The Snow Troopers

As I chop up clips of our super fun weekend at Adam Roberts and Jason Hummel’s home mountain, White Pass Ski Area, here’s a shot Jeff took towards the end of day on 2/28/15, in the White Pass Ski Area bc.

*Also, as I mentioned earlier today, the White Pass Village Inn has great loft rooms with kitchens to make for a cheap trip with the crew. However, as we found out coming in from the East side, on Hwy 12, all the grocery stores on the way, don’t open until 7AM.

Great weekend spent with great people (2/28/2015 – 3/1/2015) up at White Pass Ski Area for the annual Winter Carnival, which was blessed with 8″or so of perfect cold “velvet like” powder, for both days! This last storm really set the mountain up perfectly, they are now open daily with fabulous grooming for some really high speed carving, along with great park features for those who rock! However, my true love POWDER, was found all weekend in their bc, which is truly amazing, especially because we had seen only 5 other “ski skinners” playing in the goods!?! BTW, the lower timber zones, in the bc were still the bomb last night at closing, so if I could, I’d be standing in line, waiting for first chair at 8:45AM

Below: skiers /Adam Roberts and Jeff Rich scoping, what became Jerad Merb’s BIG line, photo credit / TNT

Even though White Pass can be done in a BIG day from most places East or West of the PNW Cascade Crest, our Team piled in to the the White Pass Village Inn which was just across the “road” from the base area. This being important, because you don’t want to miss a minute of the fun, including the amazing fireworks display (as seen below from the 100+ degree pool, the Village Inn provides to soak the muscles and reflect on good livin’!). Lots of video to crunch from this action packed weekend, so stay tuned for the edit later this week. Live to Ski Another Day!

Below the White Pass Ski Area fireworks display as seen from the White Pass Village Inn

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Sled Dogs Skates has come out with a patented hard shell boot with integrated, steel edged base that can “ski” and turn on the snow -without skis. The video below featuring a hockey coach taking his training downhill (literally) on a pair of these makes it look so easy – suggesting that if you can skate, you can ski. The guys behind Sled Dogs Skates are Norwegian brothers Ronny Paul Gydar and Tommy Einar Gydar Syversen. Their site says that “Ronny is the hardcore Inliner -looking for a way to enjoy inlines in winter time and Tommy is the guy that loves after-ski and was looking for something to enjoy before after-ski” – but we imagine “after” after-ski too. Here’s to the fun loving Norwegians for coming up with what could possibly be the lightest, most economical ski set up. Maybe even Sled Dogs Skates + ICETrekkers or crampons for a late season or an otherwise firm/low snow, backcountry tour? Looks like a good time no matter how limited the snow or terrain. We’d sure like to give ‘em a try right about now (or anytime really) -and perhaps mix it up on an outing with our own home grown snowskaters. Go figure that Norway’s Bergen and our Seattle are sister cities. Live to ski/skate another day!

Wondering where to ski this weekend (2/28/2015 – 3/1/2015), close to home (as a fair amount of our friends are on the road searching/chasing snow)? Based on feedback from others about each gem within our Cascade Crown of ski resorts (that are open!?!), I’d pack the rig and crew up and roll to White Pass Ski Area, where Adam Roberts reported the skiing to be better than Mt. Baker right now (thank goodness for the Couloir Express chair). So a combo of carving on the sweet groomers, and a little lift served ski touring mixed in with the Winter Carnival events, should make for an excellent weekend!

Below are a couple of videos, I just checked out on youtube, of their fireworks display, and WOW what a show!!! White Pass Ski Area sure LOVES there peps! The first one is from last year (think his cam died before grand finale) and a good cell phone vid from 2013, showing they take this seriously every YEAR, can’t wait!

Here’s the lowdown from the White Pass Ski Area website:

Event overview & schedule: This family oriented event features our snow castle (located at the High Camp this year), live music, FIREWORKS, Kids’ Carnival, and snow sports competitions and poker run for kids and adults! See the complete schedule below.

Snowboarders of the 80’s Unite! In conjunction with the annual White Pass Winter Carnival, we are celebrating the 29th season of mainstream snowboarding on the mountain. White Pass Ski Area is encouraging any rider from the 80’s, family members of a rider from the 80’s, or any rider that should have been riding in the 80’s to shut off the VCR, put away the Atari, and wax the board. Let’s meet in the base lodge at 10am to put some old names with some old faces, share some laughs, and plan at least two runs together before we resort to Advil, Ben Gay, and refueling.

