Crystal March 26 2009

Crystal had the goods today. Very light crowd so it took 3 hours for most of the mountain to get tracked out.  There was enough new snow to cover the firm base that others encountered recently.   The usual spring rules apply-stay on north exposures and seek out wind loaded areas-it was knee deep at GV trees, Spook Hill, Bruce's Bowl.  Northway opened around 10:15 and the lift promptly broke down for 15 minutes.  It continued to run slow which made many people bail out to other lifts.  Didn't go over to Powder Bowl/Campbell Basin but heard it was good.  The snow was pretty good, slightly heavy pow but can't complain this time of year.  I noticed that the snow was starting to crisp up a bit when I left at 1:00 pm.  It could be a bit firm Friday but probably worth going.

Besides getting some excellent pow runs, got pulled over by WSP east of Greenwater on the way home.  Got out of a speeding ticket due to no tickets for 12 years.  I loved the trooper's verbal warning "It's an expensive sport [skiing], you don't want to pay more money do you?"  I now know that state troopers have forward-looking radar.   Time to get a radar detector to "Tell's me where the cops is" (Beastie Boys).

Time to get a radar detector to "Tell's me where the cops is" (Beastie Boys).

Valentine One is the only way to fly.

Thursday - Nice!  Really nice.

I would say this was pretty much a perfect ski day for Crystal.  After dumping about 21 inches in the last 72 hours, at low temps, and then sunshine and blue sky today..... well - Call in sick, No Friends on Powder Day.

Yes, deep pow and a blue sky day.  This pow was light, due to the cold temps.

And by the end of the day, the runs were bumped and rutted, so pull out the grooming machines.

My personal highlight was following a small group into Northway, entrance 5 (I believe that is Spook Hill).   I jammed my ski pole basket down 36 inches into the hill side.

The only downside is that I got tired after about a half day of picking pow turns. 

I noticed that some of the pow got dumped on top of chopped previous pow, leaving kind of sculptured pow.  All soft enough to plow through.

I really admire the folks who would take time for pics - not me, sorry.

The reality of Spring Time - Kelly's Gap was definitely in a warmer zone, a little more solid stuff.  Any other time I would have called it good snow, but compared to the higher elevation pow, not as much fun.

What a snow pack!