Crystal - 03/06

Short version – VERY NICE!

Long wordy version – Light crowd, nice sunish vis early with a big nuking dump late morning, great quality new layer that might not have been ultra new deep, but the cold temps seemed to suck the moisture out of yesterday and made the skiing even better today.   Pretty much anywhere early was untracked smooth and nicely coated…Valley first run! Doors next run! Bearpits next (and oh so fun)…PB! ouch nice…all great in the first couple of hours of sun and filtered sun and happy vis…then the nuking storm hit…hard snowing, hard to see (in the wrong places), snow getting deeper in all the left over places in the Valley – heaven.  Headed over to CB lodge with #1 for a late morning lunch (more news later)…lots of the everyday locals there.  Big sun mid day got me into an even happier PB/BP’s run….and then JD talked to my brain – SunnySide!  YYYAAA!  Still very happy for more cycles and then PB and then ….back to trying to be nice to #1 – which truly was nice today – new cants in her boots have really improved her turns….great day all in all….no it was a BIG day.  Groomers great, off piste great, lack of real crowds was great….only sad thing….6 ½ weeks left?  Oh No!....at least at Crystal (maybe Alpy will be the place to go this spring – Get ready Alpy folks! Your goona have to be nice to me).

Other  - Soup at CB lodge was Chicken Noodle (got a small bowl from not my regular server) and tried to split a Rice Bowl with #1 (more info to follow).  Pay lot was reasonably sized, arrived early to a nice space, no shuttle service today…so C and B did not have many cars parked in them…drive down was fast and easy (after passing one nasty sad drvier).

Other other – The one big sad thing was I had a small bowl of Chicken Noodle (not the saddest part of lunch) and half a Rice Bowl (which #1 enjoyed her half)…I put some Sriracha sauce on my half – and I have never ever never been so sick so fast – dang ouch oh me!....thought I was done for the day….lucky got out of CB lodge alive and recovered for a very nice short afternoon….ouch!  Beware of the condiments….never ever had that kind of problem before…..Other than that bad half hour it was truly a very BIG happy day!

Other other other – Scotsman! Go tomorrow!  I’m sure there are incredible conditions every where you like to ski!....sadly I made a 10am dentist appointment 6 or so months ago?  What was I thinking…usually I go for 4pm?  Everyone that slides on snow tomorrow have a really great day – and tell me about it to make be feel extra bad

Great new snow, 8-24” depending, over a crunchy, cut up base. Those 8’ of february snow Crystal’s been pumped up about, still hidden under that crust.
Consistency was great, however, kept trying different lines and once clicked into the new-over-cut lumps, no wrong could be done. Especially Exterminator and Employee Housing options had face-shot piles.
Mid-morning I realized we’d repeated nothing and decided to see if we could keep it up. From Bear Pits to Employee Housing, not a bad run to be found. Might be different tomorrow, as the mid-day sun break could be felt warming up sunny aspects.

Northway would have been great, but a non-advertised Crystal special has it closed today and tomorrow. Rumors this morning - it will be closed other than weekends soon. And no discounts given - I don’t think this was in my contract.

Ken
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Short addendum,
It's getting hard to find places with even medium-size bumps off piste, However we agree it was still a very good day. Powder Bowl and the front side of 6 were worth repeats. Lots of people heading to South Back.

Northway would have been great, but a non-advertised Crystal special has it closed today and tomorrow. Rumors this morning - it will be closed other than weekends soon.

Wish they would open Short North and gates 4 to 10 with the I5 traverse back to base when they close the Northway lift. They did that last week.

Wish they would open Short North and gates 4 to 10 with the I5 traverse back to base when they close the Northway lift.

They did have Short N open, but you have to ski to the gates to find out.

Guess we can pretend its NorthBack days again at least on Mondays and Tuesdays...prior to NW chair....when it was an adventure to go North. Think the disclaimer I signed for my pass said something about its Crystals right to do what they want about lifts running.  I would think the skinning crowd would be very happy about current NW policy....keeps lazy folks like me away.