THE SKI REPORT!!!!
Ski season 1995-96
#1 Sun.,Dec. 3rd: 1st trip of the year. Went to Mt. Baker. It was a blizzard and the snow cover was very low. Weather:Light Snow with winds 15-30mph; gusts to 50mph. 30 degrees. Me, Ken, Chuck went.skiied 5 hours.
#2 Sat.,Dec. 16th: Got up at 5am, Ken and I were going to go to Mt. Hood overnight but Ken is worried about warrant so we went to Crystal Mountain instead. It was killer!!! 1st time at Crystal, they have electronic gates, moving walkways at the chairlifts, all kinds of cool shit. Snow was great but cover still pretty low. I got tired and quit early...Ken skiied another 2 hours while I slept. WE MUST go back there often!!!!! Weather:Partly cloudy light wind 32 degrees. Just Me and Ken. Skiied 3 hours.
#3 Sun.,Dec. 17th: Eric called at 8:30....on the road to Stevens Pass by 10am. Weather was good, 50" of base is most snow in state right now. Slopes were all good. We all know that place SOOOO well. Eric and Ken skiied together and Me and Chuck skiied cuz we got split up. I skiied Chuck's 200cm Vokle skis and loved them. By 6pm the area was empty of people and me and Chuck were screaming down Big Chief. Ken broke (a) his binding on his K2 rccomps and (b) his new Lange boots (the ones just like mine) on Big Chief Trails at dark. Weather:Overcast/Fog with light wind, 24-28 degrees.Eric, Chuck, Ken & Me. Skiied 7 hours.
#4 Thurs.,Dec. 21st: Up at 6:30am. Ken and I went up to Steven's Pass. Still 50" base, no new snow but the slopes were pretty good. Ran the Vokles for 1/2 day then switched to the Extremes. Lots of killer jumps, esp. on Big Chief. Sprained my right thumb, it still sore. Fastest runs of the year so far on Tye Mill and the Barrier Bowl, on the Extremes no less!! Ken fell on Tye Mill right in front of me at Warp Speed. Saw God. Weather:Overcast/fog w/ light wind, 28-31 degrees.Me & Ken. Skiied 8 hours.
#5 Mon.,Dec. 25th: Christmas Day got up at 7am and went to Steven's Pass with Ken. Cold and clear until we got to the slopes; Steven's was covered in a perpetual cloud with sunshine all around. They have gotten no new snow...NO PLACE in the WEST has gotten any snow except for 5" in Northern Califonia a few days ago. Skiied 7th Heaven twice. The moguls at the very top are huge! It wasn't too bad though, very few skiers on 7th or on Big Chief; most people were there for X-mas day skiing and were all beginners or mom/dad types. No real fast runs today, I wasn't skiing all that great and we skied a lot of moguls. Left early cuz I was tired and Ken had X-mas dinner to go to. Weather:Mostly foggy/cloudy with clear areas up on top, 21-24 degrees. Me and Ken skied 5 1/2 hours.
###### Dec. 28th: No Skiing. It just started snowing tonight in the mountains. Broke bindings on
my Extremes (Tyrolia 570's) so I bought a pair of Volant T.S.B.D.'s with Marker M41 bindings at
Sturdvant's in Bellevue for $650. The Extremes are tuned and good to go but w/o bindings right now. Truck making funny noises in drivetrain so it's in North Seattle Trans overnight, maybe longer. Volants will be ready Fri night or Sat....Todd L. has a few days off...MAJOR SNOWSTORMS COMING SOON!!! Truck problem was U-joints.
#6 Sat.,Dec. 30th: Went over to Mission Ridge. Skied the new Volant T.S.B.D.'s....love them!!! Gouged the base of the right one on rock..they don't have enough snow over there....only 44" at Green Valley and Bomber Bowl is still closed. Weather: Foggy/Cloudy w/ light snow and winds 5-15mph, 28-30 degrees.Me, Ken and Eric. Skied 5 hours.
