PNW pow...just curious

powsurfer

powsurfer

Member
The NW seriously got puked on last yr, I've never ridden pow outside of Utah/Colorado. Could those who've skied Wash/Oregon/BC describe the snow as it compares to other parts of the world?

I'm thinking about road tripping in that direction next winter, heard Baker was amazing last year, what other mtns are known for epic pow days up there?
 
I've not skied pow anywhere else except in Utah. And "Greatest Snow on Earth" is a pretty big claim. I'd be curious to rip PNW as well.
 
i ski alpental and snoqualmie and the occasional stevens and crystal and the snow here is usually pretty wet and heavy
 
Well I can't compare our PNW pow to the anything else other than NW pow cause thats all Ive skiied. But I can tell you when it does snow it snows alot. We had a couple days this year when it was 30degrees and snowing in seattle and 5degrees at the mountain with some of the lightest pow Ive ever skiied. It's the same as any mountain the colder it is the better the snow. I love skiing in the NW. We have Baker and Whistler to the North. We have Crystal and Hood to the South. And we have the best one of them all smack dab in the middle. STEVENS PASS. SPKA
 
You would think it sucks compared to the central range powder. But it breeds damn good skiers. You grow up skiing here you can ski any condition any time. 
 
I had my first real good Colorado Pow day this last march, and it was uncomparable to PNW pow. We get lots out here but its heavy as shit. I couldnt believe how light the snow in CO was!
 
baker is by far your best bet for good pow, crystal and schwitzer are good to. stevens is good if you wanna ride groomed pow or park/pipe.
 
keep in midn that baker is at 3000 ft. I doubt that there are many places in colorado that are that low let alone their mountains. The best snow is at crystal, the worst is at baker. or slushqualmie. And what the fuck is groomed pow. 
 
We did have some really light powder early in the season for a little while. That was a nice treat compared to what the snow is usually...wet and heavy.
 
It is very heavy stuff, which just makes it deeper on steeps because it adheres to the mountain more and even wind-affected areas don't lose volume as badly. Bowls collect a ton of pow. Sure it's more work, but stop being a pussy, pussy.
 
there's a lot more to stevens than just park (haha, their pipe is a joke), it's the mountain with the most variety in washington...a bit of everything.
 
well none of the NW snow compares to east coast pow, haha mostly becuase your just super stoked when it does snow on the east coast and dont care how it is haha
 
NW powder can be both light and heavy, nowhere near as light as CO or utah though.

I'd say it's pretty much all the same though. You should have stiffish/wide skis if you want to ski powder here, or if you have midfat skis (like I did last year) you need to be able to ski very aggressively and fast to not sink. The good thing is it's great for building kickers.
 
precisely. the pow is often a little bit heavy because the temperature

rarely drops below zero but we've sure got incredible terrain.
 
the further inland you go the lighter the snow typically gets. i'll use BC 'cause that's what I know best.

The island and coast ranges get tons of snow, but it's coastal snow which means it's heavy. you can stay ontop of it pretty good, but still sink in after droppin' cliffs. because of the heavyness of it, it is usually a more stable snowpack as well.

after the plateau and okanagen you hit the kootenay's (monashee, selkirk and purcell ranges) and the snow is not as plentiful but is lighter. i personally think it's the best place to situate yourself because the snowpack is normally pretty good, the snow comes often and it's light and fluffy - FACE SHOTS!

once you hit the rocky mountains most of the moisture has been sucked out of the storms and the temp drops down from cold to very cold. the snow is very light, but usually they don't get as much of it. another thing is that the way the rockies are situated and the snow they get, the risk of avalanches is way higher then the other ranges in the province, and the snowpack isn't as deep.
 
Grouse Mountain has been unreal. HEAPS OF EPIC POW MATE.

its the best kind of pow to. its called rain pow and rail pow. seriously good stuff. definately check it out
 
born and raised skiing CO. Moved up here 3 years ago.

Pow = most of the time, a fair bit heavier. I have had a few days up here (maybe 4) in the past 3 years where it was comparable to CO snow. All of those days, though, we very very cold (0-10 degrees).

Basically, it helps to have fatter skis and it takes a little more effort to ski. But you legs will be stronger and you won't notice it.

I know, coming from CO, the pow days up here are also much deeper. Reguarly mid-thigh to waist deep. I know UT gets that, but in CO it wass pretty rare.

In CO my everyday ski was a 179 Seth Pistol and it did fine for everything. Came up here, and man did that ski sometimes get its ass kicked. Too floppy, too skiiny, too short. I am going to be on something that is 191cm long and 113 in the waist as an everyday ski this year.

But the PNW is the fucking shit man. I like the skiing here so much more than CO.
 
The snow we get has a ton of moisture in it, for sure. Welcome to cascade crud - wet, heavy and deep powder. I wouldn't take anything over WA though after skiing in Utah and the rockies. The dumps that we get in November are worth an entire ski season on the east coast.
 
Agreed. Early season here is sick.

All these pics are from November.

Nov. 11th, 2005

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Nov. 22nd, 2006

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Nov. 24th, 2006

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The snow is heavy enough that it just covers everything. Coverage here is awesome.

PNW = the shit.
 
^ Was that opening day at Crystal? I went there that year for that, sooooo epic. I stomped the shit out of that sketchy cliff under Green Valley chair and at the time, that was the biggest I'd hit ever. Last years opening was... less splendid.
 
Opening day 2005 we got third chair up campbell for the season. So fucking deep. I have some pics of that day too, but they are lost in like 20 pages of photobucket. The pics above I believe are from the next weekend.

the 22nd may have been opening day last year....but I don't think so. I thought it was earlier. Either way, the 22-25th I had off for thanksgiving and everyday was so fucking sick.

Are you talking about the cliff that is skier's left of the GV chair in the lower pics that sort of makes you pop thru some trees?

 
Baker was so sick this year. The snows really heavy, easy to tweak your knees in, but theres so much...
 
the northwest sucks. go to colorado. the resorts are way less crowded there too. and their parks are way bigger. and the lifts are faster. and they put more marshmallows in the hot cocoa. and the roads are paved with gold and everything is jibable and you dont want to come to the northwest.
 
more marshmallows are you serious? colorado is sick though. i had a nice pow day there this season until winter park closed all their lifts in like the second time in their history as a resort.
 
Nah, early season theres a little lip/cliff/stump right under the chair about halfway up. I went skiers left of the stump, lots of trees on left too, and landed in the middle of a rock/pillow field that opened up to the chair base. Sketchy as shit coming out of there, I think I stuck if for 100 feet or so and then buried it into a mound.

Crystal had some more excellent stuff on Guntower that I would absolutely love to run the ropes and hit. Too bad the patrol over there are absolute Nazi's about ducking ropes.
 
yeah seriously colorado, utah, alabama, they all have better snow than the north west. those pow pics up there are actually of the cloudmont dude ranch in alabama during april.
 
I misspoke earlier, which I blame from being strung out on cocaine cocktails. The PNW has no good snow, ever, just meth factories and microsoft.
 
do you really expect to baker to have any pow at 3000ft? go to utah or colorado if you want pow. come here if you want rain and coffee.
 
this was like, late november last year at snoqualmie, 2nd day of the year for me. It was awesome.

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