Spending a season as the snow reporter at Mission Ridge taught me a ton about the ski industry, the culture, the slang and coffee – mostly coffee.  

I did the snow report during the 2010-11 season. I was up at 3, er well, by 3:24 a.m. every day and on one of ski patrol’s snowmobiles (which I rolled one time – don’t ask) by 4. Other than a couple groomers and the head chef I was basically the only dude on the mountain. In those quiet early morning hours I had a lot of time to think about the lessons I’d learned during the season. And here they are:

1. 1.Snow reporting is harder than it looks. A LOT harder.

The great thing about living in this technologically-advanced day in age is that we have the luxury of laser-guided computer machines telling us how much snow has fallen in the last 24 hours. We can check handy-dandy websites like NWAC via the internets while still cozy-warm in our footy pajamas.

But someone has to make sure that expensive laser-guided thingy is actually doing its job and hasn’t gotten knocked down by a squirrel or something. That someone was me. I would ride that ski patrol sled to Midway station and the summit every day snow, sleet, rain or fog. In the pitch black of night with no moonlight to those mornings lit by the blue luminescence of a full moon that looks so close you feel like you could reach up and touch it.

I’d check and wipe the 24-hourly stakes (to reset them), check the season total stake (which is pretty much a glorified yardstick) and then check the temperature and then come back. That’s when the real job starts.

In addition to updating the website on the hour every hour you also have to update the snowline every hour as well as update about five other sites feeding info into various other ski-and-board-related organizations that update conditions on the web. Sometimes one of the radio stations call and you have to record a short interview about conditions. Then there’s the morning conditions text message. And the Constant Contact e-report.

And after ALL that, not everyone is going to agree with your assessment because...

1. 2.One man’s corn is another’s corduroy.

Corduroy, corn, freshies, powder, pow pow, dust-on-crust, bulletproof, glass, cascade concrete...

They say the Inuit had more than 100 words for snow. When a snow reporter hears that he laughs and says, “Only 100? How cute.”

But the fact is that with so many different ways to describe snow, almost everyone who knows the language is probably going to describe it a little different than you do.

The trick is transparency. And finding the most accurate way to describe conditions. If you make a habit of reporting conditions as accurately as possible, when they’re good as well as when they’re bad, people will know you’re not blowing smoke.

But even when you take all pains to report accurately...

1. 3.The weather can change fast.

Fourteen mph breezes at the summit at 4 a.m. can become 90 mph sleet-filled face-stinging gale force winds by 9. Snow can turn to rain in the blink of an eye, and then back again. Powder in the morning can turn to slush in the afternoon.

Any snow reporter worth his salt knows to keep an eye on the forecast and pay attention what the weather had been like throughout the night. The frost line is also very important – where it rests can mean the difference between rain or snow.

But at the end of the day, skiing and snowboarding are outdoor sports and they are subject to the volatility of nature. 

That’s why I say:

1. 4.Mother nature doesn’t acknowledge the saying, “The customer is always right.”

Sometimes people forget and expect a ski area to be as predictable and consistent as a movie theater. People want lifts to start at 9 a.m. and run to 4 with no problems or weather delays whatsoever.

Some forget that skiing and boarding are outdoor sports that you do them in nature and nature cannot be controlled or harnessed. Some days are going to wet, cold and miserable. And some days you’ll remember for a lifetime. That’s what makes this so much fun. 

1. 5.Before spitting and cursing a snowmobile for not starting, check that the ignition is on.

If I had a nickel for every time I exhausted myself trying to start a sled only to find that I hadn’t flipped the ignition on I’d probably have, like, 15 cents. True story.

1. 6.That’s not Propman in the trees, it’s probably just a deer. But still, walk faster.

Yeah, it’s stupid. But I have an active imagination and sometimes in the dark, misty mornings when you can hardly see a foot in front of your face, the snapping of a branch faraway in the woods can really freak you out.

Don’t judge me. 

While I was busy winning honors for best fall and oldest competitor at the Mission Ridge sponsored “Chelan Trax Rail Jam,” Justin O’Hara was busy winning.  Having never met him before, I was happily surprised to find out that his skiing skills were accompanied closely by his friendly attitude and positive demeanor.

In between my barely remembered moments of flailing down the rails and climbing a ridiculously small ladder back to the top to do it again, I had the opportunity to watch Justin’s skiing.  Not only did he look solid on the rails, but he had the technical skills to make hard tricks look easy.  While I was impressed with the tricks, the element that impressed me above all else was that he made everything look FUN.

It was the “FUN” element that helped me decide that Justin O’Hara would be the perfect skier for the upcoming EMISSION episode, “Mountain Playground.”  I have long awaited the opportunity to film someone ripping Mission’s natural elements and turning the mountain into their own personal playground.  Playgrounds are fun, and big playgrounds are funner (we will let funner be a word today).  Mission Ridge is the biggest playground around these parts and there are countless slides, jumps, monkey bars, and swings to play on… metaphorically speaking.

Thankfully, when I asked Justin to be featured in this episode, he said yes.

When the day came to film, I didn’t check the snow report.  That’s probably why I didn’t realize we were about to find a freshly dropped 13 inches of powder and sunshine to go with it.  I guess you could say I was surprised.  And you could also say I was jealous.  I made sure Justin knew that he better make my day of filming worth it with RIDICULOUS SKIING because instead of poles, I had cameras, and instead of face shots, I had video shots.  Just like the rails, Justin O’Hara made everything he skied look fun.  Groomers, powder fields, mogul courses, chutes, cliffs, backcountry kickers were swung from and jumped off in a fashion that left me impressed and inspired.

If you’ve already watched the video, you know that Justin made sure to make my day worth it.  Just this once, I was VERY happy to watch someone else get first tracks and basically manhandle every feature that the mountain offered… all while making it look FUN.

Thanks Justin.

Written by Jared Eygabroad

Video By Mission Ridge Media/Jared Eygabroad

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