#7 Sun.,Dec. 31st: New Years Eve. We left Mission Ridge at 4:30pm on the 30th and drove to Sandpoint, Idaho (Schweitzer Mountain Resort). Took Rt. 2 all the way there...road conditions
sucked...fog and ice. Got to the Best Western in Sandpoint at 11:30pm. Ate at Connie's restuarant in the motel. I started feeling shitty that night and woke up the next morning with the flu. We drove up to Schweitzer that morning and got lift tickets. I was so sick that I just rode the Quad to the top and skied back to the car to sleep. Ken and Eric skied about 3 hours....Ken really liked the place. Left Schweitzer at 4:30pm and drove back to Seattle...arrived at 11:30pm. Thick fog on I-90 slowed us down. Weather at Schweitzer: Partly cloudy with clearing on top. 26-28 degrees. Me, Ken and Eric. I skied less than one hour.
#8 Thurs.,Jan. 4th: Ken and I ran up to Alpental for a few hours this evening to check out the new snow. They have gotten about 10" in the last 24 hours. There were quite a few good skiers up there...and a big ski school was in session so it was a little crowded. They have a base on top of 92"....supposedly. Didn't look like that much snow to me. We did a little powder skiing and some out-of-bounds skiing....that place is really, really, moguled and skied out; bumps from top to bottom. Found some good air here and there. I dropped off my TSBD's at Fiorini's to get them fixed so I had to ski the Extremes. I wasn't skiing so well in them and those Tyrolia binding suck getting into after the Markers. While I was at Fiorini's I bought a pair of Volant Chubbs with Marker M41 Wide Brake bindings.They should be done tommorow. Weather: Snowing hard, 31 degrees. Me & Ken skied 3 hours.
#9 Sat.,Jan. 6th: Got truck tuned up yesterday and picked up the 2 pairs of Volants. Ken and Eric wanted to leave last night for White Pass but I vetoed. Instead we got up and went to Crystal Mountain. We left at 6:30am and drove straight there, arriving (after a short traffic wait) at the mountain at 9:30am. It was partly sunny when we got there and the place was packed. We took Midway Shuttle to the Rainier Express and got on the quad and went about 200 yards and stopped. The High Speed Quad took about 30 minutes to get to the top due to 'electrical-mechanical problems'. Thats what the ski patrol said anyway. When we actually started skiing the snow cover was still very low and patches of muddy snow dotted the runs. Todd Lumburg and Dave Hunter were skiing with us so I just ran my TSBD's so I could stay up. Dave is an awsum skier. It started raining around 3pm and by the time we were at the top of the Campbell Basin chair for the 3rd time we all agreed we were done for the day. Easy drive home. Weather:
Partly sunny with rain in the afternoon, 35 degrees. Me, Ken, Todd & Dave skied 6 hours
#10 Wed.,Jan.10th: Ken stayed home from work today and we went to Steven's Pass. We left about 11am and arrived at 12pm. The SNO-Line report sounded bad...35 degrees and raining....but it wasn't so! It was around 30 degrees and snowing. The ENTIRE mountain was open finally and we headed for the backside as soon as we got there. There was 3"-5" of powder out there and I was on my Chubbs for the first time. Those things are great!!!! I could ski almost anything; the powder was like skiing on groomed runs. We skiied all day and left at 7pm. Dinner at Petosa's in Monroe sucked...no more Petosa's. Weather: Snow in the afternoon; clear later on. 30 degrees. Me and Ken skied 7 hours.
