Crystal - 12/01

Another day, another Big day, Big new snow – sweet in the Valley and Powder Bowl – very deep, looked like those that got Bearpits early today had a nice time, heard from one guy as I was leaving that Northway Bowl was nice (and I assume other places out there – someone else will have to fill in the details, no Amigos around to drag me out there just yet), Big Big Very Big winds – but REX and GV kept on rolling, Big crowds – biggest by a wide margin for this season (gotta have made the food sales big today), Big coverage on the upper mountain, Little coverage down low, Lots of Big bombs going off early in the day with some nice slide visuals in the Big sun, big new ice skating rinks on some of the slopes (the new cats must be Zamboni’s), newly groomed IceFerkBerg – with sheet ice on the exit at the bottom (a few of the groomer slopes that had been okay till now were pretty boiler hard this afternoon). Most slopes getting better all the time. Very Big Fun day. Soup was Minestrone (looked like most of the food stations are finally open at CB lodge). Passed through the base lodge on the way out and they have some nice (expensive) new food down there also. Gondy line this morning looked like opening day. Parking lots were pretty full – pay lot almost full, B lot full to the shuttle stop, C D and E lots all pretty full – wow! Actually had a line on REX do to other lifts being on hold from winds.

REX broke down and we spent a cold 20 minutes stick on the lift right near the top where the wind howls . That was around 2:00 to 2 30 PM. Wind was howling.

Got some nice deep powder runs in the BC with PNWBrit( banned) ,Joedabaker and Peter. We dug some hasty pits and the stability seemed pretty good but we where on the look out for wind slab and it was definitely present near the ridge top. Caution required.

Powder was dense but skied reaaal good.

Felt like winter today and it felt good.
Udon bowl at HCL was a hit.... Good food...I enjoyed it.

Very worthy day. Looked out the front window at 7:30 to see suvs racing up the blvd like it was the Nordstrom half yearly, then as quick as the assault mounted it stopped ??? Caught the 8:30 b-lot shuttle, with only 2 of us on it. Opted for for MidWay shuttle (line was shorter) than Gondy 1. First lap down GV set the pace for the day, pluck the low hanging fruit and repeat. Pow in GV, cycle Luckey, back to GV. Frontside was chunky monkey, as was Memorial, bottom of the Berg was challenging, but the top was GS city. Just missed the Chair 6 stopage (thank goodness) Cycled North for some incredible light dry freshness, even sunny BrandX was fluffy. Bottom was a bit rough, but what can you expect. Pond skimming at the base morphed to ice bowling. Kudos to mgmt for new cats and especially for the full court press with last nights grooming. Considering the precip came late in the shift the cat crews worked magic. Big shout out to Regenexx for retreading my knee, not quite up to the level of risk I was previously willing to assume but I am skiing !! One of the other B-lot campers had his done 3 months ago and was out ripping it up. Go Stem Cell docs

Forgot the nourishment: Skipped the $7-9 per bowl soups, opted for the new and improved $2.16 coffee. Raise the price 16 cents ? Really ? Opted instead for the post ski coffee and walnut brownie at the elk while Scotts was was swinging in the breeze