Winter Carnival Ski 4 Kids Event: This 2-day kids’ ski / snowboard event is a fund-raiser. Saturday, participants will train in gates and on Sunday they will have the opportunity to take on the race course. Kids must be chairlift riders to participate. Appropriate for ages 5 – 12. For more information see below or email: lc@skiwhitepass.com $135

One more thing I wanted to add for the out of town skiers. I had heard the the White Pass Village Inn still has rooms available (which is just as unusual as this Winter)… BTW, they have fresh snow!

photo by April Russell

Brundage Mountain -aka Best Snow In Idaho- is offering its best deal on 2015/16 season passes but it ends tonight at midnight. Purchasing your Adult pass today for just $339 plus tax (a $200 savings off full price) gets you an entire season of unlimited access for less than the price of six daily lift tickets. Plus, you can add on the rest of THIS season for $99 per person (or less depending on the pass you purchase). Prices for Seniors, Juniors, College Students, Military, Youth and Children are even lower. Be sure to make your purchase by midnight tonight (Thursday, February 26) to get the best prices. Just follow this link for full details. Check out our earlier post for more info on Brundage and our video below to see our day on the Best Snow in Idaho.

Drew Hurter, an Alpentalic friend for many years now, who is currently living up North in Bellingham, WA. Where he has been gaining a great education over the past few years, not only at WWU, but high in the Cascades. This is a sweet edit he banged out of a recent trip with Tim Black, and Thomas Tran. On a side not this trip was made this past Saturday (2/21/15), which was the same day Jerad and I skied at Silver Peak (snoqualmie pass), and finding only a fraction of the snowpack seen on the higher slopes of the North Cascades.

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My bro Jerad Merbs and I headed up to take another look at Silver Peak, this past Saturday (2/21/15), after the 3 to 4 inches new of snow that came through, landing up there recently. We met at the parking lot below, the almost totally bare slopes, of Summit East (which, on a side note, I ran to the summit 2 days ago on dirt, the entire way!?!). Jumped in Jerad’s jeep and we’re able to get to windy pass easily (saw an outback up there too, and I’m sure with some work we could have made it further, but decided to skin up the road from there). I think now, we could drive all the way up to the fire pit. Also note, the road is the only access, as the normal route from Windy Pass (along the timber line) is snow free and too THICK.

above: Kendall Peaks/Pacific Crest Trail as seen from Silver Peak

below: Short Central Cascades conditions video from 2,600′ to apx 5,000′

Anyway, we got up there to check out the NE bowl thinking it might give us a good “top to bottom run”, even if it was in the chill terrain. Didn’t happen, as you will see the waterfall is wiped out and having seen the lower part of “chute TNT” also wiped out, we decided to ski back out the NW bowl on the rock peppered cruiser slopes. Good to get out, but bummed to now be forced into the Alpine Wilderness to find some BIGGER terrain and deeper snow.

Looking North into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness

Are you one of the many PNW skiers out there looking for a road trip target, and most of all save some bucks while getting some lift served action? Here’s what I’d suggest, head for Whitefish Mountain Resort for some great coverage, terrain, and people. But first, I had heard Schweitzer Mountain in Sandpoint, ID (which is on the way to Whitefish) is offering 1 free day of skiing to a bunch of PNW ski area pass holders. So start your trip from the Cascades, head to Sandpoint find a great deal at Sleeps Cabins (on the water, just before the long bride on your way into town), Get kick ass NY style 18″pizza delivered from Babs’ Pizzeria (cheese pizza is only 16 bucks!?!). Then get some mellow groomers in on the runs Schweitzer has open for a warm up to move on to the fully operational Whitefish Mountain Resort (where the BIG mountain skiers will find the lift served terrain they seek), which is only 3-3.5 hrs drive from Schweitzer. Oh, be sure to stop around the halfway point to stretch the legs for a short walk to Kootenai Falls.

Here’s the banger deal for Whitefish, EAT, SKI, SLEEP, repeat for just $84 bucks. Another idea is the Amtrak train, just checked a fare from Seattle to Whitefish, 2 weeks out on a Sunday night, and found coach under $70 bucks and the “superliner roomette” was under $170, (which sleeps 2).

Zack Jessel, Tara and Carl Simpson proved to me last time out (prior to their trip vid below) that their high elevation, corn diet has made them super strong. Who needs lifts, or a road trip when you have a big ass canvas of snow in the backyard, providing any level of riding The video below is a compilation of two days that Tara, Carl, and Zack timed perfectly on Feb 16th and 17th. Beautiful long ski runs in this vid, pretty much heli skiing without working the bank (just the quads). Thanks Carl, for keeping the Winter stoke alive with the great videos!

Tim Black (who was just recently, living LARGE in Japan for a month) just sent this one over of a trip up to Pemberton for a little BC, bc “hut skiing“. Below are a few words from Tim along with the edit he and Drew Hurter stacked and chopped. Great one guys!

Tyler Tran, Drew Hurter, Ryan Morrison and myself left Bellingham Friday afternoon, February 13th 2015 to catch a weekend of sun up north. During our hike in Friday night it was a steady down poor, rain up to 6000 ft. However when the clouds broke Saturday morning and we ventured up high in the alpine we were pleased with the conditions.

screen grab above – skier / Tyler Tran, video below – credit / Tim Black and Drew Hurter