocking bands on both nights. There was nothing wrong with the prime rib, duck and scallop dishes in ‘Sportys’ either, which made for a very pleasant surprise Saturday evening.

Despite the slow lifts, we skied 7700m vertical on Saturday and 6200m on Sunday before departing at 2pm. This made for a fun weekend away from the hoards of President’s weekend skiers. I’d certainly like to return when the snow is soft, as the glades would be a fantastic place to explore for a day or three. There’s a lot of off-trail skiing here, nothing steep, but when you have the whole place to yourself, finding good lines certainly wouldn’t be a problem. And you might just get a close-up meeting with Sasquatch … Season totals: 36 days, 14 powder days, 273,00 verts.

A weekend at Snowbird/Alta

Sunday night was a new experience for us all. We were ‘inter-lodged’ in our condo between Snowbird and Alta due to heavy snowfalls making it dangerous to go outside before avalanche control was done. From 6pm, we weren’t even allowed to go on our balcony!

With our usual gargantuan supplies of food, wine and John’s girlfriends (Budweiser – it tastes like beer only weaker), this situation was not likely to lead to starvation. And it’s not like the nighttime attractions of Snowbird and Alta are sufficient to induce cabin fever at the thought of missing out on fine food or entertainment. If you want such indulgence, go to the DMZ (De-Mormonized Zone – Park City). If you want to ski ‘the greatest snow on earth’, come to Little Cottonwood Canyon.

We certainly weren’t welcomed by the greatest snow on earth Friday morning at Snowbird. With little snow for a month, conditions were firm with tree tops and twigs off trail, and lots of rocks on the steeper, exposed faces. Anything south-facing was bullet-proof. Still, we found some nice bumps, and traversed, slowly, over rocks and ice, into Mach Schnell, an excellent, narrow and steep chute.

Saturday at Alta was little different, only busier and crazily warm (10C). There was good snow to be found off the traverses in to Devil’s Castle and Ballroom, and the groomed trails were fine. But snow was desperately needed, and it arrived literally as the lifts closed at 4.30pm.

With fresh snow, Sunday was always going to be busy at Alta, and we stood in line at the Wildcat lift for about 30 minutes while avalanche control was completed. The new 8+ inches of snow was pretty heavy and wet, but eminently skiable for anyone who has skied Snowy Sludge (‘powder’ in Australia). By noon, everywhere was pretty tracked out, so we went in for lunch. And while we were eating hearty soups and organic dark chocolate(!), magic happened.

First, it got colder. Second, it started dumping snow. Third, someone made the crowds disappear. We headed over to the Sugarloaf chair, and found excellent lines down the ridge line all afternoon, with the wind filling in our tracks between runs. There was no competition at all. I did three runs off the Wildcat chair at the end of the day, and had heaps of freshies to myself. It was a strange day!

And it kept snowing, another 8+ inches by Monday morning, when more magic happened. As we drove to Snowbird, blue skies crept up the canyon, revealing stunning vistas of the surrounding peaks and valleys.

The skiing wasn’t bad either. This snow was more like ‘the greatest snow on earth’, and pretty deep in the trees. The crowds headed to the tram, so we headed to Gad 2 chair and had first tracks down several lines in knee deep pow. Later, John, Rob and myself traversed into Upper Cirque for the run of the weekend. John exposed all the rocks, and I hopped between them in light, fluffy snow. Thanks, dude.

Trip details: Friday 6200m, Saturday 7700m, Sunday 8000m, Monday 6400m

Season so far: Season Totals: 34 days, 14 powder days, 259,100 vertical metres

More adventures at Red Mountain

It’s been a week since it had snowed at Red, but the cold temperatures had kept the snow in fine, fluffy condition. Saturday dawned sunny and cold, and by 9am we were heading up to the top. 

Rob and Kevin had never been to Red, so I showed them a few of the lines I’d found on my previous trip a month earlier. Once they were used to the modus operandi here – ie follow some tracks in to the trees and see what’s in there – we basically spent the rest of the weekend exploring new lines. And some of them were spectacular.

