Crystal - 03/07

A very nice day today. Snow conditions were very similar to earlier in the week before the rain hit. The new snow last night made for some good morning runs. The sun came out mid-morning and never left. This caused much of the snow to get heavy and pack, some even getting soft again like spring. Early runs out Northway were excellent…top third. Then it was suffer the heavy, unconsolidated snow to the bottom. One run around lunch time in Powder Bowl skiers left chute (AKA John's Chute) revealed some temperature and sun damage to the snow. No repeat there. So, hamster-cycled Green Valley to Iceberg for the rest of the day.

The free-skier competition in Bear Pits resulted in music at the bottom of REX. I wish Crystal would pump up the tunes more like other areas. It was nice. Saw one guy get major air near the top of Bear Pits, then loose a ski and stop very quickly on a tree. Talked to his dad in the restroom at the end of the day. He said his kid was numb, but apparently OK.

Met Silas on the mountain today. Must say, you're rocking' those pants, fellow red pant skier.

hope he had fun after bailing on sweet sweet alpental.
b

I think Silas had a fun day...thought he would have already posted...but he is probably busy visiting friends...And so my long winded report - Pretty unexpectedly nice day, kinda grey down low early, but full on sun up top and that just kept spreading every where. Arrived a little to late for Military Appreciation Day, so I was not in the A lot, but still managed to walk up passed a lot of cars, change and jump onto CHex not long after opening. Never noticed any kind of lift line the rest of the day. Cell phone rang just before 9am – oh no! problems…lucky for me it was Silaswild checking in for a day of skiing. We’ve tried a number of times before, today we finally hooked up and I have to say had a fun day bouncing around the mountain. Very nice quality snow on the top half the mountain early. GV bowl and West face, some runs down the last Doors, PB multiple times just skier right off the top (and I’m pretty sure anywhere further right). BP’s was closed way to long for another Extremo skiing comp, they did have great vis and weather today at least. Silas allowed us to have a nice break eating Chicken Noodle in the CB lodge, Thanks! Met up with Ms Ferk and spent the early afternoon skiing with the both of them. Big fun-o-meter kicked in during the 2pm hour – started skiing REX chair line to Memorial Forest…it all looked like shark teeth, but skied like whipped cream – go anywhere at high speed fun. Nice sun till the end, started noticing the firming process in the shade late. All in all a very fun day. Thanks Silas and Charlene.

Other - As noted CB lodge had Chick Noodle and it was very good as usual. Pay lot was big and seemed to have lots of cars in it. As noted I was down between the A and C lot, cars filled the B lot passed the shuttle stop and C lot was mostly full. So there was a lot of folks at Crystal, but not many on the slopes. Helps when almost everything is open. Heard lots of bombs out South late today, probably first thing tomorrow.

Agree with the assementsvabove but I had a superb day with freshies all over from GV to Northway and many hikes up to the Throne. First tracks down Morning Glory to Brand X was perhaps my best run of the year . Cliff bands on HC actually skied well in the sun but you needed to keep your speed up. Pity they opened Campbell after it got sun affected and didn't start to control SB till 2 with no real attempt to open it.

Rain-smoothed base, boot-top heavy pow, and blazing sun. Smooth, fast and effortless, as long as you stayed above 6Kft, made for a most excellent morning. After noon, the concrete set and it was sun-softened groomers for the remainder. Radiant cooling overnight will not be kind. Top half of Northway was the goods, and I was admiring a line down Brand X, likely yours myikat.

Ken
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Oh, they opened Southback about 2:30, for what it's worth.

Ken