Crystal - 03/15

Short Report - Spectacular Spectacular! (Moulin Rouge)...Great day, Great snow, Great lack of participation, Great Sun, Great views, Great high speed early groomers, Great north/west facing snow quality and it was deep! Nothing like missed left overs....Just a plain Great day, now that the ski season is over for most folks - yee haa!

More Words - Arrived kinda late and in a rush, easy early drive except for the Blvd which was a variable sheet of icy fun. GV Bowl was great for early untracked deep soft nice snow, to MIFB which was nice enough early with a light new layer over the grooming - but it never really got primo soft spring by the last time I did it. #1 arrived extra early on REX which was great and fun...and just as she decided to get casual over on FQex...HC was open and gotta say I had a number of fine deep runs right of center (lower center was kinda challenging for the BMW's....kinda wish I'd had the Coombas for that and some other places that they would have liked). Rock coverage up top of HC was better. Never a lift line, lots of happy folks, saw lots of folks skiing big lines out south (and heard about and saw even bigger better - myikat report?). Temps felt cold early and some eastish wind kept me wearing winter outfit all day....never made it to Hawaii spring fun...

Other - Pay lot end of season small and end of season not full, noticed cars in B, but kinda spaced on what C lot was like....CB lodge had Ivars Clam Chow - good when I ate it...but am still getting a few burbs out of it (?)...

A great 3 out of 3 day. Slow traffic until I cleared the 'Claw, then never saw anybody other than elk until hitting the blvd. Which, by the time I got to it, was de-iced salty water trashing the car. Wish I had hit it when it was still frozen. Pulled into the parking lot at 8:15 and parked one row behind the putty truck which was in it's usual number 1 spot. Beautiful bluebird skies and never really noticed any wind. Got my first big surprise when I turned into Green Valley on the first run. Whoa, this snow is deep. Didn't expect that. GV right side, Elk Snort right side, Campbell Basin all the way over, Powder bowl center to right, Paradise Bowl right side (not my usual run on the left side in the trees and sun), Bruces Bowl, and the last set of moguls under NW chair all a hoot. Less hootish was anything in the sun as the snow on top was heavier and the layer underneath much harder. This included Bear Pits. The good news about the pits is many of the weird cut lines have been filled in. I think with some skier grooming, it will get good again. Not enough skier grooming today, even though I saw BINX coming out of there shaking his head. Like everyone else that tried it, no repeats.

C lot had a few cars in it. Kinda crazy given the frenzy this day would have caused a month ago.

Drive down had too many stickheads on the road.

Great day. GV in the morning was ecstatic. Moved to HC at 10 and stayed all day doing loops into A basin and slots off the King which were just great, fast and stable. Never went to Silver thinking it would be too warm unless under Threeway. Saw a lone AT skier putting down sick turns on the NE face/ chute off Crystal Lake Peak despite LOTS of spontaneous slides on similar aspects. Can't argue with success but gave me the willies. Frequently no more than a half dozen riders on 6 at any one time. Kudos to the management to getting the Mtn open early N to S. Serious bonus day!

Segue from Wednesday: temps dropped that evening and we watched light snow fall at night from the trailer. I stumbled across Myikat at the top of the gondy, and we had light-smoke fun on Grubstake.
Bluebird day with several inches of fluff atop the under-skied crud from the day before. Only a few more folks than Wed., with hero snow layers. Lisa was demo-ing new boots, and got free skis too because her Fritschi bindings did not work with the Lange boots.
We are not usually at the front of the morning lines, but it was a real treat to get 2nd car to the top 2 days in a row!