May 11, 2014, Crystal

Lots of folks out making the most of the good weather and abundant snowpack at the southern resort today. Low valley clouds early gave way to brilliant sunshine before noon and the temp climbed as rapidly as 10F an hour before topping-out at a whopping 59F at 1pm. Snow went from crusty, chopped-up day-old pow to spring slush by lunchtime, necessitating the use of steep terrain to mitigate the stickiness. GV skied well, snowpack is holding solid both in the valley and on the SnElk side, even through the Grubstake chutes. Below the bottom of REX, coverage is a different story, with lots of dirt poking through on Lower Arwine's and Stump Farm returning to the condition it's named after. Lucky Shot was closed due to stability concerns on the corner below PB, so the only options for top-to-bottoms were Iceberg Gully or Sunnyside. Did a lap through each... Iceberg slid smoother due to the skier grooming it was receiving throughout the day, but Sunnyside did offer up some excellent turns (and equally if not more less-than-excellent turns). Coverage is getting thin through the Doors, best scoping it out from the Iceberg side first. Very bottom of Queen's is melting fast, with this week's forecasted warm, dry weather, I imagine it'll be a much longer walk to the patio next weekend.

Didn't set foot inside all day, so no clue what the soup was today. The taco truck was absent, too Chased a few familiar folks from the land of Lot 4 and their young'uns around GV in the afternoon. Clouds rolled-in right at closing bell and a few flurries began to fly at the very top, with a drop or two of liquid pow on the way to the bottom.

Gotta say a very very nice Alpy style report!   Wish I'd been there with you. :'( Bumps on Grubstake look very nice

appears a few more days were added to the sprung schedule.