February 19, 2005, Crystal Mt. Reopens!

Bring your Rock Skis! ;D<br><br>......CRYSTAL RE-OPENS SATURDAY! <br>We've received 20" of new snow in Green Valley since last weekend. That was just enough to make the call. We will fire up the lifts Saturday, February 19th and keep them open as long as conditions allow. Discovery, Chinook Express, Forest Queen and Rainier Express lifts will run from 9am-4pm. <br>

Went for a family ski day at Crystal today. We stuck to easy runs on the Forest Queen chair. By the end of the day, it seemed like the rocks were increasing on the lower part of the runs. Skid road was not open (not enough snow) and all traffic was directed down lower Quicksilver. My son had a good time, though, so it was a good day.<br><br>Never got up to Green Valley. People were skiing down Lucky Shot and the ticket sellers said they were also downloading Rex (optional I guess). South side slopes in the ski area and on East Peak, etc, were pretty bare.<br><br>Ate lunch in the new Campbell Basin lodge and thought it was very nice. I especially like the Ray Atkeson pictures above the food service area. If you like those pictures, you ought to buy his book "Ski and Snow Country," published posthumously with captions by Warren Miller.

Saturday morning was good skiing in Green Valley. The north facing slopes like West Face were very good skiing, cold "dry" powder on a smooth firm grippy base. The normal shots were untracked and good skiing. Skied powder until late morning and hiked with lots of other people up hamburger (Campbell Basin) and found some powder very worthy of our turns. Overall a great day, sunny, powder, band on the patio and good beer to finish it off. <br><br>As for the snow, it was standard week old snow, wind packed on the ridges and sun affected on all the normal aspects. The skiing on protected north facing slopes will be good until the freezing levels rise. The snow was stable with only the new layer of snow sluffing on steep pitches as the grass and rocks were holding the last 2" quite well. (laughing) <br><br>It was a good to get some un-earned turns for a change.