Pacific Northwest Ski blog (and a few other places!)

Lots or reports from skiing around the Pacific Northwest, with some East Coast excursions thrown in for good measure

Week 60 Final Update (Knees, Skiing and Stem Cells: Part 4)

Leave a comment Posted by on December 4, 2019

14 months since I had my knees jabbed, and a long time since my last update. I thought I’d wrap up my report on the treatment I had.

TL;DR – it didn’t work. No effect. I’m on knee survival until the inevitable nasty bone work.

Ah well. I tried.

Long version. By last December,  8 weeks after the treatment, I was skiing gentle groomers and the knees were close to returning to their pre-stab state. I continued skiing groomers carefully – it wasn’t difficult as it was a crappy season start – and by the time we arrived at Whistler in mid-January – 14 weeks after the procedure – I was ready for the occasional careful off-piste excursion.

Things were going well until the end of the second day. We decided to head back to Creekside down Lower Franz’s run, which looked pretty benign. Unfortunately, it was anything but! Rock-solid, rutted, ridged, ice – some of the nastiest conditions we’d ever skied in. Anywhere. Ever. By the time the bottom was (very slowly) reached, my knees were a mess.

I kept skiing weekends and going to the gym, but was in survival mode. Constantly icing, skiing carefully, and mostly just pedaling on road and in the gym during the week. The big test was 9 days skiing in Austria in early March. I survived, but it was touch and go on occasions.

On return, it was back to weekend skiing. Oddly, my knees seemed to slowly improve. By the time we hit Crystal in April, I shocked myself by doing 5 laps of North Bowl, a rugged, bumped steep area, with little damaging effect. Was this the miracle I was expecting from my stem cell injections.

If it was, it was a false dawn. I got through to the end of the ski season pretty well, still judicious with terrain choices, but not holding back too much. Then we loaded our backpacks and headed to Europe for vacation. 3 times with my pack on I felt my left knee buckle. Just like it did before the injections. Not a good sign. My pack wasn’t that heavy!

Since returning in July, I’ve ridden my bike a lot and kept up circuit training. The knees have been ok but no better than they were a year ago before the treatment.

I’ve now skied 7 days this season. The first 3 were just early season groomers, and my knees went ok. The last 4 involved some soft (and controlled) bump skiing. By the last day I was back in survival mode with my left knee. Now, 2 days later, after lots of ice of Vitamin I, it feels decent again. But no better than before.

So – did stem cell injections work for me? No – not at all.

Will they work for you? Maybe.

I’m sure all the people I hear Dave Ross interview on KIRO mornings aren’t lying. But I wonder how many would have stories like mine instead of miracle cures?

I wish I could figure that out …

And with that, I’m going to move my ski blog to a new site. WordPress wants to charge me for uploading more photos. So I’m moving to Google-owned blogger.com. You can find all future posts here. So, so long WordPress, and thanks for all the fish 😉

 

 

 

 

skiing, stem cell knee procedure

Spring at Mt Bachelor

Leave a comment Posted by on June 4, 2019

We scored a $200-ish Bachelor Spring pass in late March. With a great base, it seemed like a good year to amortize costs and spend my semester break there instead of Whistler. And then return for the madness of the closing weekend.

The first week was total bluebird. With the Northwest Express and Summit open, there was plenty of terrain to explore. True Spring skiing didn’t really arrive until the end of the week though. Cold, strong northwest winds brought temperatures more reminiscent of February than the end of April.

The Summit was deserted as even the single groomer was an ice sheet. Each day we started in the sun on the east side of the mountain, and gradually moved west. By mid-morning the groomers heading down to Northwest were just about skiable. Unfortunately, on Spring schedule, the lift closed at 1pm, so the window for screaming groomers was small.

It was only by Friday that the Summit defrosted and we finally saw some true Spring skiing off the Summit. Friday and Saturday were great. Creamy corn, carvable breakable glass-like ice shards and perfect untracked lines down the gullies off the west side of the Summit. Sunday was actually a tad too warm, and sticky heavy snow finally drove us back to the lower groomers. No complaints though – it was great to see 3 true Spring ski days from 7. And Bend is a mighty fine place to spend a week!

11,100, 9300, 9100, 9600, 9400, 8700, 8000m vert

2.5 weeks later we returned for closing weekend. By this time Spring had departed again. We had a foggy day with rain from 11am, then a sunny but cool day, with some very good corn. Saturday was primo. Blue skies, enough sun to make Cow Face and the gullies perfection on the east side by 10am. Then after a couple of crater lines, we hiked the Summit for 3 great runs off the Northwest side.