The whole weekend was exemplified by the three runs we did after lunch on Sunday. It had been snowing for a few hours, and the conditions were improving by the minute. We decided to drop off the back of Buffalo Ridge, following tracks that led in various ways in to the trees.

The first line opened up quickly in to a steep-ish gully with soft snow and fun gladed run out. The second commenced with steep, tight trees and then opened up in to a wonderful powder bowl. On the trail map, we were somewhere near Bootys, I think.

Finally, we dropped in to a gully at the end of the ridge. This opened up in to some spectacular gladed skiing in nice, fresh snow. Soon, the trees got tighter. And tighter. So tight we were struggling to turn. Kevin spotted a traverse line to our right, and it led in to the run of the weekend. I think it’s Needles on the trail, basically an enormously steep, 2 ski length wide line through the trees. With a few inches of new, skiing doesn’t get much better than this.

Saturday: 7700m, Sunday 6800m

Season so far: Season Totals: 30 days, 12 powder days, 230,800 vertical metres

A Black Diamond-athon at Apex

We left Whistler after skiing and meandered through the wonderfully scenic Coastal Ranges and over to the Okanagan Valley. Fab, cheap food at Garden Sushi in Merrit, a quick sleep in Penticton, and we were on the hill at Apex by 9am on Friday.

Apex is all about the black and double-black diamond trails which drop off a long ridge line on either side of the main quad chair that serves the whole mountain. There’s 20+ marked steep runs, and as we discovered, many unmarked lines for exploration.

Despite no snow for a week or so, the cover was in excellent condition as few slopes are visited by the somewhat feeble January BC sunshine. There were a few woody protrusions in the really steep areas, but nothing that couldn’t be easily avoided.

We started in the sun on The Great Wall, and then spent the rest of the morning picking off the lines to the skier’s right of the chair. There was some nice wind blown snow in the areas under the chair, and the blue groomer run outs were as good corduroy as I think I’ve ever skied – like carving through ice cream just out of the freezer. Vanilla bean, I think ;-}

After lunch we switched to the skier’s left, and had enormous fun on the soft bumps on the multitude of trails that descend from the traverse. Some of these runs were seriously steep and narrow cuts through the dense trees. It was superb and testing fun.

Oh to be here on a powder day – I could spend days on some of these trails. Apex is a small mountain that packs a big punch, and we certainly felt like we’d been in a fight by the day’s end and 9100 verts. With aching bodies, it was in the truck, Rossland bound. 

Season so far: Season Totals: 28 days, 12 powder days, 216,300 vertical metres

Fun in the sun at Whistler

It’s been such an epic season at Whistler so far, we felt the urge to call in again for a few days in late January. Sue and Rob, our ski buddies from Sydney, had no complaints about this at all. And it was good to catch up with Jim and Kath as they meandered from Sydney to London.

We spent Tuesday exploring lots of the new terrain around Symphony Bowl and cruising the bumps in Harmony and off the Peak chair. The weather was perfect, sunny, still and cold, and the crowds light, with no lift lines at all. The snow that hadn’t been acquainted for long with the sun remained in good condition, and on Whistler this means lots of fun terrain to explore on a 100+ inch base.

Wednesday was a double-black diamond Blackcomb day. Couloir Extreme, Diamond Bowl off Spankys Ladder and Pakalolo were all conquered in a superb day of skiing. We even slipped in some fast cruisers on Ridge Runner and on 7th Heaven. Sunny, no people, no wind, repeat …

Thursday we went back to Whistler and showed Jim and Kath some of the more enjoyable, challenging but not evil runs like Dave Murray Downhill and Bear Paw. Kath lost here black diamond-inity, and seemed to enjoy it, even though we have some of it on film. All suitable bribes considered.

