Crystal - 2/18 big snow, bigger crowds

I had some idea of the crowd to expect when I got in line at 7:40 and was already about 6 rows back. It was windy at the base and the Gondola and Six were reported on weather hold. Six never got close to opening and the gondola only ran for a short part of the day. It was snowing medium to hard all day and visibility was challenging. NW and even short NW were closed. Reaching the top of Chinook we could see Rex not moving and the lift op said it was on weather hold. Headed over to FQ to play in the new snow as best we could, receiving faces shots off the skier’s left traverse. Took 2 or 3 runs there, checking on Rex each time. Sometimes stopped, sometimes moving but never loading. With a good part of the mob locked in line there we took the up and down track to lower E, receiving another face shot there! Another lower E run and decided to take an ultra early lunch. What we did not count on was the 10:00 reinforcements in line at Chinook and then at FQ. Utilizing those reflex like Chair2 lift crowding techniques we arrived at CB lodge about 11:00 (Autumn Butternut soup). Back down to the now loading Rex for a 35 minute no-rules wrestling match to get on the chair. Not wanting to repeat that wait we gambled on GV and found a pleasant 10 minute wait, organized setup. We enjoyed that for several runs, made a Bull Run/Lower E to the bottom and then back to a now light line at Rex for the rest of the day. OK, how about the snow. Not wanting to wait 2 hours to get first tracks on Rex, I cannot comment on the big untracked. My impression though was that the snow was very dense but not wet. It was difficult to push through without a lot of steepness. The cutup stuff was soft, more fun and faster. Later in the day the wind and new snow were starting to fill in the lines and the skiing got better as the day passed. Favorites were OF/far right Lucky trees, Showtime, Lower E, Sunnyside, Doors, left at end of rope on Downhill. BP remained closed. No elk seen on the road.

8th chair when rex finally opened did not suck. quality vs. quantity was the order of the day.

Kudos to Patrol for getting the mountain open, massive snow, high winds and limited vis made thier job much much harder. I'll second the comments on density of both snow, lines and in some cases skiers and boarders. I was thankful for a pass and skipping the ticket line that stretched well into paid parking, which was full to the brim. Shuttles were often blocked by dense drivers who later migrated to other lines. I spent an hour at Rex, reward was nice line down showtime, almost pillowy. Line for second lap was more painful than the 1st due to the unruly crowd, frankly I was under the impression that Seattle area skiers and sliders were kinda like the Pemco commercials. While it's true I only ski on the bottoms of my skis I do appreciate others not stomping on the tops, particularly Monster energy fueled boarders. (end of rant) If the weather cooperates 6 is online to open mid morning. North and South are going to take a lot of work to open. Wind slabs, drifts and cornices come to mind. I hit some exposed ridgelines off elk bowl this afternoon and felt some slab love. Good times. Pic is b-Lot version of dawn patrol.

I didn't think the crowds were that bad, I was expecting worse. Once everything opened, people spread out fairly well and rex/gondy were both <5 min waits all afternoon with plenty of face shots available on each run (mostly rex frontside, exterminator, and lower BP). Very deep day and really not that dense except in windpacked areas.

Despite what seemed to be a miserable start we ended up having a very good day at Crystal. Left Seattle at 5:45am and we were able to park in A lot. We immediately stuck our gear in the lift line about 10 rows back.

Things looked really bad based on the line for lift tickets (pic below). I pity the poor souls who had to wait in that for very long. The line still extended well down the A lot as we were uploading for our first ride on Chinook.

Things were pretty dire at the top of Chinook with basically the whole mountain on hold (pic below). Despite the wind hold on REX we immediately got in line and began our more than one hour wait for the lift to open. The disorganized crowd (it seemed obvious that Crystal should have invested more in line management) was generally good natured and we endured the ad hoc snowball fights.

When REX finally started uploading we were probably about 25 chairs from the front. The snow under REX looked so tempting. However, knowing the lines would still be chaos we bolted for Green Valley. We had several first tracks runs gown Green Valley before anyone showed up. Snow was knee / wait deep but a bit slabby as others have mentioned. I was very surprised that patrol's bombing didn't kick off more visible slides. Anyway, after four great trips down GV we headed back over to REX where the lines had abated somewhat. The rest of the day was spent in various runs off REX where the wind and continuous snow had filled things in nicely. Sorry no pics of the great snow (there's no time for that when it's good).

All in all, not the best day ever at Crystal (due to Northway closure and the slightly slabby nature of the snow), but a pretty darn good day nonetheless.

Not even close to a great day in my book. Between the crowds, wind, poor vis, slow lifts , late opening and closures it was a frustrating ski day for me. The snow is so deep and heavy that only the steepest slopes were skiable with 108 underfoot. The coverage is certainly welcome but the deep instability makes the whole season of back country in question. Bitch, bitch, bitch. Back up tomorrow- I'm a glutton for punishment.