12/6/15 Crystal Mt.

18” of heavy pow up high in Green Valley changed to just plain heavy in the lower Valley. The lift line change from zero to 15 minutes - and when we last got on it was 3 times as long. Bail to Luckyshot. The heaviness had already been pounded into firm, jittery bumps that were actually quite fun. As long as you dodged the masses, and I mean masses, of people careening around, falling, and (snowboarders) sitting on asses across the hill. I was afraid of the line at FQ and missed the opening of Powder Bowl. Three big slides left only one line of untracked and the first dozen skiers made some nice turns. Nice base-building snow that hopefully will last through this week’s rain.

Ken
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Lordy this be the earliest kkz report ever!.....so my version of the rest of the day....My Oh My…Get ready for a really really BIG report.  Big hopes and expectations for today, but oh no…its flat out raining in the parking lot at 7am. Quick change and jump into to First Tracks line up for the Gondy – pretty drippy wet and a mess of skis and boards stacked up all around (lucky a lot of them were day trippers)…this morning was a great test for my expensive goretex!  Worked great.  Pretty big crowd at the base before the up load started. Got lucky and squeezed into the first bucket ride and the next hour was pretty sweet cascade powder (not perfect, but deep and fast).  Just about the time the mass uploading via REX showed up – lucky – Lucky Shot finally opened up, not perfect and actually kinda not very pleasant for a while  ( till some of it got more skied out ). But the line on REX was fast enough – better than what I heard about the GV lift line (ouch big and nasty and I’m really glad I was never there).  When the REX line disappeared I figured Chair 6 was getting close (big crowd waiting over there for the 11ish opening).  Just the right time to ride FQex (smallish line), check out what the soup was at CB lodge (it was good)…Back up REX and notice that GV chairs are not full, so did a few laps in the Valley (no wait singles line), The B!tch (aka Grubstake face under the chair) was very soft and fun high speed.  Back  over to check out HC lineup – nice and short…lots of folks waiting at the top for the rope to drop heading out towards the Throne…got one run that way before the line up went nuts again…so headed back to the Valley…no line, nice, oh no! legs starting to complain…weather starting to close in (did I mention that a lot of the day was big sunny to warm nice?  Finally bailed around 2:30 with my first in a long time full on ski day.  Gonna have some sore quads tomorrow (ib night).

Other – Parking lots were slammed, everything (except maybe the pay lot) were full down to the E lot – ouch.  Many empty spots from the folks that left early, but still a heck of a lot of cars, glad I left when I did…nice easy drive home.  Soup at CB lodge was Ched Brocc, actually pretty good….only other food was burgers and they were going fast.  Great day, saw lots of happy folks, heard about lots of happy big powder lines and I had a few myself.  Snow pack is pretty primo now, another big hit and life will be really good.
PS The Coombas were incredibly happy today!

For the second day in a row I drove to Crystal , skiied 3-4 runs and left. Pretty chaotic and totally unprepared for the record crowds. Have never seen lines that long on the Gondy, GV or chair 6z. Untracked lines around 6K feet were oK but the carved up stuff was deep and manky. The mountain is woefully understaffed and people were line jumping and ducking lines with unchecked regularity . I am afraid the explosive growth in Seattle is making Crystal unusable on weekends and freshy days. Would have gone touring but the hazard striikes me as high today. Glad others enjoyed but I thought it sucked

I'll basically echo everything that was stated above. Huge lines at times, made the mistake of taking a quick GV lap waiting on HC, big big mistake. 50 minute line even with creative methods.

Despite liberal control work, Powder Bowl skied decent with no powder. First 2 laps off HC were awesome but then it was cashed out Base turned to variable concrete by 11:00. Hidden tree lines held out for most of the day. 5-6 legitimate powder lines all said and done. Control work and lift openings coordination/phasing left something to be desired.

First time I've ever gate line at the top of 6......resembled a feeding frenzy when they dropped the rope

I feel I need to bring the positivity to this thread, as we must have been skiing at different Crystal Mountains. As this was a great weekend to be south of I-90, heard from numerous friends Baker was a let down in terms of heaviness and rain. I will say communication was especially poor on Crystals behalf, but they were trying their best and hey I had a great first day at Crystal this yr! We rode up CHinook maybe 10th chair and waited for Rex which really didn't take that long at all to open.

Skiied 4 early laps on great powder with my wife and grabbed a beverage around 10am crowd started moving in for the Seahawks game. after a 10 min break walked onto the Gondola w/ my wife and one other 40 yr local, not a single other individual in line.

Skiied Green Valley from about 11am-2:30 lap after lap as a single. Maybe waited 2,3 chairs at most in the singles line. There was no line at all in green valley that I witnessed after 11am.

I traversed toward northway's chair and right angle ridge I think it's called, ducked the rope line and carved sun soaked powder for give or take 10 runs. There was even a ski-patrol fellow based at the bottom of that area who himself couldn't believe the small population in green valley.

Video evidence! vimeo.com/148094529

Stay positive and search for that snow, the lifts are there to aid your search!

hey gnar nice positive vibe ducking a rope