Crystal - 12/09

Short report – great day, great snow, great short lift lines, great slow lifts running on Diesel….And the rest of the wordy !!!! report….What a day, new snow (not enough in the wind blown areas…okay so go to were the wind loaded up the snow…aaahhhh good), arrived early to a fairly light crowd…CHex started loading at 8:45 – good, but REX was running on diesel (as was most of the mountain), so it was a slow ride all day. Bucket looked to be running the fastest and Ch 6 felt fast enough. New snow was very light and great. Crowd really ended up being pretty light – no lift lines on REX after HC opened and even less after NW opened. Bounced from PB/BP’s to Lucky Trees, to a middle door, to SunnySide and Memorial (best over all for me), to GV bowl (also very nice when the vis was big), to wrapping up my day with a whimpy entrance to Upper E and Lower – very nice all the way to the base (my T2B finish for the day). Very nice snow most places, but still challenging in some of my fav lines (BP’s and Doors). Top of HC is still a field of rocks, but you can get through them to PB and PB is great. Heard the line out to the Throne is rocky but doable and skiing out there sounded like it was good. Lots of bombs out south in the early afternoon and heard it opened around 1:30ish.

Other – Soup at CB lodge was that dang Tomato Bisque stuff, noticed at the base the soup was the Triple C. Not many folks around the base lodge, but the band was setting up to play – would have been nice to listen.

Other other – Drive up early was pretty easy and pleasant, drive down after quitting early was pleasant to Greenwater where I ran into the backup…all the way to Ennumclaw painfully slow, great drive from there to Lake Wilderness area – where hell broke loose again…one of my worst slowest longest drives down in a very very long time….oh well the skiing was great. Kinda spaced on the parking situation…I know the Pay lot was sorta close to fullish…and I remember hearing that the C lot was kinda full…B lot? Anywhere else? Really did not mater since the skiing was pretty great and the lift lines were pretty small.

I pulled into the #1 spot in A lot and booted up in the upper lodge, I had a quick chat with the Boss men JK and SB, and it was out to the bucket line, I would have been the 5 person in line if not for all the stashed boards and skis, must be the local hero squads, they don't have to stand in line, just their stuff. I respected this west coast thing of stashing your stuff and walking off and them come bumping back through the crowd, next time have a pen out, so you can sing autographs, Back East, your shit would have been thrown over the fence and into a creek. I stood stoic, nothing was going mess up this day of new snow, a few runs in the GV gut and the sides of GV was skiing real good as well, cold face was real good, Willies Run always fun with a little snow on it. Lucky shot shoot was deep skiing, ok, not that deep, mid shin, just enough to make it fun, or Funnner.

Calm down and turn off FREAKOUT mode that happened on the drive up and down (It’s only an inch of snow!). Best snow of my year and every run moved the Best Run of the Day honors to the current run. Early on it was Memorial, Sunnyside, and Valley Bowl. First in line at the Paradise rope drop led to knee deep besties. Then surpassed by Bruce’s Bowl. Then by Powder Bowl and, always in the mix, Bear Pits. Nothing bad, nothing crowded despite the mob of cars in the parking lot. Last run down Upper Bull Run continued the best of the day awards. Driving down won the 5 mile backup of losers award.

Ken
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