Crystal - 02/26

Short Report - OUCH!  Nothing like sunny refilled left over's from a big snow weekend...Primo first run down SunnySide (Yaaa JD!)...Snow looked like Lucy in the Snow (sky!) with Diamonds! (50th anniversary) - sweet. Big sun early, Big soft snow deep everywhere....from PB (multiple laps) to BearPits to Doors to Lucky Trees to Memorial to Melby Trees...to my final run down Upper E (wimpy entrance) to Lower E (still have to dodge the icy spots)...a mighty fine day.

Wordy Report - Arrived extra extra early just in case...beat the road work...got good parking...lots of casual time in the lodge...There still was a fair sized lineup for CHex early (and it was a very efficient group of folks for cutting up everything you could see).  A couple of buckets got to the top before I did....might have to switch to standing in that lineup...It felt pretty cold early, but in the sun (and later sorta filtered sun), it was very pleasant.  The big bump out west looked very pretty today.  The snow was  pretty awesome deep powder early and great left over's as the day progressed.  I did notice some sun bake on the south facing slopes mid day, but the North facing slopes were primo all day...Early line for Chair 6 was just in side my tolerance for lift lines...so got two PB's in early.  And there was no lineup (south was open) after my CB lodge visit.  Never really actually did a groomer today...why would you on a day like today?  All in all a very very fun day in the sun skiing prime cold smoke deep snow!

Other - Bonus day at CB lodge...soup was CHICKEN NOODLE (thanks Miranda for a very nice bowl)...supplemented with a meat ball pizza (ate half on the drive home)...Pay lot was pretty big for a weekday, but was actually surprisingly full, C was pushing full and B had a lot of widely spaced single rows of cars filling a lot of space....I parked in the front of the first free row of A and some trucker guys almost started to park another single row behind me?  Suggested they pull forward...when I left the rest of A was nice and spaced...Major road repair when I left but as usual no real impact on the drive times.
Great Day!  Extra bonus today - CD gave me his old left over Avocet vert watch...Thanks...looks great just hope a battery will make it work again...personally the best easiest small multi function watch. Thanks again MR CD!

After being sick for 2 weeks, it felt great to be in the mountains again. And, oh what a day. 3 out of 3. The snow in the cold bluebird skies was excellent all morning with Exterminator, Employee Housing, and Powder Bowl being tops. In fact, the mid morning run down Powder Bowl taking a seldom travelled line right below one of the exploder tubes was the best in recent memory. But alas, I couldn't wait in the C6 line for another one when there were no lines anywhere else on the mountain.

Around noon, all the sun exposed slopes were impacted, then turned worse when the temps started to drop setting up the snow. No problem, just stay in the shade or north facing slopes.

Nice to have the sick reservist back in The Mix. Two ratings for today. Relative - snow quality 50% of yesterday, weather +100%, visibility +200%, crowd +100%. Today stand alone score - awesome leftovers until noon.

Some big, fast Frontsides to start. A couple Exterminator area and EH runs to finished off the leftover deep untracked. And, as CD said, one of the best ever Powder Bowl runs. Unfortunately, everything with even a little sun got heavy and lumpy... then crusty. Sorry, we didn't leave much shady snow untouched.

Roadwork is minimal impact without uphill traffic. 15mph downhill driver boneheads is another story best left for a calmer day.

Hoping tuesday's skiers smooth out The Crunch, but not likely.

Ken

snow quality was off the charts this morning, if i had to put a # on it 150% improvment over last run yesterday....Really Really rippin' POW....super fast...super fun... super cold.Powder bowl was ,in the words of Jonny Wier " Poetry "...many double toe loops were hamered out...7 8 9 10 stayed cold ,longer than sunny areas, but who had the legs left to ski out there, not many....What started as a February to forget, turned into the best of the year so far....the last two weeks by any accounts (except the russian judge) deserve a gold medal