January skiing – sunny and solid-ish

#fuckingelnino gradually moved on during January. Thankfully. This unwelcome climatological event, unfortunately, left behind a relatively warm dry winter.  Luckily there has been easily sufficient snow in the Washington Cascades to make for some fine fun, mostly sunny groomer skiing. By early January the base at Mission Ridge was deep enough to pretty much cover everything. Minor top ups made for a good first weekend of January cruising, with killer Cascades views.

We spent the next weekend at Whistler Creekside.  There was as much snow in the village as I think I’ve ever seen in Whistler. Again, fluctuating freezing levels meant venturing off groomed on the lower 2/3rds of the mountain was brutal. There was good snow on the upper mountain though, which made for some soft and fun runs in Harmony and Glacier Bowl especially.  Crowd management was needed though. Ski high early. Retreat to mid-mountain groomers mid-morning. Head high again once the post-lunch crowds dissipate. Works every time.

Since then, nowhere within weekend striking distance has been better than Mission Ridge.  MLK weekend actually delivered some fantastic skiing, with 10+ inches of pow and cold sunny weather to preserve the snow all weekend. It was the best skiing of the season by far.

Now if Mission Ridge can only keep chair 2 running – it has broken twice in the last two weekends – the season might get close to normal! At least we’ve paid for our season pass. And then some 🙂

Day 11, 12 Mission Ridge: 7600m, 7900m

Day 13-15 Whistler Blackcomb: 10700m, 10000m, 9700m

Day 16-20 Mission Ridge: 7300m, 8200m, 6600m, 8400m, 4400m

Season Totals: 20 days, 144,660m vert. 2 powder day