Crystal 11-30-2012

Tis the season of deception, and I'm not talkin Obama, telemetry does not begin to even hint of how well upper mountain is skiing. The base is a soggy fall mess, patches of snow here and there, perfect pond skimming conditions on the meadow. 12 short minuets later in a cozy gondola and face shots abound in Green Valley. Memorial and the Library offered up the usual mid week bliss. Patrol made a valiant effort to get Ch 6 open, but alas the wind would not be subdued. The good news for tomorrow is the 1st round of control work has been done, South could be in the cards as well. Did I mention how well my Combas skied ? oh no I didn't cuz I don't have any, Katanas and SideSeths seem to do OK for now, I never met a ski I didn't want to own. The word must have spread from yesterday as paid parking had some action. I do wish you 1% ers could get the BMWs in row 2, Benzes in row 3, Escalades and Lexus owners to the back please. Beater pickups ALWAYS get the front row. Campbell Basin soup was broc cheddar, I sampled the chili, tasty but full of gluten filler. For $9:00 a bowl I had high expectations, oh well Tiz the season of deception.

Gotta say just read TW's report and looks like I'll be supplying sloppy seconds in my to many extra words report for today - but I was on Coombas and they were very happy. The report - What a day! Here comes the Bad, the Good and the Very Lucky. I wasn’t fired up to go, but the Number 1 Spouse is on a real mission (I’ve almost started to pay to much attention to “possible” forecasts – wind/rain). Arrived way to far back in the A lot at 8:30, okay the pay lot was the largest of the week and we were in the second row of the free part (per usual pay lot was pretty empty when we left). Raining very nicely, but the Bucket was running, lordy there are people standing in line at the Gondy already (Mike the “Never Works in the Winter” Fireman right up front – said Thursday was actually pretty “skiable” and where was I?). Sat around inside till 9:10 when the Gondy line went away – still raining, got a nice ride up with the Marketing department doing a show and tell for a couple planning on a wedding next year sometime. Big news here Mr Scotsman, they have no clue when the Taco van will be up and running. Crystal owns it but its second hand and has required lots of fixing up. Anyway back to the skiing, top of E we broke out into sunshine, Valley Bowl looked great with very nice tracks in it. The next hour was pretty nice and sweet and the Coombas where in heaven – per Scotsman it was either a really “Big small day” or maybe a really “Small big day” or my view – a big unexpected BONUS morning. There was wind loading on some slopes, when blown on the top in places (variable) of Sunnyside, deeper down lower. Door 1 pretty fun. IceFerkBerg nice skiers right shoulder (the Plunge) , bumpy in the middle. In and out on the weather, snowing up top, pretty wet down low at 1pm when we left. Warmish temps made for pretty wet packing on the cut up/ groomer areas (I was ready to quit when we had to leave). Off piste getting heavy and lumpy (seemed like the temps were dropping), will be ugly with out a bunch of new overnight. Went to CB Lodge (in case HC opened – no such luck), but checked out the soup – Broccoli Cheese (I assume Cheddar). Sandy said it was good, I tried the Chile – it was very nice. Coverage had greatly improved on the upper mountain and still looks pretty bad at the base (validates the telemetry). Rumor of big snow over night – hopefully otherwise the only thing that will be good will be the groomers, which should be good tomorrow. Sorry for to many words in this report.

a it was either a really “Big small day” or maybe a really “Small big day” or my view – a big unexpected BONUS morning. 

OK...so we know how the day was...But was the snow BIG??

The snow falling on my humble B-lot bivvy roof was LOUD

The snow was BIG and might be even BIGGER tomorrow if it keeps up all night. If I noticed the right bivvy camp in B lot today - that was pretty big also!

Video from today:

The weekend looks promising, but we need feet, not inches.