April 16, 2009 Crystal Mtn

Thursday - a mid-day report from the snorting elk, via cell phone....

the bad news.. they ran out of Black Butte Porter..... the good news... I got the last glass...

frozen groomers this am.... sunny w/blue skies ....snow softning by noon... off groom...dicey.... more later...

Here's the 6:48 update from the B-lot Boy: Killer fast groom this AM, wear a tight hat and go fast, stay on the groomers. Green Valley and Ice Berg were sublime, had to make a couple turns on Lucky. Ran laps with the FOG posse which grew to nearly 20 at some points. When it softened on the lower mtn I swapped gear for a walkabout up Silver Basin. South Back has been closed for several days and I was curious so skinned from the top of Chair 4 via TLC to to below Boxcars. The crew from Nimbus Films was filming on 3 Way today, as well as the King. Super knarly line down Light Brown even had patrol  talking. Their films are available for free download on the web. Local boy made good, Tyler Ceccanti served as their tour guide and talent. All in a great day, lots of sun and good friends, Kudos to Keith for bringing Les Gerstman to the party. That is all.

.......more.   I was wondering if the dump that hit Sunday night would still be around after some of you guys wallowed in it Monday and Tuesday.  Well, there is certainly a good snow pack up there.  But not quite the powder wonderland I was hoping for. 

I believe South Back was closed today and there was some blasting going on back there.

However, it was a fun, blue sky, sunshine day on the snow.  This morning was frozen, but nicely groomed groomers.  Off groom had either a little bit of breakable crust with powder underneath or it was condensed, kind of like styrofoam.   Things changed dramatically during the day.  The breakable crust simply softened out.   There was snow on the trees!  Riding up the GV chair, I saw icicles hanging on the trees as the freeze/thaw cycle worked.

There is simply a freeze and thaw cycle going on.  Groomers can't really hold shape after warming and get pretty chopped up.  Green Valley Bowl  got very chopped up as the day progressed.  Ice Berg was good most of the day.  Towards the end of the day, even the moguls at the end of the Snorting Elk Cat Track softened up.

There was a suck-slush line about below the Rex chair.  So, trying to get over to lower Bull Run was interesting.  Lower Bull Run was all chopped... nice mash potatos, but skiable.  As I skied to the base area I tried making turns, staying on edge to fight the great sucky-breaking thing.  It worked but was hard to keep up.

What a beautiful day!   I am aquainted with about twenty of the folks who skiing today and we made it a point to have a fun day.

I am not sure what this is about... found it down by the Snorting Elk Sign.  One of my friends said she saw a piece of a ski pole sticking in the snow on Ice Berg.   Maybe a connection?

When I was there monday there was this same, lone, broken ski sitting unceremoniously next to the elk sign at the top of the track. Looks like maybe someone decided to build a monument.