Ski Season 25/26 Update
A lot of good times despite the lackluster winter in the west
It’s been a bit of a rough season here in the PNW (and in the rest of the west) in terms of snow totals and quality. We had a strong start in November and I was feeling optimistic but sadly that didn’t continue. A series of rain events, high snow levels, and long periods of no new snow have meant a relatively “meh” ski season so far - at least in terms of snow.
The east coast mentality in me has me wanting to enjoy ski season no matter what, though. And I think I’ve been largely succeeding at that.
Sadly, I hurt my neck. Finally had a pow day up at Mt. Baker - maybe the best pow day I’ll ever have up there because it stayed so consistently cold during that storm. But I ended it by taking a header into a berm and getting a “stinger”. 🤦♂️
Thankfully, I’m 1) healing up well and 2) chose this year to finally do a ski trip to Japan! Japan is one of the few places still getting hammered with snow this year. Stoked for that.
I’ve gotten 10 days in so far and I’ve enjoyed every one. Let’s take a look at some of the good times…
Some incredible early season days up at Twin Lakes
After two days up at Twin Lakes on November 4th and 8th I thought it was going to be an incredible season. We were able to drive past the Yellow Aster Butte trailhead so the approach was reasonable.
Day 1 | 11/4
Despite fearing for our bases, Andrew, Spencer, and I skied sunny pow laps on day 1. Can’t complain about that.
Last season, I learned that it can be hard to get bluebird days in the PNW so this felt like a special way to start the season.
It’s nice to dig a pit early in the season and get a sense for what’s going on in the snowpack. Too bad basically the entire snowpack got destroyed by rain later in the month 😂
I love skiing.
Day 2 | 11/8
Twin Lakes area was so good that after another storm I had to head back up there. We were torn between another day at Twin Lakes or going up to Heliotrope but my good review from the 4th convinced Cam that Twin Lakes was the way. We had a straight up proper day of touring. It felt like winter was here.
It was going to get pretty warm so we headed for a sunny south face straight away. We were just in time for one lap, dropping as roller balls started to form from the sun-warmed cliffs above us. It would have been awesome to be able to get a second lap in but being below those cliffs now that it had warmed up would have been a bad idea.
It was great to get out with Cam again and we played a lot of rock-paper-scissors for first drop which I mostly lost but I still got one 😁
Rain event put a damper on things
Eh - it was November so no big deal. But I didn’t end up skiing again until December 7th 😱
Day 3 | Swift Creek in the almost rain
It was raining until we got to the Heather Meadows parking lot so that was a little discouraging but we did get to ski pow!
Was it heavy pow with many little trees to avoid? Yes. But hey, had a great day out storm skiing and eating ramen from the food flask.
Glad I got a new shell this year.
Amy and I did a micro climbing trip to Red Rock on the way back east
Wow did it feel good to bask in some sunshine.
This trip deserves its own post and this is a ski season recap so I’ll just leave you with this cute GIF of Amy looking at rocks.
Got to ski quite a bit back east!
The east coast has been having a great winter. Jay Peak was the first to hit 200” in the whole country. So I was pretty psyched that I have a resort and touring set up stashed in NH 😎
It was a really excellent trip back visiting family for the holidays and seeing a bunch of friends.
Cannon with Dad, Amy, and Ed
It was a great east coast day at Cannon. Always appreciate a good Dad ski day.
Conditions were consistently “not bad”. Dad and Ed claim that the frozen granular we were experiencing was actually packed powder. Idk about that.
Ragged with Amy, Christian, and Liz
Amy, Christian, and Liz all have history from ski racing at Ragged (and yanno Liz still lives there) so it was cool for them to reminisce. It’s a fun mountain! It was peak “New England in winter” pretty IMO.
No ropes were ducked and we definitely didn’t get fresh tracks with some grass sticking out of the snow.
Bolton Valley with Sam, Amy, Meg, and Spencer
Then it was up to Vermont to visit Sam and Meg. They just moved up there and I’m not gonna lie, I think I could live in Vermont. Amy and I have recently started feeling settled in Bellingham and that feels really good. But Vermont would be really fun…
Bolton is only 20 minutes from where they’re living now and we were originally going to tour in their backcountry zone. But we decided to ride lifts because it’s on the Indy Pass. And my friend Spencer who I hadn’t seen in years still lives on the mountain so he met up with us for some laps which was awesome. I love being able to connect with friends I haven’t seen in a while!
The views at Bolton are sweet as well. You can see Lake Champlain and Mt. Mansfield. Conditions were pretty good too.
That’s the only skiing photo but also:
A day on Mt Washington with Christian and Zach
Before heading to Vermont I met up with Christian and Zach for a lil’ Chic Chocs trip reunion on Mt. Washington! We had an insane trip to the Chic Chocs two years ago that stands out as one of my favorite touring trips.
I’d left Utah in prime conditions to meet these guys in Quebec where it hadn’t been snowing much all season. It proceeded to snow several feet with stable avalanche conditions and several openings for good visibility + plenty of storm skiing. It was a really memorable trip.
Anyways, we headed up to Huntington Ravine with a few options on the table but conditions weren’t what we expected. Seemed like Diagonal would be the only thing filled in enough which sounded great to me because I’ve wanted to ski that forever. Conditions have just never lined up for me.
We ran into a friend of Christian’s while they were digging a pit to evaluate how reactive the wind slabs were and results were less than inspiring (scary).
What a gorgeous day to make good decisions and change plans.
We bailed to Hillman’s Highway and had a really nice full lap before an equally excellent Sherb lap. I love being back in the Whites 🤗
I always want to be able to see even more people while I’m back but turns out that time still flies.
The holidays were amazing - I love my family and friends
A serious lack of holiday photos but I love and appreciate all of you that I spent time with. 🧡
Christmas day and evening with the fam was particularly wonderful.
I got my sourdough-making on for the fam. I fly home with some starter so I can make sourdough for the holidays 😁 I always wonder what TSA thinks of that.
New Year’s Eve hangs with Jon and Kailey!
I love my east coast visits.
Back to Washington for a White Pass trip with a crewwwwww
Right back to Washington to take the van to White Pass with the Rad Folks for two better-than-expected resort days. Wicked fun cruisin’ around with a big crew. Great weekend y’all.
This is my favorite photo from the trip tho 😂:
Day 10 | An excellent Mt Baker Ski Area pow day with a rough ending
Well, it was an incredible pow day and I got to take out the new 122s. But sadly it ended in getting bucked into a berm head first and injuring my neck. Thankfully no fractures and I’ll be fine but I haven’t skied since in an effort to recover for Japan.
I’ve been doing PT, boppin’ around town, making sourdough, working, and planning and prepping for Japan. I’m feeling good so I’m STOKED for this trip.
All in all: ski season is always great
Even though I haven’t skied as much as I wanted to and got injured, I’m still having a great season. I love ski season. There’s few things I get more excited for.
Japan is going to be amazing and I’m off for pretty much the whole month of February.
Amy and I have a Montana van roadtrip planned with some time in Cooke City with some friends. Never been and always heard good things.
And then I hope to get after it around here in March!
Let it snow!