Crystal 12/20/09

Where are all the reports when Crystal is...well less than perfect powder?
Well I won't lay it on thicker than last Tuesday's powder.
Scottsman called me and forced me to get out of bed and go skiing today in the rain. I needed to test my 4 hour remount of my Dynafits on my good old Kailas skis (skied awesome).
Uninspiring conditions, which consisted of a steady rain, but surprisingly the groomed runs skied like spring corn on hardpack. Just had to keep the goggles skigeed. Eventually, cold hands forced us off the hill. My rule is that I need to at least ski as long as the round trip to and back from my house, for Scotsman that is 4 hours; for me that is 1 hour. We settled for 3.
The snowpack is getting a good soaking, I was a bit surprised to see how many people were there considering the rain, C Lot was full and B lots had maybe ten rows.
Hey, it's better than the ice of last week.

Proud of you lads taking one for the team ! I slept in and dallied the day away. 17 for 15 has left me a tad bit spent. Elvis has left the mountain till Tuesday. See you in the Santa suit.
Carry on.

Darn!    Well... makes me feel lucky about last Thursday. 

From King 5's weather cast:

"A cold front  will cross the region overnight  filtering cool air in behind it  and changing the rain tonight to off and on showers on Monday.

A  convergence zone may set up late Monday north of Seattle. With cooler air flowing into the region a rain/snow mix is a possibility. No accumulation is expected.

Snow levels over the Cascades will be dropping during the day Monday. By Monday night the level will be close to 1000'. Several inches of fresh snow is possible." 

The more the cold fronts move in and out... the more snow we get.  Just have to get lucky enough to hit it right.

Wet, OK, no, pow, OK, skiing off of 6 at 1:30 in driving snow and boot top pow, The wait was worth this one run.

The next few days we will see an improvement in the snow pack, inbounds.

OB, be really careful out there, I know a few really good guys, the best in the NW in knowing the snow pack, just had a few really close calls. WAIT, let it set up.

On a day like today , I like to sit on the chair ride up and think about those hot and ski starved August and September days when I would have killed to be able to ski a run like Iceberg in such fine sloppy snow.
It makes the rain seem inconsequential.
Thanks for the company Joe.