Crystal - 12/13

The weather was better today than yesterday (who knew we'd be in a beautiful blue doughnut hole all day?), the crowds lighter due to more open terrain, and the snow was good although not quite as good as yesterday. All in all, another 3 out of 3 day.

Crystal used all their grooming effort over night on FQ leaving REX and GV largely untouched. The 5 inches of new snow did a nice job of filling in yesterday's tracks, but it was wind impacted in some areas. But, not so much in other areas. Runs of the day were GV Bowl right off the top of REX (the further to the right you went, the more wind impact), Snorting Elk, Grubstake (no rocks taking the lower traverse), the top half of Lucky Shot, and Rolling Knoll. LS could have used a groom last night because the second face was starting to show some rocks in the troughs on the backside of the forming moguls. Not sure they would have been there with a good compact and smoothing.

Had to leave early due to some other commitments and only saw a couple cars on the drive down. Very nice.

And more words about today (thought I'd get a post before CD based on what I knew about his schedule...but...)   -   Yee Haa...Definitely most funnest day of the season, big screaming winds, REX slow(but running), mostly sunny, light mostly hardcore crowd, big views of the mountains down south blowing smoke snow streamers, nice grooming on FQex - well Downhill and good enough on Rolling Knolls (only groomers I really did), Grubstake awesome fun! (especially two cycles with CD late morning), rocks in places, lots of happy bumps! Ouch! I love bumps! SortElk skied nice. Lots of happy employees, lots of happy snow sliders (even saw a couple of ultra high tech snow bikes)... fun, fun, fun...glad I drug myself out of bed this morning!

Other - Easy fast drive up and down, typically to big Pay lot, rest of A was full with overflow towards C and looked like folks parked in B lot.  CB lodge will be open tomorrow, lots of folks working hard in there today getting ready - new food items, new head cook, lots of regular worker bees.  Soup at the base was the Meataball pasta! Had a bowl on the sun deck (in the sun) and it was tasty with lots of meataballs and lots of pasta tube noodles (what do they call that type?). The Fireside cafe has a lot more soup selections that sounded good.

So bottom line - Big Fun Day, no marketing department required. Thanks to the hardworking ski patrol! Been doing a great job opening up the Crystal world!

I think it's rigatoni. Had it again today, but I hope they keep the udon and rice bowls at CB . . .

I think it's rigatoni. Had it again today, but I hope they keep the udon and rice bowls at CB . . .

Was in the grocery store today...saw rigatoni, but penni (sp?) might be the actual pasta.... yesterday was in CB lodge...guy doing artzy signs had udon and rice bowls signs and pizza signs!...maybe check it out tomorrow!