Saturday was great. Sunday was slop. About 3 inches of it all over the mountain. Heavy. Sludgy. Groomer covering. Knee twisting. We were saved by Coffee. For some reason the sludge was minimal and it skied fast and smooth. We occasionally ventured into another run, but nearly always regretted it! No one made it past 1pm. Beer and end of season shenanigans were more appealing options.

So a 60 day season ended on a bit of a fizzer. it was an odd one weather wise. Dry before Xmas. Cold and slow in January. Full on Winter in February. And some very good March and April skiing. Overall, a lot of fun!!

8000, 8700, 7000, 5400m vert

11 days, 94,300m vert

Season Totals 60 days, 485,500m vert, 14 powder days

skiing , , ,

Superb April weekend at Mt Hood Meadows

Leave a comment Posted by on June 4, 2019

We don’t get the Meadows enough. When it rocks like it dd this mid-April weekend, and the crowds are light, it’s a magnificent ski area.

The weekend temperatures were cool enough to bring overnight snow below the base. this refreshed groomers and layered the mountain in a few inches of snow each morning. A truly massive avalanche down Heather Canyon made the exit a tad tricky but provided an amazing view of nature’s power.

Saturday the canyon only opened up to halfway, but Sunday the top gates opened and the skiing was great. You could pick your fall line, then traverse across to pick up more steeps. Midway down, by the afternoon, the sun had turned the pow to creamy iced corn in the scraggly trees on the Clark canyon side. Each day we managed 4 laps. 4 great laps of some of the finest terrain in skidom.

8100m, 8500m vert

46 days, 367,000m vert, 14 powder days

skiing

Early April powder at Whistler

Leave a comment Posted by on May 8, 2019

The forecast was a bit ominous for this weekend. Precip and freezing levels of 1800m aren’t always the best recipe for a Whistler weekend.

Luckily the freezing levels were barely above gondola mid-stations, and the weather came and went periodically, one minute dumpage, the next blue skies. This meant we could even get in the Alpine with visibility if you timed things well.

Saturday afternoon got a bit wild. It made for a fine Sunday though, with 23cm of freshies up high. Overall, a very fine visit indeed. Some pics here as proof 🙂

10700, 9900, 7800m vert

44 days, 350,400m vert, 12 powder days

skiing ,

Closing Weekend at Crystal Mountain

Leave a comment Posted by on April 22, 2019

We started with a damp, cool Friday. Saturday transitioned from cloudy to the sun, and Sunday was full on Spring! Freezing overnight temperatures made for some very fine skiing.

Saturday afternoon was all Northway laps. It is amazing terrain out there. Despite the superb skiing, it was worth a quick diversion to the base for the Bikini Downhill 🙂

Sunday was a bump-a-thon. By 10am even Lucky Shot was a mogul run. The star was the steep run into Snorting Elk Bowl. Huge, well-spaced bumps made for some smile-inducing high-speed fall line turns. It was so good I skied it 6 times.

So a good season at Crystal. We managed 10 days, just about covering the Ikon Pass. Next year we’ve gone Full Epic, so will be looking out for pass deals for Crystal in Fall. #fingerscrossed

5300, 9900, 9000m vert

49 days, 391,200m vert, 14 powder days

skiing

It’s been a good season at Mission Ridge

Leave a comment Posted by on April 22, 2019

We certainly got value for money out of the season passes at Mission this year. Early and consistent snow has made it an easy target as a ski weekend.  The last two weekends in March wrapped up our season there.

Spring was in the house, with freeze-thaw conditions predominating. To the mountain ops credit, they have started grooming runs off the ridge like Allah, Lemolo and Tumwater. This makes them superbly skiable early in these Spring conditions. As the sun softens the Bomber side, we just picked off the runs on the ridge. Combine with some options on the lower mountain. Then wash, rinse, repeat. All day long … brainless, high speed fun!

Now just bring on the new Bubble Chair 2 for next season …

8900, 8500, 10300, 8900

41 days, 322,000m vert, 10 powder days

 

 

skiing

Lech Early March 2019

Leave a comment Posted by on April 2, 2019

I’ve always been a believer in the conservation of snowfall theory. It states, simply, that the global snowfall amount at any time is constant. It’s just where it falls that is different each year. Yep, and the earth is flat ….

This winter it was clear that the Pacific Northwest’s snow from November through January was falling mainly in Europe. The Arlberg was deluged during that period. Absolutely deluged. Then, as winter arrived here suddenly in February, the sun arrived in Europe. We arrived in Lech on the last day of February, which was luckily the last day of basically 3 weeks of unabated Spring conditions.

