12/30/11 Crystal Mt

P.S. Alpental skied wonderfully today so the day ended well

Glad we skipped the trying to go to Crystal part and just hit Alpental in the afternoon. Good fun, and as a nice bonus we skied to the side of the car at the end of the day. Semi-tracked was setting up like concrete but there was plenty of fun turning to be had. And no lines on the quad.

i can confirm that it was people on the bld between mile markers 2-3 putting chains on their cars. up to 13 cars. parking crew set the record for how many cars were parked- nobody was turned around. the resort gave a one hundred dollar bonus to the parking crew. the bonus will make for an awesome bar tab tonight for my bandmate, dave.

northback was epic. buillion tomorrow.

Since I have the ears of several crystal locals here, what do you use to get accurate information on crowds, parking, and road status before you're actually there?
This is compounded with basically no 410 cell coverage if you're inroute, but I never feel there is a central number I can call up there to get info and I don't think it's appropriate to bother the ski patrol (which has an active dispatch thru the day) for non-injury/emergency issues. Nwac telemetry is snow/weather, Kim/Cory's Blog is a day or so back, tweets are terrain opening, and the website is glossy. Anyone use any other resources?

Jungle telegraph, nod nod wink wink

Since I have the ears of several crystal locals here, what do you use to get accurate information on crowds, parking, and road status before you're actually there?

It's easy, leave home early, arrive early, beat the people that can't drive in the mountains. Especially from christmas to mid february on the weekends. Arrive before 8 (we plan on 7:30-7:45) and never a problem. Weekdays are more casual with arrival around 8-8:15 works unless it's a big powder day. Early and late season weekends you can slack off 1/2 hour. As for road conditions, Subarus with high performance snow tires. Road is never a concern.

We spend the extra time sitting in the lodge letting our boots warm to our feet, talking big with our regular buddies, and watching the lift lines. You can time it for minimal line standing and maximum first tracks.

On Cluster F. Friday (last friday) we parked at 7:30 after driving all the way to the mountain at 60 with no traffic. All those years of working with a 3:50am wake up paid off. Sleeping in till 5 now seems luxurious.

Ken