#11 Sat.,Jan.13th:Schweitzer Trip #2. We left at 11pm Friday night for Sandpoint, arrived at Connie's Best Western at 5am and got the $45 ski package. Slept til 10am then skiied until about 4pm. Schweitzer is really pretty lame. The black diamond runs are wimpy; we ran almost every one of them, NBC to SBC and everything in between. The 'chutes' in the north and south bowls were more like glades; mildly challenging tree skiing but they aren't chutes at all. The snow was good though...they had a couple of inches of new and the stuff under the trees was nice. The runs were windblown and hard, esp. on the south side. We drove down to Sandpoint and checked out and left for Silver Mountain Resort in Kellogg, 2 hours to the south. We got to Kellogg at 7pm and bought ski packages at the Super 8 Motel for $41. Chuck picked up some bar slut and annoyed us all with her until 2:30am. But it didn't matter because when we got up at 9am Silver Mountain was already closed for the day (Jan.14th, a holiday sunday) due to high winds. They have the world's longest gondola there. It ran through the motel parking lot. We never got to ride it. We left Kellogg at 12:30pm sunday....blew a tire while Chuck was driving about 20 miles west of Ritzville on I-90. Got towed to the Chevron in Ritzville and got the tire patched. Left Ritzville at 4pm...blew out same tire again while I was driving about 20 miles west of Ritzville. Got towed to Moses Lake. Ruined the tire so bought a new one; one a little too big. Left Moses Lake at 8:30pm. Clutch started going out on Elk Heights hill...had to baby the clutch all the way home. Arrived in Seattle at midnight. Weather: Clear most of the time. 30-55 degrees. Me, Ken, Chuck and Todd skied 6 hours.
#12 Tue.,Jan.16th: Fourteen new inches of snow at Steven's. 25 degrees. Demo day. Ken and I skied all day...Ken demo'd Atomic Powder Plus Fat Boys and Elan Monoblock SCX's. He also skied his new Olins too. We skied all over the place....backside chairlift runs...a steep chute from the top of Jupiter chair over the front side and down between Schim's Meadow and Tye Bowl...Double Diamond..... After they closed the backside we went to the truck and dried out and switch back to normal skis. I can now ski the TSBD's like the Chubbs!!! The short, fat skis are a great training aid. This was an AWSUM day...best day of the year, in my opinion. Weather: Snowing lightly about 1/2 the time. 25-26 degrees. Me and Ken skied 6 hours.
#13 Fri.,Jan.19th:Went up to Snoqualmie Pass (Silver Fir) today. Got there about 11am....15 inches of new, very light powder and more falling.we took about 10 runs down Silver Fir then went to Bonanza after Silver closed. The snow is getting better every day now. Skied the Chubbs for a while then switched to the TSBD's. I can really ski the big skis now. Weather:Snowing. 25 degrees. Me and Ken skied 6 hours.
#14 Sat.,Jan.20th:We drove down to Enumclaw friday night and got a room at the Best Western. Got up and out the door by 7:15am and headed up to Crystal Mountain Resort. Washington resorts have finally gotten some real snow and this will be the busiest day of the year. 22 inches have fallen in the last 36 hours at Crystal and other resorts are reporting heavy snowfalls. The mountain was packed. It took us 2 hours to get up the hill...chains or 4WD REQUIRED. A cop was stopping people at CMR Bvld and checking. We took the Midway Shuttle up then jumped on the Campbell Basin chair. Chair 6 (powder bowl) was closed so we went down and took Rainier Express and headed for the backcountry. The gate was open, even though there was a high avalanche danger, and we took off into waist deep powder. The trail came out way down in the overload parking lot and we caught a shuttlebus back up to the base. By that time Powder Bowl was open so we made that the last run of the day. We were all tired and cold and wet and I was sick of all the people. On the news when I got home: 'Washington ski resorts are so overloaded today that Steven's and Crystal are having to turn people away.' Weather: Low visibility fog/light to heavy snow. Winds to 15mph. 25 degrees. Me, Ken and Chuck skied 4 hours.
#15 Wed.,Jan.24th: Went up to Snoqualmie (Silver Fir) today. Lots of powder, some old some new...all deep. In some places it was still waist deep. Skied Silver Fir 15 times and Bonanza once. Good powder drop-offs on Silver Nugget. Lots of boarders and beginners. Weather: Partly sunny then snowing very hard. Wind: 0-5mph. 28 degrees. Just Me skied 6 hrs.