After lunch we headed back up the Peak chair, and Rob and myself decided on a last run down Whistler Bowl. I dropped in Liftee’s Leap, which wasn’t too serious, did 4 turns, stopped and looked over my shoulder to see if Rob had followed. Stood still, my downhill ski slipped, and the next thing I knew I was tumbling down the huge hard bumps in the bowl. I flipped, turned, rolled, all to no avail, and only when the gradient eased a little, about 300m down, did I manage to dig in my boots and stop.

A bit winded, slightly stunned (thanks helmet!) and as it turned out, with a very sore left thumb, I waited for Rob to collect my skis and continue, a little tentatively. We headed out down Shale Slope, and I saw the others stood on the trail and went to join them and recount the story of my long slide. After a minute or so, Sue realized that Rob, who was just behind me, hadn’t emerged from a small dip by the side of the run. A radio call revealed a stunned Rob, who had hit the snow helmet first at high speed in some soft, grippy snow.

Fortunately, he was ok too, and we all carefully headed down to the village to end 3 great days skiing on probably the best in-bounds terrain North America has to offer.

3 days: Tuesday 9900m, Wednesday 8900m, Thursday 5400m

Season so far: Season Totals: 27 days, 12 powder days, 207,200 vertical metres

Dinner @ Brasa in Belltown

After an energetic weekend skiing at Crystal, we headed to Seattle, dumped our gear in a hotel in Belltown and headed out for food. It’s tough walking around Belltown, as the choices for dining are far too wide for our overwhelmed minds to work methodically through. Especially when it’s cold and the wind bites through your clothes. We looped a couple of blocks, got lost, and decided mostly randomly on Brasa. The menu looked interesting. The restaurant looked warm. There were free tables. We were in.

Serving interpretations of Portuguese and Spanish food, the restaurant is somewhat mahogany dark, but elegantly decorated in a vaguely authentic Mediterranean kind of way. Confronted with an interesting wine list, we completely failed our first test of ordering drinks, and scared off the waitress for a few minutes while we decided on what to eat. The mussels were too alluring, a passing Paella on the way to another table swayed Jan, and I was tempted by a black cod with a white bean and cauliflower roasted puree. It sounded too odd to resist.

We asked the waitress about an Albarino, a Spanish wine that we knew nothing about. It came highly recommended, and given our food orders, it was an excellent choice. Crisp, slatey and off-dry, it slid down in perfect harmony with the fine food that followed.

And fine food it was. The mussels were the best I’ve had in this part of the world, steamed in a light broth with shaved fennel. The paella was authentic and substantial, meaning I got to eat to the shellfish Jan doesn’t like. And my black cod was cooked to a translucent, moist perfection.

There was no room for dessert, and we slowly walked back to the hotel completely satisfied by some simple and well cooked food. The menu had too many fascinating dishes for us not to return soon. This would be a great place for a small group to share a few dishes and bottles of odd Spanish wine. We’ll see who we can rustle up next time we’re in town.

Spring skiing at Crystal – in January

Perhaps El Nino has finally arrived, as it hadn’t really snowed for a week when we arrived at Crystal for the weekend. Fortunately, El Nino seems to have had at least had the decency to wait until a 100+ inch base had accumulated on the Pacific Northwest mountains. There’s worse things in life than skiing on superb terrain and in beautiful weather.

Saturday actually remained cold all day. Avoiding the sun damaged areas, the skiing was still fantastic on firm but by no means hardpacked snow. The Powder Bowl was especially fine, and the steep tree runs below remained mostly in good condition.

On Sunday the weather was warmer, and the sun exposed areas actually softened to spring-like slushy conditions that were great fun. We ripped down Green Valley, bumped down the black diamond runs under the Rainier Express chair, and explored several lines in Snorting Elk Bowl. Avoiding the crowds was easy, the runs pleasantly quiet and the views of the Cascades up to Mount Baker and down to Mount Adams were stunning.

The more I get to explore Crystal, the more I appreciate its wonderful, challenging terrain. There’s so much to explore here, it could take years.

It’ll be tough, but I’ll do my best ;}

Weekend Details: Saturday 8200m, Sunday 7100m

Season Totals: 24 days, 12 powder days, 183,000 vertical metres