Crystal, Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Wednesday morning at Crystal and there was powder everywhere. After skiing the chutes off Kookie Ridge into Snorting Elk* with off duty patroller Lisa and Stevie Ray V I met up with Snow Joe Bell, Chris "Scotsman" Willis, Justin JDClimber, and David for a hike up the King.

The wind was howling on the ridge and snow was being transported all over the mountain in addition to heavy snowfall. After 25 minutes of hard work hiking, we skied down the ridge, turned left and skied deep wonderful powder for about a minute down into Avalanche Basin.

Most of the crew decided to head back up to the top but I demurred in light of the winds and visibility. Before long the Campbell closed and by 2 PM it was a full bore blizzard with wind gusts (measured) at 60 MPH. JD and I teamed up in the afternoon for incredible tree powder runs in Green Valley while the others headed to Northway.

Great day skiing and hanging.

* For those who have not seen it yet, Crystal Patrol Blog now has the Mountain Top Informal Place Names list so I'll be much more specific in my future posts.

That's a hansom crew your rolling with these days Keith.   

Thanks for pulling out the camera and for sharing some of your less traveled stashes. I've forgotten them already.

Wednesday was a great day for turns even if it was not as good as Thursday.  The full on weather was a nice reminder that this winter isn't done yet.