Crystal - 01/08

Aaaahhhh – life in the fun and sun zone….surprisingly better than even my most optimistic opinions about today….Arrived around 8am, parking way to far back in the second row of the cheap parking of A…ouch the massive space (more later). Pretty nice and quiet early, jumped onto an empty CHex chair (wasn’t paying attention) the other guy (of Kemper fame), was paying attention and got the first chair…didn’t see anyone else around at 8:40. Empty high speed perfect groomers early off of REX in the bright sun – looking south to Hood and north to the clouds over the Pass’s. After lazy warm ups spent some time doing PB/BP/OF runs with alternating runs in the Valley and off of REX with one of those fast lift opp snowboarders (very nice Colon). With no lift lines the vert added up rapidly, but do to the lack of folks skiing off piste, I had to make some effort doing some skier grooming of the lines I like doing. Great fun day, the crowd never showed and even the school kids did not show up in mass during the afternoon.

Other – Passed through CB lodge just to check for the soup…ouch unexpected break time getting a nice big bowl of Chicken Noodle…Yee Haa…

Other other – The pay lot is still massive, the bus lot (Friday being the biggest kid bus day) was ultra massive…both were still pretty empty when I left. I cant remember ever parking so far back in an empty lot on a week day…probably need the Alpy folks to get us organized. Again a great bonus un-crowded sunny happy fun day!

I'll probably owe ddk some royalties by the time I'm done with this report. A beautiful day in the mountains. The early groomers demanded several top to bottom screamers down GV, Iceberg, and Lower Bull. Just watch out for the flat section just above lower Bull in the shade that someone brain farted and didn't groom. Dropping in high speed, hit the shade, and oh crap put on the brakes. Then pour on the speed again. We also found the best snow on the mountain (don't know about Northway as we never went out there) was the right side of Snorting Elk Bowl. This demanded many runs down the Elk, Sluiceway, and lower E. So lots of vert and some big runs. Also, some OK snow in Powder Bowl and Bear Pits, but Outer Ferks right next to the trees was best. We finally started pounding down the front side and as the sun added some slight softening and we added some skier grooming, Showtime got pretty nice for several runs. Finished the ski day with another top to bottom out Kelly's Gap.

Big Views, Big Blue Bird sky, Big vert, and Big mango margaritas in the average sized hot tub after we got home. Yes, it doesn't get much better than this.

and again---SUNSHINE! We skied the whole mountain too, but did git out to Northway. Nouthway peak + shoots were still good. Lower half groomed, even crap corner. Was not all that cold of a ride up. Lots of very skiable stuff to be found all over the whole mountain.

It was pretty rugged off-piste in the cold morning as even the off-sun aspects were pretty firm. Sunny slopes drew me in, but didn’t pan out till after noon. Surprisingly even Powder Bowl and Bear Pits were pretty harsh. High speed groomers and Outer Ferk’s ruled the morning, then Showtime, Snorting Elk Right-Sluiceway-BerryPatch-Lower E won the sun-softened award of the day. I assigned the weekenders to smooth out the crunchy globs on the sunny aspects and we’ll hit it monday. ddk - expected to see you on Showtime, but we musta been outta sync as I never saw you on the Frontside.

Ken
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still ski on ski off @lot4 with a ski in ski out bathroom @shot10, plus the snow grater cleaned a months worth of dog feces and the snow wall where we park is clean clean white, ..............for a week or so...........
skiing been fantastic too

the snow grater cleaned a months worth of dog feces and the snow

Sounds Awesome! Sorry I ... Ah ..... missed it.

Kkz