#16 Sun.,Jan 28th:Arrived in Salt Lake City about 2pm on Delta Air...got a Nissan Pathfinder rental...checked into the Best Western Olympus...headed to Park City Resort for free night skiing. P.C. only has one lift open at night worth running...Payday. Park City is cool. There is a town lift that goes right down to the town...lots of shopping and nightlife...a gondola...two high-speed quads. The runs were all groomed down and what was available for night skiing wasn't very challenging but it was fun and a good warm-up for Snowbird in the morning. There was only about ten other skiers total at the resort that night. We took a few high speed runs and called it a night. 3" of new. Weather: lightly snowing, moderate vis. 20 degrees. Me, Ken & Chuck skied
3 1/2 hours.
#17 Mon.,Jan. 29th: Snowbird. We got there about 10:30 and there was 3" new and it was a little crowded. We hit the tram right off but the only run open was Regulator Johnson and the tram was expert only. We ran it twice on hardpacked, windblown snow then ate lunch at the Mid-Gad restaurant. We spent most of the time in the Gad Valley. We skied (along w/Regulator) the Gad Chutes, Gadzooks, Black Forest, Organ Grinder, Carbonate, S.T.H., the bottom 1/2 of Mach Schnell, the bottom 1/2 of Silver Fox, Adager, and Primrose Path. All black diamonds. The conditions kind of sucked though. We went to Mulboons restaurant at the top of the Best Western for dinner. It is an expensive place. The dinner was good but we had some problems and won't go back.Weather: Snowing. 9 degrees at Hidden Peak, 20 degrees at base. Me, Ken & Chuck skied 4 1/2 hours.
#18 Tue.,Jan. 30th:We rested and shopped up at Snowbird today then hit Brighton for some night skiing. 14" of 7% powder had fallen overnight and the skiing was incredible. Brighton has 18 runs and a high-speed quad (Crest Express) lit up at night. Most of the runs open at night are blue square runs but they were more challenging than Park City and the powder was great. Had dinner at the Market Street Oyster Bar. It was as expensive as Mulboons but far, far better. Ken had a filet mignon and said it was the best he ever had. I had Cioppino, a tomato and onion based shellfish soup. Weather: Snowing. 25 degrees. Me, Ken & Chuck skied 4 hours.
#19 Wed.,Jan 31st:Alta is a town, pop.397. The ski resort there had gotten 14" of snow overnight and the powder was very deep but not as light as Brighton last night. Alta is for skiers only, no snowboarders, so we could find fresh powder easily. The chairs at Alta are all long and fairly slow; no high-speed anything, but it was still a great day. We were all pretty dead at this point and we headed for the airport and home. Weather:Snowing. 20 degrees. Me, Ken & Chuck skied 4 hours.
#20 Fri.,Feb.2nd:Ken and I went up and skied Upper International and the backcountry bowls at Alpental this morning. They hadn't gotten any new snow in 3-4 days so it was pretty skied out and crusty but the sun was shining and it was a nice day. A little cold though...Alpental base was -2 degrees and it was 6 degrees on top. We went over to Silver Fir and met Chuck and Nicki about 11am. Nicki is skiing very well. We skied together and ran Silver Fir, Triple 60 and Bonanza. I hurt my left knee on a jump between two trees at the top of Bonanza chair. Too much air; landed from 20' up on flat hardpack. Weather:Sunny & clear. -5-5 degrees. Me, Ken, Chuck and Nicki skied 7 hours.
#21 Sun.,Feb.4th: Went up to Alpental and took 2 runs down Upper International. Saw Todd L. and his cousin from Canada, Eric. They had been there all day; we arrived around 2pm. We left Alpental at 4pm...Todd and Eric went home and we went over to Ski Acres. My knee still hurts too much so I quit early. Weather: Temperature inversion. 13 degrees at base and 30 degrees on top. Fog at middle elevations and clear as hell on top. Me, Ken & Eric J. skied 4 hours.
#######Tue.,Feb.6th: No skiing. Steven's Pass and Snoqualmie Pass (U.S. 2 & I-90) are both closed due to major avalanches. Steven's Pass opened briefly today but was closed again tonight and neither pass is expected to open soon.
#######Fri.,Feb.9th: No skiing. Passes still closed...now SR410 is closed too. Thinking about Whistler/Blackcomb...Major mudslides and flooding in Wash./Northern Oreg.
