December 7, 2012, Crystal

Storm put a lot of quality powder down all over the mountain. Fairly large Friday crowd. GV/REX were up and going first thing and coverage was great. Northway and High Campbell were on wind hold for most of the morning. #6 opened just after noon, to amazing conditions in the basin. It then closed after about an hour or so due to high winds - really high. Gusts enough to knock you down at times. Powder bowl was somewhat gnarly. It dumped all day - I wouldn't say nuked - just a moderate continual dump. Tomorrow's crowd should be happy.

I didn't feel so go this morning, so I called in sick!!!!!!and jumped into the car and wiggled my way down to Crystal....... I was not alone!!!!! both in calling in and the wiggle down to 410, lots of folks doing the 410 shuffle, if you know what I am saying???? I booted up in the P room and the place was a buzz with the teams just finishing up inbounds before they headed out N. I saw all the powder dogs in the gondi line and some old pro's as well(BW), it was good from the gun and and I quickly made my way to my stashes, not that you needed, the skiing was good everywhere. You know its good when you see a pack of off duty pro's standing by the NW gates,they didn't recognize me with my new helmet look, I stood with them a few and when they skied off, I knew the gates were not going to open, in 5. It was good all over, but my turns down "cold face" were "Warren Miller" caliber. By the way, I am feeling better now and will be back to work on Monday. Thanks to all the Pro's with their early out the door. stopped off at the BW with a beer to toast Ulla.

Awesome day up there. First tracks down Bear pits and Sunnyside, then 3 runs down HC during the hour or so it was open. The only thng that would have made it better was me being in shape. LOL!

Great day, big early frenzy of fast snow riders ripping up the mountain. Deep, really deep new nice quality snow. Coverage is pretty awesome now. Got one run down PB during the short window – I liked it. Lots of BP’s, Doors, Frontside of REX runs that even though cut up (by 9:30) got better and better all day – it kept Spouse #1 on the slopes till they closed the lifts on her. Big winds at times gusting across the mountain – kinda surprised that the Gondy/REX/GV chairs kept open all day and actually ran okay. Fun day. Pretty big early season crowd, but no real lift lines noticed most of the day. Soup was Ched Broc…the boss is promising Chick Noodle for Saturday! As I noted yesterday in my prediction – Today Was BIG….Very BIG! Tomorrow should be very nice, especially if the winds and weather moderate and North and South open.

We certainly got our $20 worth early. Think the run down northway  after the rope dropped might have been worth $25 alone.

Anyone hear anything about a slide inbounds that carried someone out in northway?

The worst part of the day was the heavy knee-deep powder opening. But the snow just improved throughout the day. Cycled Frontside trees for visibility waiting for Northway and Six to open. By the time they did, we were having so much fun on the Front, we stayed there. Sounded like a short opening window. What happened out North? (a slide would explain it) Ski Patrol tweets of multiple openings and reports of closed gates made us glad we didn't head that way only to be locked out. It was blowing so hard between noon and 1:00 that snow flying off the trees reduced visibility to zero. The snow under-ski, however, improved throughout the day and tomorrow looks great. The large-for-a-friday crowd quickly dispersed for zero lines on Rex but couldn't find their way down the boulevard faster than 15-20mph.
Oh, my soup of the day was Deep Pow in a Slight Fog.
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