Crystal - 02/26

Few words report – Looked grey at the base early, but popped out into the sun on the top of REX and life was good! Sun all morning, no lift lines, two great early groomers runs (Lucky and MIFB), rest of the day was Hamster Heaven – PB/BP’s to Happy Doors, to Sunnyside/Memorial to one far north run down to the bottom of GVex…amazing what a couple of inches new can do to the slopes.

Big wordy report – Arrived extra early just in case (Sunday, forecast of mega snow?, Weekend Sunday!, bad roads in the low lands….aaaaahhhh none of which were a problem). Got prime spot #1 on CHex (was ready and locked in today when the gates popped), small early crowd and never saw a lift line again all morning (other than a little bump on FQex during typical early day/lunch rush)…really nice mostly sunny conditions all morning, diamonds in the snow from the sun, inch or two of new to smooth things out and make it all look pretty – and provide that extra layer for carving a turn…though the Coombas probably did not need it (got to get another pair…been skiing this pair for the last month or so – gonna wear them out). Early groomers were perfect and the rest of my Hamster runs were pretty all around happy…finished the short day with a run down Upper and Lower E…upper very nice still, lower definitely pick your turns on top of the bumps (or skid around the icy troughs).

Other – Just for pipedream!!! Passed through CB lodge late morning and as myikat noted…the soup is getting pretty repetitive…Triple C again today (would have made eskinmo happy). Pay lot was massive and not close to full, C pretty full, B 4/5’s full…so there where a lot of folks around (lots of rug rats in classes). King looked big and almost sucked me out – will happen soon….NW would have been entertaining with the Junior Free Ride…but it was outside the treadmill. Other interesting fact – I keep bumping into Scotsman under the Big Umbrella at the end of “my” day?...wimpy me as he heads out for more “big” skiing! Best wishes for the kids Scotsman! I had the Turkey Noodle under the Umbrella – good but small and expensive (almost as bad as Alta!)

Nice to see you ddk.
Terrific day.. I tired myself out.
Southback skiing great.
Snowing in GW right now... could be good tomorrow for the mid-weekers.

Snowing in GW right now... could be good tomorrow for the mid-weekers.

Dan, will be there tomorrow if you want to go South.

...another TREE-mendous day...better than expected conditions, with some freshie atop the big dump of Mon-Wed made for true top-to-bottom skiing...arrived 8:00 with the mrs and girlfriend in tow and parked up front, booted up in the locker room and got right on chinook -- by the time we got to the top of rex, the possie had grown to 8 and by the time we got to Snort we had 12 skiers looking at me for the goods!...no problem...the warmup was right angle through hole in the wall and then through the meadows under RockFace...still 12...back to the top with a nice run through chicken and lucky shot into lower BP trees -- but this time everyone was smiling with excellent conditions...the mrs and friend had their fatties out but I was on my new Rossi Exp 88 boards and found that these guys turn on a dime and had pretty good float...

...keeping it backed down so as not to get anybody mad at me, we had a nice run up C6 to the back traverse to SignLineRight where we found very nice turns into BPits which skied very nice with plenty of boot top+...a run through MF led to FQ and lunch in the Campbell Lodge where Fred had already staked out a big table (nice to meet Mrs Fred finally!)...the line for Udan Noodle at 11:20 am was deemed to be 20 min at least (oh, there were NO lift lines today), so had to settle for a big ol' glop of stew...back outside by 11:50 am...

...after lunch it was down to 4 of us so over to NWay for a couple of laps through AutoBahn (groomed top to bottom) and everyone smiling with the very good conditions -- then about 2 pm we decided it was time for some Trees out South, so being of the no hiking mindset today with mrs smooth and her GF, we simply lapped DFF, TLC, and Fardoggle -- it was nice to see the girls out in the powder building their skill sets by the only way possible, i.e. over and over and over...

CONS: a little scrape here and there

PROS: Patrol, Ops, lifties, Hole-in-the-Wall, Eagle's under RockFace, AutoBahn, Gully Gully (very nice line, thank you very much), Elizabeth Creek Drainage and OB under Bear Gap

Dan don't go south!!! No lift.