Stevens Pass Day 16: Best Day Yet

Well, I've done a piss-poor job of keeping the ski tally accurate, but through meticulous notes, I have determined that today was day 16. Conditions were perfect. It was a Monday, four feet of pow. in the last 48 hours, lightly snowing... the conditions were perfect. My one slight snafu was forgetting my jacket, with season's pass inside of it.

I walked up to the counter and asked what my options were. The guy behind the counter said he could print me out another pass for $10. I declined, because I am a cheapskate, and gave him a counter-offer.
Me: "I can print you out another pass for $10."
Attendant 1:"Hmm...can I hike up to Southern Cross and just go ski on the backside?"
Me: "Um... what? You are going to hike up the mountain?"
Attendant 1: "Well, I need to warm up anyways, since I forgot my jacket."
Attendant 2: "You're WHAT?! Hiking up the mountain?! You're crazy!"
Attendant 1: "I guess that is OK, I don't see why not."
Me: "Excellent."

I wound up sneaking onto a chair, so I didn't have to hike, but that would have been interesting.

The Moose Drool hoodie kept me warm and dry all day long, despite one amazing swan-dive face plant of mine in the powder off Southern Cross. I thought yesterday was the best conditions of the year, but today had another 16" on top of yesterday's morning base, and I hit the mountain much harder today than I did yesterday. We hit the glades off of Southern Cross, the trees off of Big Chief, and had powder runs on the backside all day long.

Yesterday I made an impromptu trip up to Stevens, even though I was supposed to play a triple-header of ultimate games, and then host a hot tub gathering. I woke up and it was snowing, which meant two things: 1) I really, really wanted to go skiing 2) The ultimate games would either suck or be canceled. It turns out 2 of the 3 games were canceled, and I invited the Tacomites over to hot tub without the host.

Yesterday marked the first time I had to put chains on the Saab, as I was unable to get the car out of the parking lot. By the amount of snow accumulated on the car, I'd say it snowed a good 8" while I was up there yesterday. Having to put chains on was somewhat of a bad beat, because if I had not used the chains I could return them for a full refund in April. My parents will be back Friday with the Honda Pilot, so I was four days from getting my $70 back, but, I'm sure I'll use the chains in the future. Actually, chains were required on the pass today, but somehow Kristy and I made it up and back without having to put them on.

I met up with Chelsey for the first time yesterday, and I was disappointed. For all of her love of snowboarding, and going up 30 times a year, she wasn't the sexy super boarder I expected. Granted, she's been sick for 3 weeks and had boarded the past two days, but she was blowing it. I did get a big spray in, which I promised her if we ever met up on the slopes. And I did get to see her make a couple of incredibly gnarly spills... like seeing a jump, heading into the jump, then biting it right before the jump and face-plant-sliding 15ft down the mountain. We mutually ditched each other after a couple of runs.

I've got cohort party night tonight, to which I am bringing 18 tall boys of PBR, playing cards, and a shit load of dice... if that does not spell party, I don't know what does.