Crystal 12/4

got there early and parked front row of free lot......was able to get into 2nd bucket with a bunch of guys my age,( all hard core Crystal lighters, they knew everybody and everybody knew them) I even saw a pair of my old Red  Scarpas on one guy, I had my on as well. The chatter was pretty techy about plates and screws, no one was talking about where they were going. Boot top everywhere and it was fun and fast and then it was gone...I was able to be there when the Elk rope was dropped by the Head Red Jacket, thanks PB, I got my line and then some, boot top again. it was a little trafficy for my liking at the choke points with "ON YOUR RIGHT" followed by a fall and I had to pass him on his right......it was my first day out and the legs felt great, the Chet Crew were throwing the big boomers and getting ready up high for tomorrow. I bailed early and had a nice chat with the man himself as I got out of the download bucket, Steve Ferk is ageless and the youthful sparkle in his eye is infectious.
It was was fun to be on the hill and to see all the Big Boss Men out shaking hands. the hill looks great and tomorrow should be good, until the warm hits.

Nice visit.

As noted a really great day.....and the big guys wife skis big awsome also - but we all knew that....so my overly wordy version - Yee Haa, Whooo Hooo…Biggest Pow day of the season (I know that’s not saying much…but…).  Based on the really BIG winds and “mostly” snow at the top yesterday and since the winds slowed down this morning and since it was still snowing with reasonably cold temps….today was a BIG GO!.  Got to Crystal way to early (not unusual anymore). Nuking snow on the blvd on my drive up. Snowing at the base (a little damp) till shortly before the “First Tracks” upload around 8:40 this morning…vis sucked in the bucket I was in (totally snow caked), so couldn’t get any views out towards SouthBack (and when I rode down the bucket it was pretty fogged in that direction) so couldn’t tell how it might be out that way (like REX or Lucky Shot).  Jumped into a kinda blind GV bowl, nice, not as wind packed as I expected, but still a little vertigoish. Lower Valley was definitely heavier than the top and I expected that it might get cut up mashed potato’s….but ski conditions actually got better on the skied out areas, bump skiing got better, vis got better with some filtered sun breaks, crowd was nice sized (not to big for the lift line, but just right to ski out some areas).  Much nice Cascade Pow to ski early and for those willing to work for their turns there was even more.  The Coombas were very very Happy today and I’m really glad I let them out of the garage. The coverage was way better than I expected – Ann’s run was very happy bouncing around pick a line fun.   

Other – Screwed up and didn’t pay attention to what the soup of the day was (but maybe some kinda cheezie thing from an early morning rumor).  Pay lot was not full as usual, but the rest of the A lot was well represented.

Other other – finally met (or re met) FreeBird…I like his video and watching him ski live is pretty impressive…looking forward to seeing some video about how good (or bad ) today was.