Blizzard on Steven’s Pass: Customer Story

Rob Whitney just sent The Blogging Post this great story about a February ski camping trip in Washington State. Looking at the pictures he sent of the blizzard they encountered goes a long way towards combating hot summer temps… thanks, Rob!

“My friend Aaron Johnson asked if I wanted to go to Steven’s Pass, WA after work for some good powder skiing and camping the night before. He already had the next day off but I had to work, and being in the Navy it’s hard to get time off at short notice. But I put in the necessary paperwork and they approved me for a day of fun in the snow and some good ol’ winter camping. I checked the weather report and it said that there would be snow the next day starting late morning, so there was big possibilities for fresh powder all day!

After work, we prepared the new ’89 VW golf that Aaron bought with his credit card, got some steaks, chicken and a Jack Daniels marinade bag for dinner. Things were looking up the whole day, especially because I didn’t have to work the next day and would be playing in the snow instead! Route 2 traffic was its normal speed, but once we got past the thriving metropolis of Gold Bar, WA, we were the only ones on the road V-dubbing to the mountain pass. Much to our surprise, however, the weather had closed in about 8 hours too soon and we were forced to chain up an hour from the mountain!

It was slow going all the way to (and through) the mountain pass with a couple spin outs on the road. Nothing the little VW couldn’t handle, not to mention the fact that two veteran winter drivers from New England were in the front seats! The snow was dumping hard by the time we got to the mountain. It was closed already but we didn’t care – we were just happy to get to the parking lot and get the camp set up. We erected the tent next to the car in record time with the almost gale force wind hitting us, and were in the middle of setting up the tarp we use for our cooking area when a very big bucket loader of a plow rolled up next to us and said it wasn’t a good idea for us to camp there because the new forecast said they were to get at least 5 feet of snow over night! His main concern was that he didn’t want to plow us into a snow bank while we slept because he wouldn’t be able to see us!

We cleared out camp and parked between two abandoned trucks in the parking lot and decided to sleep in the car. This meant we couldn’t cook our marinated steaks, but we could enjoy some brews we had in the back and watch a ski movie on the laptop. We organized the back seat so we could recline both seats all the way down and we crawled into our sleeping bags while the car got hammered with high winds and snow. It wasn’t long before we couldn’t see out the front window. I want to give Sierra Trading Post props for the Kelty sleeping bag I purchased from them. It’s good for -20 degrees and believe me, it got down to below zero that night and I was thankful for the sleeping bag. I never got cold!!! Thank you Sierra for supplying the great gear you have!!!

The next morning we woke up to a frozen solid car and more snow than we both have seen in a single night! I opened the door hard and the car had at least 2 fresh feet of snow on top, I was pumped for the day ahead of me. We both knew that the mountain was closed due to a power outage just by looking at the wasteland of snow in front of us, but we could still climb and ski!

I started digging the car out. We tried and tried to get it out, but it was sunk deep in snow. As luck would have it, though, another stranded rider with a big truck happened to pass by our camp and offered to pull us out. Once out, he had us follow him to his friends’ camper where he was staying and we got a good parking spot in a freshly plowed lot. The camper was an old silver bullet with no heat, no electricity. It was basically just a place to get out of the cold wind. We talked about all climbing up together. He worked there so he knew more secret stashes than we did so that was another bonus!

(When we started our hike, we passed by a plow guy and he told us the story behind the power outage. An avalanche took out the power for the mountain, and when somebody in a snow cat went to go fix it, another avalanche took him out and buried the cat, but he got away safely.)

The hike seemed longer than it was, but we got up to the upper crest of Big Chief, snapped some pictures and then strapped in for our run. We passed a couple of snowboarders that were camping up in a lift shake. They offered it to us to get warm if we wanted. The snow was deep and totally amazing. We went into the woods and found some even deeper snow and hit a really good line that took up to the road. Not bad for our first run! We walked back to the camper, had some sandwiches and some beers and planned our next climb. That one was just as good as the first!

After the second run, we prepared for the evening ahead because we all knew we couldn’t get out of the pass because of all the avalanches. We went to the lodge’s loading area and got some pallets for a bone fire that night. We got the pallets cookin’ and the steaks and chicken on the grill and then kicked back by the huge fire! The night was cold inside the giant tin can, but, like I said before, I was very thankful for my Kelty sleeping bag from Sierra Trading Post!

The next morning, I had nothing but getting back to work on my mind because missing a work day in the military is not good. I had a good excuse, though, because avalanches were taking out the highway! The car was completely buried and the only thing that you could see was the ski rack arms sticking out of the snow. We got the car out and on the road and made it back, but I was horribly late for work. Luckily, I took pictures of the car and roads so I didn’t get in trouble, plus, I went online to show them the avalanche report and they had pictures of an avalanche that was 75 feet wide that took out a part of route 2 not an hour after we left the pass. Talk about a heart stopper!

We were glad to be done with the car and camper life style, but that’s not to say it wasn’t worth the two pow runs we had on the mountain. That’s one of my favorite ski stories to tell and I hope you enjoyed it!

Cheers!