Results tagged “stevenspass”

Seattlest needed a brief reprieve from the city, so we headed east on Highway 2 for three hours to the Bavarian-themed tourist mecca of Leavenworth: a perma-Christmas wonderland of knickknack shops featuring more dipping sauce stores than actual tax-paying residents.

Via WSDOT's Twitter, we hear that a winter storm watch predicts two feet of new snow for the Cascades by tomorrow evening. Not coincidentally, Stevens Pass will be closed for 20 minutes Wednesday "sometime between 8 a.m. and noon"--sounds like they're sending Comcast out--for avalanche preparedness work. It's always good to be prepared for avalanches, because otherwise people die. Alpental is reporting a 74-inch base up top--that's crazy. Two weeks ago they didn't have a base.

While we usually have to wait until at least November (and sometimes all season) for snow, it looks like winter is getting an early start this year in the mountains. The National Weather Service is warning of a strong storm with a "vigorous cold front" hitting the Pacific Northwest tomorrow, and they're predicting snowfall in elevations above 4,000 feet. That means Stevens Pass (but not Snoqualmie) may see some accumulation as early as tomorrow, which is great news for eager skiers awaiting a season of snow and not-so-great news for drivers heading east.

The snow is here, and people are already missing on Crystal Mountain. They apparently hit the backcountry (seems way to early to be doing that, we think), and by all accounts were properly equipped, including avalanche beacons. But shit can go sideways in the backcountry, and "properly equipped" is most relevant if you really know how to use that stuff. We're hoping those lost folks do, and are found any second now.

Already (as of 8:35 am):

Yippee!!!!

The operative word, of course, is "considering," because by no means is a bike park at Stevens Pass a done deal. But the plans are surprisingly detailed and specific, which gives Seattlest hope. The local biking community is all a-twitter about the prospects. Each year we trek up to Whistler repeatedly for our downhill biking fix (that's a friend pictured on a black diamond Whistler trail at the right), and we'd much rather spend less time in the car and more time on our bike. No, the sad irony of driving long distances to ride bikes is not lost on us.

Leavenworth, "Washington's Bavarian Village", is a little burgh situated in the Cascades on the other side of Stevens Pass. It lies just beyond the border between the West Side and the other state of Washington. It was originally a railroad stop and hub for the Great Northern Railway.

UW physicist Wick Haxton is in a competition worthy of reality TV--if the average American actually cared about science, that is. He is competing with three other teams in various US locations to be chosen as the recipient of a National Science Foundation grant for over half a billion dollars to build and run a laboratory buried deep under Stevens Pass to study neutrinos. (The further underground, the less the sun's rays interfere with techniques used to study these mysterious little subatomic particles that many physicists believe are the key to understanding not only the Big Bang, but other elusive phenomena like supernovae and dark matter.)

Our own Madame Hooky divines whether it's worth calling in sick Friday and heading for the slopes. She'll conjure your excuse and tell you where to go.

ART: Our main man Rick Klu has some more of this trademark coaster art - picture pscyhedellic hot rod art and underground comics, ala Skip Williamson, Rick Griffin, Robt Williams, that kind of thing - on the walls at Cafe Racer up in the Roosevelt area.

Normally, we'd be bouncing around the office, giddy with excitement and glee given the recent snow dumps in our mountains, buffeted by predictions of up to 3 feet of snow in the Cascades over the next two days. But we've had the worst case of the flu that we can remember (in bed for five days...five days!) and it is still killing our ability to be enthusiastic. If you have nervous skier-tic and can't concentrate at work, Seattlest is right there with you in spirit. We'll commence the jumping around as soon as it doesn't make us have to lie down from exhaustion.

In honor of President's Day, we've included our fave prezzes along with our weekend activity list.

We may not have broken the 33-day rain record (though we got some props for sheer volume), but over the past week the temps have been dropping, turning our current non-record-breaking Seattle rain into mountain snow. We only whine about the rain when it isn't making snow up top, so now that the season has finally hit, we'll shut up and slap on the sticks.

You are the unidentifed man who rescue teams spent Sunday night looking for on Stevens Pass until they found him at a friend's place in Issaquah.

-Senator Cantwell deftly parlays the Stevens/BP sucker punch and sends a heel in the direction of their chin by propsing to beef up oil transport safety in the Sound.

If you think you're going east for Thanksgiving, go now. We know they're trying to cram some actual work into next week at the office and there's a party you promised you'd attend this weekend, but I-90 is not going to be fully operational by the holiday so throw a bag of cat food on the floor and get in the car ASAP if you don't want to be stuck in Seattle Times's Worst Case Scenario of 30 mile backups.

Seattlest loves it when winter arrives with a flourish. Just mere weeks ago we were riding our bike either up at the Whistler bike park, or at favorite local spots like Tiger Mountain or numerous trails out off Hwy 410. In fact, barely over one month after a fantastic ride out at the Palisades trail not far from Crystal Mountain, those trails are already covered in snow. This morning while driving to work, we revelled in the sensation of being down here while we know it is dumping up there--a phenomenon that occupied our daily thoughts growing up and during most winters since moving to Seattle, but was suspiciously absent last season.

Seattlest doesn't normally do the rave thing, and we would never even consider going to Burning Man, but we're kind of curious about the October 15th Internal Combustion event, described as "an underground trance dance gathering at a place like no other," only because where its taking place, that underground tunnel by Stevens Pass, is in fact a place like no other: site of the historic 1910 Stevens Pass avalanche that killed 96 people aboard two trains stalled in the snow. Having a rave/trance party in such a place seems kind of like screening The Shining at a birthday party for an orphan who's dad went insane and killed people with an ax. Or maybe its not totally comparable with that, but still...

You haven't taken the bindings off of your rock board all year and this weekend is not going to change things. Scraping the mud from your pants and boots is the only prep you'll have to do--don't bother with tuning. It's hard to get excited about this stuff, people, because the weather really laid an egg on us this season. The bright side has been that, well, it's been bright in the city.

Dark, dark days for skiers and snowboarders in the Pacific Northwest, especially in Seattle. Everything nearby is closed or sucking and the hardcore are fleeing to the Rockies at every opportunity. People are supposed to come HERE to ski...

Despite some snow over the weekend local ski conditions are "spring-like" at best and many area lifts remain stationary. Check websites or call before leaving the city if you're counting on chair lifts. Be aware of what the conditions are like in the area before hiking up.

The Pineapple Express isn’t a Sea-Tac to Honolulu flight, how ever much Seattlest might wish to be on said flight. The Pineapple Express is a weather event that is currently putting a damper on the Northwest’s January skiing (after an already terrible December). At a time when we're used to mountain storms dropping ungodly amounts of snow on the Cascades and Olympics we're instead experiencing lots and lots of rain as snow lines skyrocket and leave area resorts in their wake.