January 18th, Crystal

Game called due to wind and too much snow.

Lots of wind for sure. Skied lower mountain. Snow got heavy towards the end of the day.

Telemetry says its 38 at the base right now.

Dangit Bandit!...Gotta do a better job to let us (me) know when your on the mountain – If I’d have known we could have skied a few marginal runs this morning. Nasty bad day for anyone that wanted to get to the top of Crystal today (me included). Left early this morning expecting a bad drive up, it was actually pretty good till we pulled into the lineup behind the snowplows past Greenwater at something like 7:10! Those guys could start a little earlier. There was foot deep blower smoke snow on the down hill side of the road and for us 25mph driving behind the snowplows all the way to the Blvd. Crystal was actually ready for the big party today mostly, but sadly the big winds hit and lasted all day. Pretty impressive winds at times, though down low mid day things were relatively mellow and it did not seem any worse than yesterday. Lots of folks hoped for a REX opening and waited, but the person in control closed that option around 1pm. Snow quality was great most of the morning, but was pretty wind and temperature impacted late – found out that it had actually been raining at the base early afternoon. Crowd didn’t really seem to big even with the limited options – CHex, FQex and Goldhills (second year in a row I’ve been up that lift – nice views of the whole area, but I hate doing it), but FQex had almost weekend lines, plus the added bonus of no lift line gates (well actually they did, but they were 12 people wide and the crowd was pretty European in their cluelessness). Had some fun, but a lot less than hoped for. Was surprised by how many cars were in the B and C lots when we left. Pay lot was big, but really did not show as usual. (okay on the spelling mostly CMSkier?) ddk

That sounds right on. Wife and I left Sammamish and headed to D Lot, getting there by 9:15. big winds and slabby snow low on the mt. It was good turns on DH and Rolling Knolls. great ride up with "The Ferk man" and his wife. Just the four of us. He talked about the days when cambell side was the South of Crystal, no lifts and one had to traverse in from Mt Top side. hike the Throne and gaze over to the King. Man that man knows the hill. he can still hike most of the pro's into the ground. and ski any line on the hill. but was happy today to be making turns with his wife. Me too. wife and I have been skiing together for a long time. Just melted the spell chech option.....

Re: the FQ liftline, not sure who decided to just have two merging 12 person wide cues, but the guy with the septor did an excellent job managing people and filling chairs. That is a job that makes all the difference when someone takes control and does it right. Props to that guy!