Thought I would update the discussion on Crystal Dec 27 as someone on that thread asked about lift lines and conditions on the 29th.
The lines were minimal even though the weather was pretty alluring for the tourists. Maybe 5 minutes on rex or 9. No line on 6 though I did not attend the much anticipated opening of Southback. NB was a ghost town when I was there midmorning. I was skiing in 2-3 feet of new snow much of the day and had a great time. However the snow was heavier, (thicker?), than expected and somewhat unsupportive. It slightly tended to that frustrating state where you sink in too much and wallow if you're not on a steep slope. But make no mistake, it wasn't bad, just a tendancy, and we all had a gas. I broke trail out to a pitch and it was nearly at my crotch on the flats. Curiously, at about 3 PM we had a few minutes of light freezing rain as we were comming down to C9. Thankfully it did not seem to affect the snow on the last 2 laps.
My first day on the Northway chair I think give my conditioned approval on this controversy. After all this is a ski area and NB is side county in my book, not back country. It has been my experience that on a powder day the Northback is pretty used up in the first couple hours on weekends, maybe a little longer midweek. Sometimes heavy storms will string that out considerbly. On the 29th I was still hitting some pretty untracked shots on Brand X. Maybe it will only be a matter of time before the hordes drawn by the new chair will overwhelm the outer reaches. Heavy use days always brought bumps on the NB choke points and Lower NW. Except for directly under the chair (which for the most part is a new cut run anyway) I did not see significant evidence of increased use. Heck this was the biggest holiday weekend of the year and it just didn't seem any worse than prior years. Though I often found lower Northway fun due to the thigh burning, top to bottom, big mountain quality of the whole circuit, I do not miss the one hour round trip and waiting for that darn bus anymore! My main concern when I first heard of this chair is that it will not have enough capacity when needed, like 6. Maybe all the powder hounds had already passed through and were headed to southback's opening. In any case the lack of a line on the new lift yesterday gave me cause for reconsideration. So far, with apologies to the faithful, my thumbs are up on this chair.
