March 6, 2009 Crystal - My O MY

It was sunny, in the teens early, no wind, fresh powder and half of the Puget Sound skiers plus Warren Millers crew visited Crystal today. But it was really nice for the first few hours. The sun started cooking the slopes by noon but the shaded and treed terrain was very soft. Thankfully, I have to pick up my niece at the airport, otherwise I would have pushed it even longer. Hooked up with another senior skiing buddy who was on the pro patroller decades ago. For 2 old guys we certainly had fun. Others will post some photos, the sun was too bright and we kept looking over our shoulder figuring the kids would steal our line. Where's the respect for your elders - even on a powder day.

They opened Silver in the afternoon - great snow still there, and very strange to cruise by A-basin with no tracks!

thanks warren!

thanks crystal..my soul is for sale too.

met kyle miller and entourage by chance for the first time. thanks for showing me some new lines at a mountain i thought i knew pretty well! look forward to some touring in the future. posted some pics on picasa: picasaweb.google.com/Graham.Parrington/C...3609?feat=directlink

there's a great pic of kyle miller and brian bootin' it like common sideslippers...

when southback opened i asked the friendly female patroller who was posted at the thrones gate if warren miller had received any death threats... she wasn't sure about that, but said SHE had received deaththreats for telling people they couldn't hit A-basin.... the second patroller, who was guarding the bootpack up to silver king, was less friendly... pick you're favorite expletive for those that talk like condescending cops. i think crystal needs to think about customer service more. it seems that everytime i go there, something lame happens, from a lifty taking out his tantrum (for eating shit on campbell while on break during dope conditions...) on paying customers, to warren miller film crew getting the best terrain on the mountain reserved for them, to stupid music polluting Northway, the once empty and near-wilderness slackcountry panacea. i hope those hardworking patrollers are getting paid more for pissing everybody off... end rant here.

other than that, the sunshine and snow was great!

Desperate times call for Desperate measures 

Graham it was really cool randomly meeting up and riding. Tours will be had for sure when this snow starts settling.

Let it be know I wanted to boot pack on the skin track but my consciouses wouldn't let me do it, but the 2,300 feet of PERFECT courdory at the end of the day made it more then worth it.

The Girl patroller at The throne was very kind and appreciated.
The Guy patroller at the King bootpack not so kind.
While it sucks that they shut Avy basin down, as a photographer I understand why.

This touches a nerve because a lifty screamed at the person I was riding with yesterday -- totally w/o warrant -- she rode over her own strap and took a rare, random spill on the exit ramp and caught a rash of angry invective about don't ride the lift if you can't ride the ramp.

For a while now my policy has been to never, ever take shit off of any ski area employee for any reason.  More skiers need to take a hard line with this.  I always call them out if they have a bad attitude or are acting like a jerk, and whoa to the lifty, patroller or burger jockey who thinks they can actually come at me with anger or profanity.  Very early in the exchange I remind them that they are at work, and that I have no issue tracking down their boss, and if they happen to be a patroller that I will complain to their accrediting professional association too.  I never back down until they do first, regardless of the track the "conversation" takes.

The problem in general is that skiing is a lifestyle sport, like surfing, but unlike surfing a lot of it happens at what for all purposes is an amusement park.  The coolest people (apparently) run the rides, and because they get their asses kisses by most of the "gaping" customers (after all, they rode space mountain fakie w/o a seat belt, pants sagging just so the whole time) they forget that they are checking foam rubber pads on Forest Queen, not sitting at the top of the line-up at Windansea.

Anyway I say don't take it -- and step up for someone who does every once and a while.  The more people who come back at the out of touch lifestyle jerks on the hill, the less of them there'll be.  If they don't like working in the service side they should do something else.