December 28, 2004 - Crystal Mt., Wa

The weather was very nice and sunny, even though it was about 35 degrees at the base, it nippy enough to be comfortable. With the six inches of snow dumped four days ago I was hoping there would be enough left for today.<br><br>I wanted to get my grandchildren up for snowboard lessons and all that worked out well because the lower area has been supplemented by snowmaking.<br><br>Well, there is not really enough snow up there. Iceberg Gulch was a mud pile. The Burn was a big brown patch. I skied Forest Queen and the snow was pretty good because much of it is in the shade. A lot of areas were closed off. I didn't even to to Green Valley because another skier was talking about a side trail to get around the rocks, coming off the ridge.<br><br>The problem was this. This was Tuesday and it looked like a weekend crowd (of course it's Christmas Week). Skiers and boarders were skiing hard and fast, wearing down the snow and turning up rocks and gravel. I was just taking it easy trying to pick my way around the loose rocks and some of the other skiers/boarders were turning up the snow like there was no tomorrow.<br><br>So it was like this: It was very nice coming off the top of Forest Queen, but in several places there would be bits of gravel mixed in with the snow. You wouldn't think this would be so bad, but it did scratch the bottom of my skis. Every once in a while there would be a rock just laying on top of the snow. I stopped to pick up one rock bigger than my fist and tossed it to the side.<br><br>So the snow was nice, there just wasn't enough of it.

More... I almost forgot. Skiing across Broadway, when a Navy A-6 Jet slipped around one of the peaks on the south end of the valley. This jet descended about half way down into the valley and dipped his left wing as he roared by us and then just flew off down the valley.<br><br>Grandson said his instructor mentioned that the pilot was a friend of his.