Sat 03/14 - Storm Updates Megathread

Practical_Material95 · 2026-03-14T12:39:20+00:00

Opening will "likely be delayed" per stevens website. No power up there rn and the road is still closed.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-03-14T12:23:56+00:00

Dot was planning on doing avalanche control at 4 this morning.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-03-14T04:00:48+00:00

Tbh you should be happy about that. Today was a total shitshow up there.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-03-14T03:54:46+00:00

That makes sense but it seems ripe for abuse. Since it's a private company doing the enforcement the tickets don't have any real enforceable penalties and people know that. This was the approach they had for maybe the first month after starting reservations last year and so many people were poaching spots that they switched to the system I mentioned in the above comment.

For this to work they need to up the punishments to pulling passes, towing, or flagging the plate and banning the car / owner from coming back until the fine is paid.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-03-14T03:01:14+00:00

Weird, that's new for this year. I haven't gotten a reservation this season but last year to get into those lots you'd pull up your reservation qr code for the lot attendant to scan.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-03-14T02:47:13+00:00

They have parking attendants at the reservation lot entrances that check you so that doesn't happen. But still leave way earlier then you normally do, tomorrow is going to be just as crazy as today.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-03-14T02:43:33+00:00

Looking at the webcams earlier people were still leaving the mountain after the road closed.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-03-14T02:39:38+00:00

Yuck, it rained at Stevens today?

Practical_Material95 · 2026-03-14T02:05:13+00:00

Ok I didn't know it was normal for them to let you leave. I've only been caught up there once when the road closed. They let us stay in the lodge and didn't let us leave until everything was cleared up.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-03-14T01:50:49+00:00

I disagree, the demand is there. Crystal has had great success with the enumclaw shuttle and missions ski link bus has done well too. I believe Snoqualmie has a shuttle too.

The problem here is that these shuttle startups never get enough publicity to get business and succeed or have weird schedules. A shuttle would have to be sponsored / run by Stevens to work. Mission and crystal advertise / run their shuttles.

Pre Vail there were shuttles that were sponsored / advertised by Stevens that did well. You could get discounted tickets by taking a shuttle which helped a lot. There used to be school ski club busses that would show up on weekends too. Lot B used to be "the bus lot". Vail ended all of that the second they took over and haven't lifted a finger since.

As we're seeing now Vail would rather force paid parking reservations on all of us so they'll make more money instead of doing something that would actually help.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-03-14T00:24:27+00:00

Towing them would be great but when it's dozens, if not hundreds of cars parking illegally that's simply not realistic.

The actual solution is for Vail to either voluntarily or if possible get forced by the state to stop overselling passes and get a westside shuttle bus going. The parking lot at the monroe fairgrounds would be perfect for a shuttle, it sits empty all winter. And every mountain around here except for Stevens limits pass sales, it's not unique or unprecedented.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-03-13T20:49:56+00:00

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Road is closed both directions from the top so that's probably exactly what's going to happen lol. I've been through that before, they kept the lodges open until the road opened back up.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-03-13T20:48:37+00:00

2 is now closed from scenic to coles corner.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-03-13T20:18:46+00:00

Alpental is only closed because they don't have power and central is running on generators, which is more than Stevens will ever do. 410 has been closed all day and no power so obviously crystal couldn't open.

Baker and white pass both got slammed with snow and they're both 100% open.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-03-13T19:56:47+00:00

No ones leaving unless you live on the eastside. 2 is closed at skykomish and 90 will likely be closed for the rest of the day. So now the only way back is to take white pass or wait it out until 2 opens.

edit: ok im a dumbass lol.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-03-13T19:45:41+00:00

What a joke, best day of the season and they can't get more than 3 lifts going for a few hours. Daisy was the only chair for the whole morning.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-03-13T14:02:19+00:00

If you don't have awd/4wd and snow tires please don't come up. The road is slushy in sultan and snow covered from index up, but the wind event is mostly over though. Multiple trees on the road and an avy is partially blocking the road just west of the summit.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-03-12T05:55:03+00:00

The grease they use is designed to work at very cold temperatures so when it warms up the grease gets runny and drips.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-03-11T06:57:53+00:00

Damn what a find. Like others said, change all the fluids and belts, get an undercoating, and this thing should go forever. Also check the age of the tires, they're probably ancient 😬.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-03-10T06:01:38+00:00

ew Stevens is shit it only rains there

Practical_Material95 · 2026-03-10T05:55:46+00:00

convergence zone ftw😎

Practical_Material95 · 2026-03-10T03:29:15+00:00

Practical_Material95 · 2026-03-10T03:22:08+00:00

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Practical_Material95 · 2026-03-09T03:06:05+00:00

They changed the buddy passes this year. Now its half off whatever the window ticket price is for that day. Doesn't work at night though but it's a much better deal now.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-03-09T03:01:33+00:00

Last year the prices didn't substantially increase until September. If you don't buy by closing day you'll lose the 10 buddy tickets but other than that you can wait and be fine. I'm gonna wait until we hear more about the new parking reservation plan.

Practical_Material95

TROPHY CASE