Crystal - 02/27

Short report – Filtered nice sun early, great couple of early morning screamers on the groomers with a layer of new, 6+ to who knows how much in wind loaded areas of cold smoke in lots of other places, no crowds, no folks, season is over…at least on Mondays.

Long winded report – Drove up early based on road and snow and who knows what conditions…got front row cheap parking space and nice and quiet and mellow conditions in the lodge this morning…nice!  Fair amount of hard core frenzy cutting up pretty much everything in sight early…Got first untracked in plenty of places for me…and it was filling back in hard mid day to early afternoon.  Bumped into Scotsman (actually on the mountain…HC), he tried to be nice to me and drag my lazy body out south – I wimped and I hope he’ll ask again – just didn’t feel like the right time for me today.  (lucky I did not bump into myikat…would have been a double tough day of saying no…).  Still had a lot of fun from PB/BP’s to a number of Doors to SunnySide to Memorial to my finish of the day down upper and lower E – upper very nice, lower definitely need to pick your turns on top of the bumps and not in the troughs. Fun day, great snow, getting better every day with the new.

Other – Actually had a lunch break and a first in a very long time…a very big bowl of Triple C with a scoop of rice!  Very tasty.  Pay lot was kinda small today and still pretty typically full, rest of A lot full, few rows in B and C had cars.  Heard from many folks that Crystal is really short staffed everywhere right now?  Season over? Accounting checking costs? Crystal’s number one most important assets (its front line employees) are not happy anymore –  pretty normal for Crystal.  Gotta fill out that survey.

What a day.
Got to the hill just before 9 and had a nice warm up run then hit RA.
Then over to the King where I met ddk a the top of Chair 6 and tried to persuade him to come to no avail. Hopefully next time.
At the base of the King hike a guy asked me if he could come with me so I said Ok and took him down an untracked SE trees, a place he had never been before. He liked it and was a good skier.
Left him at the base and then  I went over to Short North and dropped Shakers.

Decided it was time for a Cache run but when I entered the BC gate I came across a middle -aged couple who didn't seem to know where they where. I told them this was a BC run and they needed skins. They thought they were in Snorting Elk Bowl( ??). I helped them get back through the gate and they explained they were from Maine on their first trip out West so I said follow me and I took them on a run down O's Meadows which they both enjoyed.

I then went back up and dropped the Cache run in near perfect conditions.  Knee deep with chest shots the whole way down, Nice skin-track was set to Powder Pass but some poor snowboarding SOB had post-holed the skin-track all the way to Powder pass. Lot of effort.

I was going to drop the Cache again when the guy Id met on the King came by and was wanting more powder so I changed plans and went with him to Paradise Bowl. Northway lift was closed but you could ski it and come back via I5. Untracked and empty.

Dropped him on the traverse back to the resort and went back up for a final RA before I collapsed.
Me like Monday skiing!

Great day. Still filling in when I left at 230. Dropped Sasquatch in thigh deep onto the apron even deeper but no viz. patrol said no plans to open North till Weds.

Sun, unexpected, and new snow - nothing wrong here.
Valley Bowl and Memorial had nice new, but a little rugged underneath.
Need to stop doing a groomer as a warmup, Iceberg cold and meh.
Was the fist one onto Exterminator for T2B shin/knee deep untracked. Even Lower E in soft excellent shape all day.
Same on Employee Housing, but deeper with face shot fluff piles. I-5 required not a push.
No need to look further as the soft new lasted all morning on both E and EH.
At noon, clouds, fog, and snow moved in.
Had an excellent late lunch on the drive home - 32 and snowing hard in Greenwater.
They said they’d keep Northway open till the end of February, but Crystal’s already gone back to closing it mon/tuesday. Although, Gates 4-10 are open (minus 9 due to heat vents not covered just inside the gate).
Where’s Cache Run?

Ken
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Where’s Cache Run?
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Bring skins and touring gear and I'll you show you.