After a long (technically the longest) and amazing season, closing day for the 2024-2025 ski year was finally here at the Pass. I left the house early with Shaun, for what would most likely be his last day as a member of the SPY program, and we drove to Dan’s house and headed up to the Pass from there on electric power. We were greeted to a flooded aid room when we walked in, which is somewhat typical during the two to three week period of intense snowmelt at the end of the season.
The rest of the patrollers on duty showed up a bit later, and soon we had our final morning meeting of the season. James was acting as hill chief, and we debriefed plans to get the gear down off the hill in the most efficient manner possible before heading out at 8:00 am to catch the first chair of closing day. The plan for the operating hours was to be open from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm for the public, so we’d have an abbreviated day to get everything off the hill.
I rode up the chair with Dan and a couple others, and after opening RTS and Amber’s, headed back up to head over to open Peak 2 with Dan. Once Peak 2 was open, Dan and I set about pulling all of the gear out of the lift shack and storing it next to the sleds in preparation for it to go down later in the day. With the exception of the expensive stuff (BLS pack, etc.), everything came out.
A bit later we headed back to the front and I spent a bit of time with Atticus pulling tower pads down off EPA since By George was closed. It was bit tricky getting down (especially with a big EPA pad in tow), but I managed to find a path through without having to take off my board and by only having to ride over a bit of dirt, sticks and rocks.
We spun another lap to the top, and this time I headed down and recruited Rob to help me bring down the fencing around the ski shack. With George closed, it was already taken down and just needed to be skied to the base. The race shack fencing is large and super heavy, and always makes for an awkward ski carry.
By the time we got the fencing put away, it was time for lunch before heading back out for some more work before meeting up to take the tower pads down off of Peak 2. I met up with Shaun and someone (I think James but can’t remember who) snapped a picture of us outside the bump shack. Looking back on this picture I can’t help but think of how much Shaun has matured in his three years on SPY and how proud I am of all he’s accomplished.
A few minutes later, I watched Shaun and Atticus take off to head to Peak 2 and then helped Dan load the sled from the Saddle Tube with unneeded gear to take down to the base. I snapped a few pics as they all took off…
Around 1:00 pm or so, a group of us gathered at the top of Peak 2 and closed off Northern and Down Under so we could head down and remove tower pads from the lift. We headed down and I snapped a few photos, and I smiled as I remembered that nearly 6 months earlier in late November I was putting the same pads up with Brian and Dan.
We hauled the pads down to the base and stacked them outside the lift shack so that the area could snowmobile them around to the front a few days later. Amazingly, it only took one run to get all the pads down and then we all headed back to the top to get ready for sweep.
Before we dropped in to close the runs, we orchestrated a picture of the closing crew for the final Peak 2 sweep of the season. Pictured below from left in the back row is Dan, Emily, Rob, Shaun, Atticus, Scarlett, James and Matt. In the front row is Raina, Toby, Kyron, Mindy and Kerstin.
After taking a few pics of the closing crew, we dropped in to close the backside for the final time of the season. I accompanied Shaun and we closed Down Under. It was a bit bittersweet knowing this was likely his final day as a SPY and final time “officially” closing Peak 2.
We regrouped at the base of the lift and loaded the chair for the final time for the season, and headed back up to the top to gear up for closing the upper mountain.
At the top of EPA, we loaded the rest of the gear into the sleds and assigned runs for sweep. I snapped a few more pics of the action, and then once the call was made that sweep was on, I headed down KP with a loaded Cascade 100.
The tow of the sled down KP to the base was a bit on the sticky and sloggy side, but eventually I rolled in and there was a flurry of activity at the patrol room with folks unloading and organizing gear. Shaun and Atticus were putting the empty sleds away in the patrol room, and I jumped in to help drag some of the tower pads over to the lodge.
We worked for a half hour or so after closing to take care of all the gear, and then it was time to enjoy the final social hour of the season with the crew. I grabbed my beer of choice for the day – a well rounded Hazy Pale Ale from Icicle Brewing Company, and headed out to get a shot of it with the mountain in the background. Looking up at the hill, it was obvious that even though we were hoping to eek out an additional weekend, the mountain made a good call for this day to be closing day.
We hung out for awhile in the parking lot outside the patrol room, and eventually loaded our gear, including the skis and boards which were coming down for the season.
Finally, it was time to hit the road and sign-off on a great 2024-2025 season. Here’s a parting shot of Shaun working the mop in the patrol room on closing morning 🙂
