March 15, 2009 Crystal

deep, really really stinkin deep...but not exactly light up there....thigh deep cascade concrete. 115mm waisted skis weren't fat enough...wishin I had pontoons or megawatts or waterskis

On south facing aspects, especially near ridgelines you'd touch down on the rough old snow below. Face shots were plentiful on the first few runs of the day...almost wish I had my avalung cause you'd get such a steady stream of over the shoulders snow it was all to easy to choke on it.

Winds were honkin all day....High Campbell still hadn't opened when we left, but everything else was open.

While it had its moments, the crowds were huge, long lift lines, and chairs running slowly due to high winds. Rex closed around 2:45.

Yesterday's snow was much lighter. But despite the cold temps today, the snow was heavy and even on my 1080 guns it was so deep it was very difficult to ski. Hard to get enough momentum to keep the skis floating on anything but the steepest. At one point I sunk in to my chest and stopped on a run I normally fly down in powder.

Incredible to witness the wind storm going on up there.

skiing has been so good lately that the crust way down there was a bit of a surprise.I strapped a Jetta to one leg and a Passat to other with the extra weight I found I could get down anything,but wow .....those slow chair rides were a bit rough on the legs .

Sorry to hear of your difficulties. I on the other hand am running a little low on sun block. I have been held hostage at Snowbird since last Sunday with 2500 of my closest friends for the US Freeski Nationals. Happy to report Oft Piste Sux can hold his head high in the Jr Nationals for playing exceptionally well with the cool kids. Did Alta today (Alta is for skiers ) Still found some leftovers from Tuesdays 30" dump. The Bird was a feeding frenzy for 3 hours, then all the SLC locals jumped in their cars to go play golf or something. Hunkerd down at the Alta Rustler, all I can say is this place is da bomb. Highly recommended. TeamWally officially "friends" the Rustler lodge. That is all ( for now )

Craig,

You just made my day. My son will no doubt be delighted by your kind words as well. We had a great time, skied our butts off and it's always made greater by a friendly and familiar face in the crowd. Once again, thanks for the hometown support. It means a great deal and it's always fun to see you.

I watched the comp online on Friday. a number of PNWers ripped it, and it was cool to see some of the guys that my son and I had the pleasure of bashing around with down there for a coupla days ripping some pretty big lines even if they didn't finish high.

That said, today at Crystal today was amazing, especially anything north-facing. When 6 opens I wanna be there.

As for the ski of choice today? I'll just state these numbers: 154-139-151. Prrrrrrfect.

Epic to say the least...

It did get heavier later in the day but the AM was super light (I thought).

Chair 6 will be at least 3 feet of untracked when opens. Even without it open the mountain stayed surprisingly good until everything shut down. Even the frontside was good later in the afternoon.

The lines were long on Northway, but I don't really care seeing as how there shouldn't be a chair out there anyways. Everything between O-Meadows and Right Angle was avoided as everyone was waiting to get back to Paradise and Brand X.