Got my 30th day on the hill in this past Monday (April 2). So I decided to extend my Easter celebration (He is Risen!) to the mountains for a day of powder shredding. Doesn’t look like I’ll hit my goal of 50 days up for the season, but I can’t complain.
The hill at Stevens Pass was epic with 12″ of fresh snow at the base and closer to 16″ up at the top. I hit the mountain with some homies by 10:30 am. I’d been trying to ride with my homie Coleman all season but never had a chance to. He knew the mountain well and showed me some dope spots.
I rode my standard board, which was a mistake. My go to for this season was my Bataleon Flight (157 cm, 5 hardness). I should’ve rode my last season board: Bataleon Enemy (163 cm, 8 hardness). I would’ve faired much better on the longer stiffer board in the steep deep backside. The Enemy also is about 4 cm wider at the bindings so would’ve made for much better stability in the powder. Lesson learned.
The snow was a little on the moist side making it a bit heavier. I tried reminding myself to lean back all day to avoid nose diving beneath the top few inches. Despite this knowledge, I kept nosediving basically all day summersaulting down the steeper faces a couple rotations before coming to a stop in an white room explosion. This was the most I fell in a single day all season, by far.
We rode in the chutes and trees between Southern and Jupiter chairs picking a new line basically every run. We cut new tracks up top the first several runs and found some really epic powder pockets in the trees of Orion Chutes all the while keeping an eye for the ever present tree wells. The buddy system is a must on days like this. The wind blown drifts made for some amazing natural features up and down the faces. Nothing but FULL SEND all day.
This was likely the last powder day of my season and it did not disappoint.
#powfiend
free. like. me. 