Crystal - 12/20

Yee Haaie! Totally a double Trifeccta kinda day….looked totally nasty windy crappy at the base early this morning…but CHex started uploading at 8:38! (per Drew)….thinkin the next stop is FQex (again) not! REX spinning, since I was on the third CHex chair got to see the rush to load the first REX chair!!! BIG bonus. Great early morning vis everywhere, based on the winds some places were winds blasted and others were big loaded! After a couple of happy runs in the Valley, started working Sunnyside to the Doors, to Bearpits and OuterFerks – still plenty of first tracks since there really was not a lot of folks skiing – or maybe it was cause everything was open from far North to far South (helps spread the crowd). Never really saw a line today other than passing through FQex – and that was mainly cause of the shortage of employees to crowd control the Euro style lift line. Chair 6 never had a line when I passed through. Campbell Basin was nice, PB was very nice, getting off the top is already rock challenged, less so towards PB. The off load ramp at the top of 6 I gotta say pretty much SU!!CKS this year – I got short legs and every time I get off it feels like a BIG drop into a hole. Mentioned it to a half dozen different folks now…hhhmmm…. Got a little greyer mid day, looked bad, but vis improved again by 1 which made life good again. Found a snowboard in skier right of GV upper bowl? Propped it up in the snow to make it visible! Found out it fell off a bucket? Didn’t notice any big winds. The guy was very happy to finally get it back when it was found (Valley was kinda fuzzy grey around then). Snow quality was great and deep in many places and I heard about a lot of nicer places than this hamster went. I can only imagine Southback.

Other - Passed through CB lodge for a couple of hours to eat a BIG happy tasty nice bowl of Chicken Noodle soup (not a problem since I was not standing in any lift lines today).

Other Other – Pay lot was January weekend BIG and I not full when I left and I don’t think all the folks in it were permit holders. C full, B 4/5’s full, D and E full? Lordy where were all those folks today….Nothing better than a Seahawk Sunday! Drive down was great except for a couple of total whacks…after passing the last one I did not see a soul from GV to Enumclaw. Great day! The Coombas were very happy today!

Nice work ddk... your report makes me smile and it makes want to wake up early, surfs up! and I'll get there way too early , skin up to the witches Knoll and dig a pit and still be 2nd in line behind the guy sitting in the chair. Dude

...for sunday dec 20...

7 laps (circuits?) through gates 9 & 10 were excellent...then the gondy back up where we just had to safely ski the untracked over and over...many many turns were knee-deep (i'm 6'2")...many turns were mid-thigh, so on double terrain that translated into an excellent pace through rugged terrain...the type of snow was very much "un-cascadia"...lots of hooting, hollering, chirping and yahooing...never had to use the nway chair all day...a couple of inadvertent turns one run and we wound up at the road right across from E lot, but the shuttle promptly delivered us back to the gondy -- was wondering if that was easier than I5...you could see how the resort is setting itself up for the new Kelly's Gap lift through runs that were cut a few years ago...best day of the season so far IMHO (+9 for me)...any waiting in lift lines was trivial...skied wherever you wanted...niagra and o-meadow pillows were soooo soft...mike's was visited many times...the hardest part was the mandatory skating and poling that the buff trail demands...an efficient way to aerobically train up!

crystal kudos: caught some cliff-rock on my left ski's base at the edge, so at the end of the day i simply skied down to the rental shop's side-door so the techs could repair...will pick up tuesday morning -- now how convenient is that?

...gotta figure out a better way to carry my pass...currently, i carry it at my hip, attached to pant belt loop under my coat on a retractable zip line...this is cumbersome...#$!$

gosh darn this season sure is fun...