February 15, '12 Crystal Mountain

Was looking forward to some fun-in-the-sun on the soft northfacers we skied in the fog monday. Not to be. Even in the shade, the underlayment has turned icy and crunchy. The couple inches of new and windblown addition were a weird combination of thickness with what felt like a wind packed crust even on the lee aspects. Great grooming allowed some stupid fast carving to fill in between disappointing off-piste prospecting. The sun softened the new/windpack just enough to lure us into some leg-burning junk. However, weather and friends made it an OK day all-in-all.

Ken

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A buddy came in from NY so we went to the resort yesterday and today and generally had similar experience as previously reported - until we hiked to Avalanche and Silver basin. We found minimally tracked powder (8 inches or so) that was really nice at the top (and a bit heavy down below) that was completely worth the effort getting to. Had an absolute blast and couldn't figure out why more people weren't back there (minus the riders for the Masters competition).

The north side of The King and Avie Basin were closed wednesday and thursday to hold snow for a snowboard comp that was supposed to be on the King thursday, now postponed to friday (will be closed again tomorrow). Wednesday they had Northway Bowl and Bruce's Bowl closed. Lots of flags and a loud PA but never saw anyone go down as we rode up the NW chair. Shame as we expected some of the better snow to be off north side of Northway Peak.

Ken