Our first day was foggy, snowy and still tad warm. Snow fell to village level. Just. It was actually good stuff for covering the hardpack. It snowed overnight. got cooler, and Saturday was a rather decent, sunny, powder day at Warth.  The week continued with this pattern. One day sunny and Springy, the next a moderate snowy day with some fine conditions following. Overall it was a darn good week. Not epic, but with great terrain and decent snowy top ups, it is hard to complain.

It’s interesting how the Flexenbahn link to Zuers has changed skier traffic flow. On a powder day, we could comfortably ski from Lech to Zuers and be certain to have tons of freshies for at least a morning. Now, the St Anton hordes start rolling to the Seekopfbahn by soon after 10am. This dramatically changes how we ski the area. The best approach now is to jump on a bus from Lech as early as possible. We managed 5 or 6 laps before the lines built up. then it was to the Muggengrat for several more fresh lines. Luckily that lift rarely gets busy.  And has superb terrain 🙂

 

5300, 8000, 8200, 8500, 9900, 8900, 6300, 8100, 9000m vert

Season Totals: 35 days, 268,000m vert. 10 powder days

 

skiing , , , ,

Spring arrives at Crystal Mountain

Leave a comment Posted by on March 19, 2019

This was a great sunny cornfest. Some fantastic Spring conditions, magnificent views, light crowds and no lift lines.

Just how I wish Crystal was all the time.

The groomers rocked, especially early as they softened and turned to vanilla ice cream. The glacier (aka Middle Ferk) was all global warming, grippy and slushy and huge fun.  Venturing into Powder Bowl and Northway paid dividends too as these GoPro (not very edited!) clips show.

Great weekend. Spring was welcome. But hopefully Winter will return soon 🙂

Saturday 9000m, Sunday 8400m vert

37 days,  285,400m vert , 10 powder days

 

skiing ,

February – finally winter arrives

Leave a comment Posted by on March 19, 2019

It took the lingering effects of #fuckingelnino a month or so to dissipate. But when they did – kaboom! Normal services were resumed in Pacific Northwest winter climate. It felt like mid-December rather than February, but we weren’t complaining.

It was a violent pulse of weather too, like the storms had been building up against a stubborn wall, which finally fractured and let the pent up energy through. We had serious snow in Seattle, Eastern WA was hit hugely, and serious weather abounded. We watched 100mph winds close (and apparently derail) lifts at Schweitzer one February Saturday. Mission did pretty well keeping their chairs running when we were there, despite some wild weather closing the hill early on a couple of occasions.

This all, of course, did wonderful things for the base and snow quality. We had great skiing every weekend, and while no deep pow, lots of nice 4-6 inch topups. The best day was Friday at Schweitzer. No people. Cold but not brutal. And a solid 6 inches of super light pow everywhere.  It was one of those days where every run was great.

Here’s some sunny footage from the Sunday after the wind storm.

Next stop – Austria. The annual Lech trip 🙂

Mission Ridge: 7000m, 8300m

Schweitzer: 10,300m, 9000m

Mission Ridge:  8200m, 8400m

Season Totals: 26 days, 195,800m vert. 6 powder days

skiing ,

January skiing – sunny and solid-ish

Leave a comment Posted by on January 31, 2019

#fuckingelnino gradually moved on during January. Thankfully. This unwelcome climatological event, unfortunately, left behind a relatively warm dry winter.  Luckily there has been easily sufficient snow in the Washington Cascades to make for some fine fun, mostly sunny groomer skiing. By early January the base at Mission Ridge was deep enough to pretty much cover everything. Minor top ups made for a good first weekend of January cruising, with killer Cascades views.

We spent the next weekend at Whistler Creekside.  There was as much snow in the village as I think I’ve ever seen in Whistler. Again, fluctuating freezing levels meant venturing off groomed on the lower 2/3rds of the mountain was brutal. There was good snow on the upper mountain though, which made for some soft and fun runs in Harmony and Glacier Bowl especially.  Crowd management was needed though. Ski high early. Retreat to mid-mountain groomers mid-morning. Head high again once the post-lunch crowds dissipate. Works every time.

Since then, nowhere within weekend striking distance has been better than Mission Ridge.  MLK weekend actually delivered some fantastic skiing, with 10+ inches of pow and cold sunny weather to preserve the snow all weekend. It was the best skiing of the season by far.

Now if Mission Ridge can only keep chair 2 running – it has broken twice in the last two weekends – the season might get close to normal! At least we’ve paid for our season pass. And then some 🙂

Day 11, 12 Mission Ridge: 7600m, 7900m

Day 13-15 Whistler Blackcomb: 10700m, 10000m, 9700m

Day 16-20 Mission Ridge: 7300m, 8200m, 6600m, 8400m, 4400m

Season Totals: 20 days, 144,660m vert. 2 powder day

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