From Vancouver back to Roger's Pass !!!

We kicked an early start at 5h00AM and headed straight to Mt Baker totally excited by the forecast and anger to ride to promised snow.

As we got to the resort our expectations dropped significantly. It wasn't snowing, it was raining… We were also told that it rained all the way to the top of the mountain earlier on.

We headed nevertheless to the nearby backcountry with not much visibility. In typical wet coast weather, the now was a bit better higher up, but it certainly wasn't a day that I will remember as an epic one.

The freezing level was forecasted to drop overnight and with about 2feet of snow still on the forecast, we decided to give Mt Baker another chance. As we drove down from the mountain, the sleet turn into massive rain. Leaving us pretty much one option: a motel. We stayed pretty grounded with and we fall asleep at the sounds of the heavy rain. 

The following morning, we drove back up to the mountain. It wasn't raining anymore, but only 20cm as fallen instead of the 20in that was previously forecasted. 

We rode the resort until much of the goodies as been skied. The snow was a bit warm and wet but everyone was quite stoked to ride some fresh pow! Since the snow was wet, it ended up packed pretty fast. 

We were a bit bummed and disappointed by the fact that the forecast that didn't happen and by the quality of the snow that we skied that we decided to hit the road and head straight to Roger's Pass where the snow is usually much lighter. 

Almost 7 hours later, we finally arrived to the Revelstoke Dugout Inn where we crashed overnight. I haven't stayed here in quite a while, but the quality of their room is still the same. 

None of the boys as came to Roger's for 2 years and they were all excited about the mountains, the terrain and of course, the snow!

We headed to McGill Shoulder and we founded some really good snow. Dry, light and deep powder was waiting for us. 

There is nothing better that bottomless turns to put smiles on everyone's face!

After a cozy dinner at the fancy Asulkan Cooking Shelter we crashed there hopping for the best! 

Well, the best happen! On our way up to Loop Brook, we walked by a nice 200-300m open run full of pillow! 

The decision was easily made and it was such a gooood idea!! There were thousands of pillows of various size waiting for us to be hit.

                               

                               

I've never seen JS in his element! He was flying everywhere, screaming and stomping some pretty nice lines.

                                             

…. and crashing a sometimes as well.

Everyone had good lines and we collectively gather a fair bunch of Air Miles!

There is again more snow on the forecast so it seems that we might stay around Roger's again!

Cheers, 

evans

The wet coast....

It's a conspiracy!!! The wet coast don't want me to ski..

After a late start, we headed to the backcountry of Mt. Baker.

The snow from the previous storm was pretty packted but there was still some really good turns to do. We were both really impress about how big the backcountry out there is nice, steep and big!

After enjoying two really good runs, we car-camped in the parking lot since some more snow was forecasted overnight.

The snow did fall into a much more wet state call rain...

After some shopping, we left Baker to head back to Vancouver without skiing

.

I then planned to go to Whistler since they mostly received snow and no rain but when I checked the weather report, I figured it would be really warm and the snow would be too heavy and wet for the powder princess that I am.

After spending a day shopping to get some motivation in Vancouver, I left to go towards Steven's Pass to do some night skiing with some discounted lift tickets. I arrived just in time for the beginning of the night skiing than I realize the night skiing stopped two days ago.... So no skiing for me today!

So I kept driving to go closer to Crystal Mountain which is the biggest ski resort in Washington state. I was about 18 miles from the resort when I figured the road I intended to go was..... closed. That mean a 3 hours + drive to get to the mountain.

The drive totally worth it! That mountain is REALLY a good place to ski.

With a lot of steep chutes and tree skiing I now have a new favorite mountain in Washington state. They received a bit more than 9in overnight so the conditions were aaaawesome.

The resort hooked me up with some of their guide so I can really enjoy the mountain at is best.

We skied all the best stuff and even checked the slackcountry (... with a prearranged pick up at the bottom of the run!!) I hurt my back a little bit on one of the run, but it was so good that I kept skiing.

After trying to ice up my back by eating 1.5liters of ice cream, I had to realize it wasn't really working so I started to eat some ibuprofen...

With some more snow on the forecast, I really wished I would be able to spend some more time here, but I had to keep driving to get closer to California where I was to hook up with Babiche!

So I did get close to Mt. Hood and was really up to check out Timberline Lodge. Well, now it's the wind that are closing all the good lifts at this resort... Since my back was still hurting and I pretty much only had blue or green runs to hit, I kept driving to make it faster down to California. The drive through Oregon is really not always as interesting as someone would think.

Oregon is really not only lush and rain forest and can make a 10 hours drive really boring.

So here I am now in Sierra cement homeland where I will be skiing with Alexis for the next 2 weeks.

Hopefully, California is going a little bit more easy to ski! With more than 7 feet of snow last week, the conditions are certainly going to be great!

Cheers!

evans