January 31, 2008 Crystal Mtn

Thursday - Deep Pow all over.

I hit a dip and did a tip dive in at least 3 feet of loose pow.  Somewhere down there is an impression of my face in the old layer.   I haven't been using powder cords because I thought I would never take a dive again.  But..... I would advise pow cords.

The weather was snowing and foggy.  Whiteout visibility was a challenge sometimes .... and I had switched to my yellow lenses.

On the groomers, which of course were not groomed, things got chopped and bumped... but the snow was so light that I could bust through it ok.  Oh yea.... this was medium-light pow - for the PNW.  I suppose it would have been lighter if the temperature was zero degrees.

However, I had the feeling that Green Valley Bowl wasn't that much fun because it was so chopped.  There were actually some better slopes for pow skiing.  And I have really enjoyed lower Bull Run the last three weeks... first for being smooth, today for a nice steep and deep experience.

Chair six was open and happy skiers and boarders were all over the upper slopes after a little blasting in South.

I did not get all over the mountain...  days are too short and my legs have limits.

Seemed like twice the busses and ,accordingly, more skiers than usual.  I was pretty mystified at the increased crowd until someone mentioned that we probably got overflow from the closure of the Snoqualamie ski area.  Yup, that would explain it.  I am sure that Crystal was happy to make room for more busses.  Yea... the Snorting Elk was a little more crowded.

Pretty much endless possibilities on the mountain today. Ski safe... ski with a partner.

Northway, High Campbell and the King were all staggeringly good! 12-30 inches of sweet dry goodness, no liftlines, and pretty decent vis, no traffic problems. Pounding snow all day, still piling up at 4pm. If you've got some *cough cough* sick time saved up, tomorrow might be a good day to use it!

Sounds excellent. I'm assuming south back wasn't open? Hopefully they'll leave that one for us weekend warriors.

They opened southback by noon. We didn't head out there, because the goods were so good inbounds. Campbell, Powder Bowl, Green Valley, Exterminator -- all of it was just fantastic. Face shots at the end of the day down upper/lower E to the lot. With a little effort, we were getting untracked lines all day around Green Valley. Wow...

South back was amazing! Did one right down the throat of Brain Damage w/ faceshots after the first ten turns. Last run was the trees on skiers left into Silver Basin, it was neck deep in places. Looks like more of the same right thru the weekend. be safe and have Fune!!!

Spent the day up there with Sr. Wipe, many good shots, right angle ridge was partifularly noteworthy. Northway was also fine.
Lots of good goods up there. Many face shots, including on the last run of the day when untracked was found. Still a little chopped and chowdery. seemed like a lot of really good skiers on really fat boards. Perhaps due to the other places being closed. The king was icy under the fluff and disappointing compared to other spots.
Highlight was the fossil bus. I bought my 70 year old Mom 8 trips up on the ski bus for X-mas and I dropped in for this fine, fine day away from the cubicle.
Showed up at 10, a little late for me. However, all was good with the tasty wings, ham sandwiches, cookies, crackers and many glasses of wine on the ride home. Those old folks know how to live it up! Super nice people too.
Classic!