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Tseeb and I stayed Saturday night in Great Falls. The shortest drive from there to Bozeman is via Hwy89 which goes over a 6,900 foot pass where Showdown ski area is located. There was almost no traffic on the drive though the parking lot was about half full when we arrived around 10AM. It...

Steeper lines on Great Western have SW exposure. You'll need the same level of dump as in Mineral Basin to avoid a coral reef subsurface on powder days.

Saturday as expected the weather cleared and in the morning there was zero wind even at the top of Red chair. We got there early but it was busy and here was the parking lot attendant directing traffic. Both the original T-bar and the pizza restaurant are named T-Rex. There was an inch of...

For the third consecutive day, wind impacted lift operations. At Castle that is a very big deal. On the main mountain a closed Red chair loses almost as high a proportion of accessible terrain as losing Marte at Las Lenas does. Fortunately this year Castle has a new chair, Stagecoach, that...

This caught my eye from James' link. Perhaps the relative value proposition is starting to dawn upon the general population of American skiers.

Chatter's Pro photographer produced a 2GB mp4 file. I do not have the time or patience to edit video, but I screenshotted a few pics of me skiing.

Again, a shoutout to ChrisC for posting the last-minute seat offer for this tour on Feb. 12. I was staying with friends in Reno, skiing Feb. 12-13 and planning to drive to Canada over the next 3 days anyway due to the dismal conditions at most areas in between. I did have to drive an extra 150...

Almost everyone I've skied with at a remote lodge does this. They have to, given their locations and that some people with allergies need to be accommodated. Mustang's website is upfront about their maximizing ski time, and strong recommendations for fit and experienced powder skiers. I've...

My end of February report is here. Western North America season-to-date snowfall improved from its 58% low point to 68% at the end of the month. For the entire season 1976-77 seems secure in its worst ever position of 58%. But this year is in the running with 1980-81 (69%) and 2014-15 (67%)...

Liz went through Qatar on the way to East Africa. But she came home via Amsterdam, arriving Feb. 26.

Trump 2.0 is far more inclined to use the military than in the first term, which is what prompted my quote a year ago. The jury is out on both Iran and Venezuela. Remember Colin Powell's quote, "if you break it, you own it." Venezuela should have high odds of success because there is a...

It seems the Bear Mt. incident was a stunt by some Darwin award candidates.

The Kachina lift opened Feb. 26 per skitaos Instagram, very surprising with the modest 35 inch base. On a related subject, the North Face of Crested Butte remains closed.

I was in goggles at Chatter Creek due to temperatures than never topped 7F. Any increased google use this year is due to decreased ability to discern surface details in flat light. That situation applied this Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.

As noted in the other thread, I arrived at Island Lake after a warm weekend. But fortunately it snowed 6 inches of dense snow overnight. The outgoing flurries early Monday morning at the lodge during the transceiver drill were barely snow at all. This storm and Monday’s overcast worked to our...

Sublimation: when snow evaporates without going through the liquid stage. Low humidity is essential and a light breeze might help. Stronger winds would likely stiffen the rain crust. I saw this at Island Lake in 2003. There was a low elevation rain crust that was about 100 feet lower...

The past two days have been tough for wind closures of lifts in this region. Tseeb had it worse than I did at both Kicking Horse and Panorama. At Fernie the restriction was not upper vs. lower but new side vs. old side. Yes the new side goes higher, thus more wind exposure, but the old side...

I've only experienced thunder lift shutdowns once at Vail in early April and a couple of times late May at Mammoth.

Sorry, James, I think it would be extremely illuminating to find out when, where and how he skis on his own turf in the Alps. I concede the point that he had an extremely rigid plan on the U.S trip and would not deviate come hell or high water, and further inquires about this specific trip...

I agree. They are lift not ski connected, like Arosa - Lenzerheide or Les Arcs - La Plagne. In my and many cases it's a moot point because we skied both of them before they were connected.