Crystal Nov 24th.

Soup today was cheese broccoli.....and it was excellent. Major change is that now you only get ONE packet of "Oyster crackers" instead of the 2 or 3 packets of flat crackers. However, the oyster crackers are easier to mix in with your soup and less messy and I would estimate that one packet of the new crackers= two packets of the old crackers.

I think it will be difficult to get two packets of oyster crackers but I'm going to ask next time and see what happens.

PNWBrit( banned) had chille and he said it was excellent as well.

As to skiing...well....sharpen your edges and learn to love the coral reef.

Another opinion about today - Big day…okay maybe not really big, or maybe not even really small big, but you make do with what you got and there were places that made making do very nice…..Fav’s would be GV Bowl (wish I had gotten first tracks there) and PB (oh so nice), could have repeated those all day. Heard some rumors about a wacky friend skiing the front side of REX today (lordy CD )…might have been good but sadly I was being to nice to get a chance to check it out. The other run that was getting pretty primo was IceFerkBerg – bumps building up nicely, got just enough sun to start going springish – could have done it a lot more times today also. Bad places – most of FQex runs, bad grooming, bad ice, bad pretty much everything – did two runs over there to check out a new Snowboarder friend, felt sorry for him as I watched him bouncing off the firm snow. No lift lines today, some sunish times, getting very grey when I left. Didn’t see very many hardcore regulars. For the soup folks today was Cheddar Broccoli as Mr Scot noted – I started badgering the help (and the new boss) about when we would be getting Chicken Noodle….gonna work that line for a while, still no report about the fancy chicken at the bottom….maybe one of these days. Had a lot of fun, need to go again to beat up some of the places I did not get enough of today…Yee Haa…..Lots of rocky stuff in places, had to walk the last 100ft at the base, Crystal was making snow at the top of GV, but need to do some serious snowmaking at the base – cold temps over the next few days should help that project (I’ve never seen such a mess at the base – even at the end of May.) Parking lots pretty average, typical pay lot, cars in C and B. Who's going tomorrow?

Sorry had to add a little more - NW was supposed to open today, but if it did it was pretty short, heard bad things about that part of the mountain from those in the know. The other big question I have to know is if Crystal will be open on Monday????? More than one person indicated the possibility of it being closed....thats why I be going tomorrow.

NW was open but as we approached the gate to ski it..Patrol closed it. >

Patrol guy said" a trusted local" had told them they were bordering on negligence for opening as it was so icy and such low coverage . They decided to listen and close it as the liability was too high.... his words not mine. Don't know who the "trusted local" was.

I'm skiing it tomorrow......hell, three weeks ago I'd have cut off my right arm to ski these conditions.

I totally enjoyed the sun and cloud drama!
I thought the groomers were suprisingly good for early season!
Sure did feel good to the legs and to the spirit to be back onda boards!

A few images from the day:
www.flickr.com/photos/11723786@N06/sets/72157632089914947/