Crystal - 03/08

Very nice day, not as sunny at as expected, but pretty warm, got very soft and mucky in places, others did not quite get to perfection, SnortElk bowl had the best packed almost pow conditions, Valley bowl had its moments, The Plunge was smooth soft and fast from the first time down it early, Kelly’s gap and lower E soft and sticky slow, Windy Pass bumps off the top of Crystal got very nice and fun mid day – but we needed another couple of hundred feet of them to make the world perfect, Lucky upper bumps similar, lower bumps – sweet spring slush for me!, only one pass through HC area – very windy on top and PB was not perfect (per Dean) to much wind blowing up the bowl to allow for any real softening, did a couple of runs in BP’s – parts nice smooth soft, others some what bouncy – soft enough for the big fat powder Coombas, but could have used a few more folks to ski it out (like pretty much anywhere else across the front of REX). Lots of high speed groomers today made for a big vert but short day. Big southwest winds on top, only impact was HC lift, very hot at the bottom of REX. Sorry no soup report – someone else is gonna have to fill that one in. No lift lines to speak of, cars in the lots, plus some buses, some cars in C and B. Think I’m gonna go mt biking now to make up for the easy ski day.

Soft groomers from the start for fast top-to-bottom runs. Turned sticky from Rex's base down, literally stopping any high speed fun. The off-piste was way the other side of perfect and pretty much unskiable in the sun. Dug some bumps into the slushy groomers later. When the temperature drops below freezing, it will be boilerplate and coral heads.

Ken
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Enjoyed a fun day carving up the groomers off the gondola and Rex today too.

But most notable for me was a very interesting cloud formation seen on the way to Crystal today -- wrote a post with several photos over in Random Tracks:
Unusual lenticular "hole" cloud above Mt Rainier

Nice photo...I noticed that hole this morning also..thanks Amar