#22 Sat.,Feb.10th: Blackcomb Mountain, B.C. This is the best mountain we've ever skied. We stayed at the Aspens, a Radison hotel, the first night and got a one bedroom w/kitchen in the Upper Village uphill from the Wizard Express quad. We got in about midnight and Ken and I couldn't sleep so we went for a walk. We started to walk down a run toward the Village and found some ice. Ken fell REALLY hard, but he was drunk so he's ok. Oh, and we both ate a bunch of Vicodin too. We window shopped until 2am then laid in bed rushing from the pills 'til 8am. Neither of us slept much. We started the day on 7th Heaven and rode it about 5 times, skiing the Horstman Glacier side every time. We climbed Spanky's Ladder once and Ken, Chuck and Eric skied Ruby Bowl and I skied Diamond Bowl. A snowboarder caused an avalanche and buried himself back there later on. We saw the ski patrol, dogs and all, heading back there in a big hurry.We rode the Blackcomb gondola once too. We spent quite a bit of time waiting for Eric, as usual. Weather: Sunny and clear. 32 degrees (average) No new snow in days, but snowmakers were running. Bad ice in places. Me, Ken, Chuck and Eric skied 8 hours.
#23 Sun.,Feb.11th: Blackcomb Mountain, B.C. We got a two bedroom w/kitchen in another Radison hotel, the Greystone, for saturday night $368.55 canadian. The exchange rate was 32% so the room was $250 American. We hit some more extreme stuff today. The highlight (for me) was the chutes around Pacalolo. They are steep and deep and so awsum Eric wouldn't ski them. He got lost once on saturday and by sheer luck I saw him on a lift while we were eating at Rendezvous' Mountain Grill. Today, we waited for him at the bottom of Pacalolo for 10 minutes then the second time up there we decended an unnamed chute next to Pacalolo and he decided he was going to find another way down and he was lost again. At the beginning of that chute there was a bunch of beginners wimping out and laying in the run so the first part was a tricky triple diamond obstacle-laden chute. Chuck asked a guy if he could ski around him and when the guy looked up at Chuck he lost his balance and fell about 400 feet to the bottom of the chute, just missing a tree. I watched him go all the way and I was scared for him. This is serious, no shit, DO NOT FALL, extreme skiing. Chuck and I skied down to him. Chuck picked up both the guys poles and one of his skis and took them down to him. On a triple diamond run. The guy was pretty shaken up but he was okay. We quit around 3pm. Weather:same as saturday. Me, Ken, Chuck & Eric skied 5 hours.
#24 Sat.,Feb.17th: Whistler Mountain.
#25 Sun.,Feb.18th: Blackcomb Mountain. Weather: 30-45 degrees. Rain most of the time, some snow in the alpine. Me,Ken, Chuck & Todd. I skied 3 hours.
#26 Thurs.,Feb.27th: Steven's Pass. 10" of new and snowing hard. Ran the Chubbs all day. Skied the little frontside chute w/ Chuck...twas very icy. Skied Bobby & Nancy chutes and hurt my right knee pretty bad. Me, Ken & Chuck skied 6 hours.
#27 Sat.,March 9th: Steven's Pass. 1st time back from torn ACL/bruised menicus cart. Took Jimmy up and taught him to ski. Just an easy day. 5 hours. Me, Ken and Jimmy
#28 Thurs.,March 14th: Steven's Pass. It was a great day...the sun had softened the snow up a little too much by mid afternoon though (no new in days) We skiied around the back and Big Chief most of the day. We found a trail into Schim's and skiied into the top of that meadow. I went down into it and made two turns and my right ACL popped and I slid 1/2 way down the hill. Ken got my skis and poles and the ski patrol brought a sled down and took me out. It took 3 patrollers; 1 driving, 1 behind, and 1 setting a 100' belay line to get me down. Severly bruised the medial meniscus and severed the ACL. Started wearing a hinged brace and looking forward to reconstructive surgery and 6-9 months of Physical Therapy/Recovery. Me and Ken skiied 4 hours.