Crystal, Feb 26th

Jesus, are there any ATers anymore?

Woke up at 4 this morning to drive to Crystal and endure a day of pretentious tele-babble from the chica and kneel turner. At one point my gear got dissed because a binding released when I took a spill. *sigh*. Oh, yeah, I also skied some pretty good snow.

We started off at Green Valley, skiing ~6" of new on windblown on crust, fun, if slightly challenging.
Moved to Northway when it opened and found lighter snow with less prominent crust, which skied really well. Met up with Kyle, Chris (Chris, right???) and others and sneaked some other less tracked Northway lines. Finished the day on Forest Queen, cruisin' groomers and practicing jumping...

Throughout the day there was rain/snow at the base and blustery snow at the top. Cooled towards the end of the day, but enough wind and snow was around to refill the lines throughout the day. Should be good tomorrow. Campbell was open but we never made it that way.

Thanks to all for showing me around. Thanks to Mr. Turner and Chica for the great day and enduring my dull karaoke stories on the way home. Feel free to add any details I may've missed.

Great lift served day. I thoroughly enjoyed pushing powder beginning to end. Light powder, heavy powder, packed powder, cut up powder... It's all good. Welcome back winter!

Chica: Thanks for making sure I got motivated to ski today!

Chmny: Fun skiing with you. Laughter goes well with skiing.

If anyone needs any tuck pointing, rain caps, liners, or cleaning, Chmnyboys yer man!

I give the best slam award to the guy that commented on my boot buckle issue at the bottom of NW.

BTW, Everyone knows Jesus Tele's.

Come over to the darkside Tyler, we have cookies. Damn good ones, too, if I do say so myself.  

Glad you could make it over to this side of the water.

Gotta admit I was pretty skeptical about the potential outcome of the day, but such has been the case this entire month.

The snow is definitely "wettish" and your bum gets soaked riding the lifts (another good reason to skin, not ride), but there was plenty of it today providing for some great turns and the occasional spectacular face plant... I meant shot. Face shot... some were just a little more up close and personal than others.

It did snow all day. And was definitely blowing hard at times. Coming off of lucky shot my head ached from its cold intensity. I hate the last, icy, bumped out stretch to access northway chair, but the wind was much less noticeable there with a greater consistency of deep, soft snow. If my internal compass is right, east facing aspects were wind scoured, while west facing were deep. We were strictly in bounds, but where it was untouched, the new snow is definitely loose and prone to sliding.

Fun day. Stories included.

Sounds like you guys had a good day, wish it would have worked out for us to join in. We would have at least help tip the AT/Tele balance a little more back towards center.

Hey Tyler,
Did you by chance run into your "Old" friend Mr. "Overholt" on the mountain?? 

Gary and Jan

Gary-
Mr. Overholt, although a bit of a cheapskate, did make an appearance from time to time and given a proper introduction. He's welcome to ski with us anytime. 

I hope you can join us as well the next go 'round!

The snow is definitely "wettish" and your bum gets soaked riding the lifts (another good reason to skin, not ride), but there was plenty of it today providing for some great turns and the occasional spectacular face plant... I meant shot. Face shot... some were just a little more up close and personal than others.

Yeah, that's it, I'll go with that definition of face plant anyday! Like a very close and careful examination of the snow. My new glasses are unbreakable so there will be no "evidence" either!