April 1, 2006, Crystal

Crystal provided an unexpected bonanza of April powder today, no foolin'. The upper mountain got about 5" last night on top of the 5" inches from Friday (on unskied lines). The more southern aspects had a dust-on-crust feel, worse the farther down you went. Above mid-mountain (~5000 feet), the powder was much better, surprisingly light. Northern aspects were soft underneath and knee deep in some places. Tree sheltered north faces were the money shots. I set off a sizeable amount of slough in the north country coming down a steep chute. Easy to avoid, but be aware that steeper slopes will slough. <br><br>There should be some good touring out there tomorrow in Bullion and Cement Basins. Get out there!

Had a great day there on Friday. Even the normally sunbaked pitches on Campbell Basin were great early. We actually broke trail on the basin traverse and got a number of nice, buttery first track lines including the Throne Shutes. The very top of the northback was dreamy but the rest was marginal. A hike to the top of Silver King yielded terrific lines in Avalanche Basin in pretty dry snow.<br><br>The best term to describe the snow conditions was 'creamy'. It wasn't really powder but didn't require enormous energy to ski in. Really a great day. Came home with a tan.