February in Full Effect!

February should be renamed “Powder.” It makes sense from a skier's standpoint. The holidays are over, X Games is over, the trade shows are over, and the time for talk is over. Winter is in prime time and it won’t last long. It’s time to get out there and slay some POW!

Fortunately for riders and winter enthusiasts of all kinds, Mother Nature is pretty much universally blessing everybody with dumpage. Little Cottonwood Canyon has been under Interlodge numerous times in the last two weeks, Tahoe is getting pounded, Wolf Creek is sporting a base depth on par with Mt. Baker, and somebody took the powder phone off the hook in the Pacific Northwest and forgot to put it back. It’s been snowing for weeks. Highway 26 through Government Camp up on Mt. Hood is like driving through a tunnel. The snow banks are at least 25 feet high.

This last weekend the unthinkable happened in Washington: it snowed too much. Eight feet of snow in five days managed to close all major skier highways. Effectively Mt. Baker, Alpental, Steven’s Pass, and Crystal Mountain were all cut off from the mass of Seattle powder hounds foaming at the mouth from the smell of fresh killings. If ever there was a time to “catch the flu”, today was it. All highways were back in business as of midnight Sunday. Let us not forget, too, that Alpental is closed on Mondays. Fat Tuesday, indeed.

Seattle-ites can rest easier knowing the slight tardiness of the earth in its turning will give them one more day in February this season. Use it wisely.

Click here to see some shots of Tanner Hall and Shane McConkey in the deep.