Crystal - 01/31

Another very nice day, arrived way to late based on a Friday and a left over pow day, got stuck in the front of the C lot – ouch! Massive big Pay/Bus lot was the main reason. Good sized line up for the Gondy early, not really much on CHex, jumped onto a empty chair a little after 9am. Kinda grey and foggy, with nasty freezing mist up top for the first hour, vis kept improving and blowing around all day, felt cold, light snow fall during a lot of the day, couple inches at least new to add to the left overs in the core area from yesterday. Not much on lines (REX and HC anyway) early and really no lines after NW opened around 9:45 or so. Should be some big O-Gasmic reports from out there soon, heard good things from Jim about non-stop face shots (he rides a chair, really big skier!). I spent a slow lazy day doing mostly left over’s up on HC out south – very nice. PB was still good, BP’s, some Doors, Sunnyside still had lots of left over pillows, M-World from the top – very nice. What groomers I did skied great, crowd was really small, but with the whole mountain open people get spread out nicely. Managed to make the “new” lower CD minimum again today and still quit early.

Other – Soup was left over Ched Broc (early anyway), Pay lot was not full when I left, but C was full and B was maybe 2/3rds. 10 or so buses with more showing up as I drove down. WSP was parked in the C lot when I left and I noticed a couple driving up on my drive down 410. As noted Elk are back on the roadside down around Crystal Ranch. Great day, should be a big day tomorrow and a nice quiet day on Sunday!

As DDK stated, the couple inches of new overnight did a great job refreshing the slopes. The freezing fog for the first several runs was not as fun. Cycled GV trees until Northway opened and then headed there. What's this? No fog. Weird. Had three O-gasmic runs of untracked or barely tracked powder. After the third run, the line had grown to close to 10 minutes with hordes coming down the mountain. On a side note, many schools bus there kids up for skiing and lessons on Friday. So, does Crystal Ski School really need to take them out to Northway on a powder day? Many were having difficulty in the deep snow and would have gotten better lessons in the main area. Anyway, decided it was time to leave and we followed the clear spots around the mountain as the fog rolled through other areas. Some of my favorite runs of the last couple weeks gave me some problems today…most notably Bear Pits and Sunnyside. I suspect it had more to do with me than the condition of the mountain. About noon, headed back to Northway to find no lines and no powder. Man, that got skied out fast. Not to fear, we had our secret stashes which gave us several more good runs. Finished the day with GV/Ferkbergs to get to the CD minimum. Oh, and the "new lower CD minimum" is the same as last years. I ought to know…it's my minimum! No good day under 30K.

Today was the busiest Friday I've seen this year, mostly due to the number of busses, lessons, and parents on the slope.

Looks like the snow is letting up, but the mountain should ski well for a while with the snow re-fresh. Still some areas closed like lower Bull Run, Dear Fly, and Kelly's gap.

Yeah, what they said. Although if ddk thought Campbell and Sunnyside were very nice, he needs to get out more. Northway delivered the goods both before, and after the crowdfest. Did you know you can ski Penny Dawg's in two traverses? And your instructor will show you how? Jeeeze. Luckily they missed the early runs and left enough for the afternoon "crowd" of 10 people. Coupled with yesterday's Southback, a wall to wall pow fest. Sorry, it's over for now.

The only soup I saw was pea soup freezing to my goggles the first couple runs. I wish the elk wore radar, my detector worked well for the WSPs.

Ken
+

Northway was phenomenal. Lots of people tracked out the main areas before noon. However, the entire area was empty 1:30 to close. Plenty of fresh lines in the upper sections all the way to close. I would argue my last two runs of untouched powder through the top 2/3 were the best of the day. Got the last one as patrol was closing the gate. Hiked out to the top of Penny Dawg's and not a soul to be seen over the entire area. Pretty cool feeling. This definitely set the bar for a great day a Crystal.