Crystal - 02/21

Short report – new snow, not to cold, foggy at times, snowing but not as much as the big forecasts predicted – which was okay since it kept the crowd frenzy down, snow quality great with some icy patches in the narrow high use spots…otherwise pretty much go anywhere and blow through the left over piles…

Long report – Arrived early just in case the forecasts proved out (or everyone else showed up expecting the big one), good front row parking in the A lot with a very small pay lot for a holiday week. Got my spot at CHex, had a nice casual prep for the start and then since I expected the lifts to start loading at 8:45, I provided some comic relief for the small crowd with the gates popped at 8:30 – holiday start time this week…BINX should be able to provide the details of my entertaining start to the day! From that point on pretty much a total hamster treadmill to the hilt kind of day for me – never went further south then mid Campbell Basin for one run and one run down GV bowl…the rest of my day was from PB/BP’s to most of the Doors (plus a number in my fav slot that I had not got to do much the last few years – lots of snow pack finally), to Breakover/SunnySide to Memorial Forest – all happy for me. Lots of bombs early morning out South – must have been good. Heard about other mighty fine places to ski.

Other – Passed through CB lodge…Triple C (made eskinmo happy) and Tomato B. Light crowds, no lift lines on HC or REX. Pay lot small and almost full, C almost full and B lot was half full of widely spaced rows. Lots of happy people sliding on snow again today. Quality of the slopes (and groomers I did) are great. Drive up early was a breeze and the drive down was even better.

Nice work and thanks for the stoke.. your reports always makes me want to go and Go I will in the AM, it's time to chase the "White Rabbit" down the hill.

Think Snow

I am going to have to stop in the CB Soup Line someday.

The parking lot showed about one and a half inches of new so I opted for the powder boards hoping for at least some partial untracked here and there. My brother on the other hand opted for his all mountain boards which proved to be a better choice. Not much untracked to be found although we looked hard. Hamburger was pretty good, Powder bowl had marginal visibility but okay cutup snow. Still a lot of rocks at the top of 6, But the traverse out to hamburger was the best we've seen it this year. The front side did ski pretty well but you had to stay close to the trees because the light was really flat. Green valley tree runs we're pretty good. The best pow of the day was in some sneaky spots on Northway. I finally got smart about two hours in and went and swapped out skis for my all mountains. The flat light got worse as the day went on but the snow remained good. It sure beat sitting home.

Quite the conga line out to South when it opened around 10 but well worth it. Knee deep- best on East aspects . Lots of bomb slides in the tight chutes. Flat light made it tough on the N faces. Sun almost peaked out at noon when we were doing a glorious run down Silver. E was excellent last run at 330 down the rope line. Snowing moderately hard when we left.