Crystal - 03/07

First report of the day?...Lordy what a day…wish I’d been up yesterday…oh I was… Praise the Lord about that! Kinda challenging early, snowing, bad vis in lots of places, frozen nasty’s everywhere, so so grooming – and the worst was what ever Cat driver did the top area of REX – drove through all the bamboo and fencing the Patrol put up….created a nice 6 foot wall for the Patrol sled area by the Gondy…created a 20 foot mine field of ice boulders across most of the top of Green Valley Bowl – gotta say it was impressive work….but today the best of the best – GV Bowl (after the mine field, plus the lumps at the bottom of the bowl) skier right was sweet smooth and happy fast with mostly good vis during the day, MIFB early was pleasant but I gotta say was pretty nasty ice ball bouncing happy fun learn to ski crap conditions mid day and early afternoon….Best by far for me was PB from a little after 11am till at least 1pm when the vis was good, the snow storm had slowed down and skiing it was very big and happy soft screaming fast, many many repeats. Lots of snow falling during the morning that was leaving a nice layer in places. Felt kinda cold today, no winds, no crowds, no lift lines and skiing some of the FQex groomers during the morning with #1 was very pleasant. Day ended being maybe not a bonus day – definitely – but a nice day sliding on snow.

Other – Soup at CB lodge was Tomato Bisque AGAIN!!!! Heard they got a freezer full of bags – dang….Parking was typical in the A lot and not many folks parked in either B or C . All in all a very nice day not to be at work at least – or doing chores (like tomorrow).

I have to agree with everything ddk said. I skied into the bottom of Powder Bowl from the Windy Pass cat track and it was nasty chicken heads, so didn't ski Powder Bowl. Kinda wish I had now because traversing out to Campbell Basin on the other side of C6 was excellent. Best was going all the way to the rope line and down from there. Lots of very nice untracked snow with no frozen chicken heads. Did many repeats until we got tired of the traverse. Spent much of the day in Green Valley and besides the Valley proper (right side being the best as previously stated), West Face and Ann's Run were both good as was all of Snorting Elk Bowl. Grubstake was extremely regrettable. Everything skied great after doing Grubstake.

We left a bit on the early side because the many repeated runs in GV started reminding us of most of last year.

LD loved her new K2 Fulluvit 98's. She skied like a boss.

Oh but the north side of the King was soooo good.

When we left C6, we were skiing out the bottom along the lake and i looked back up at the King to see a lone person standing on top. I think it was just before noon. That you? Looked pretty cool with the backlight.

Oh but the north side of the King was soooo good.

Aaahhhh...thank you for the report Seth Been real close to finally doing the trip...it is that time of the year...even for a lazy Hamster...

I third. A horrible job on the Rex cat track made the one (early) smooth area a dodge or crash zone. Luckily, found the non-crash path till we wore it out. A subtle change of angle from one aspect of frozen doom to another of boot-top untracked over a smooth base seemed randomly applied. Once found, Campbell Basin east was awesome. When the long round trip wore me out, unfortunately, fog ruled PB. So, I contoured around an old school entry to Damn Fine Forest - that lived up to its name. 10 turns in Elk Snort and Green Valley East onto West Face won the middle mountain award. Ice ball groomers at the end confirmed it’s used up. (Although north side Southback/King sounded good after DFF, I was beyond hiking by then, glad someone was getting it).

Ken
+