Crystal - 12/19

Hhhhhmmmm...thought there would be a thread for today already...Oh well here is my version -Fun day, big day, nice new snow, mostly sun to filtered sun, great snow quality, rocks and sticks are disappearing, crowd was fair sized but never a real problem for me, spotty lift lines, great snow (oh I already said that), first untracked lines down SunnySide proper! Totally Yee Haa! (JD would have liked it - YYHHAAA!). PB was great early and still good later but maybe a little cut up funny for my brain today, never went southish off of HC, but there were a lot of nice tracks on Campbell Basin. Valley skied great early, MIFB was fun when I did it latish. Crowd wimped out by noon, so it was kinda quiet on the lifts mid day on.  Had a nice afternoon skiing with #1 - who had a big day!

Other - Soup at CB Lodge was that Chicken Noodle stuff again...very nice, Macadamia White Chocolate cookies have been awesome, nice social in CB lodge with #1 and other regular folks. Pizza has not looked really very impressive so far...sad!

Other Other - Pay lot was humungus and almost close to full when I left, rest of A and most of B and C were packed! Ouch! Guess it was a busy day.  Conditions are prime, if tomorrow is not to nasty then the Xmans holiday crowd will be very happy over the next week.   

More posts to follow, for what was a very nice day.

First day on the mountain. Long story. But, in a couple weeks, my commute to Crystal will be a half hour shorter saving me an hour/trip.

Excellent coverage for the rock skis, rock coat, rock helmet, rock pants, and rock brain. The brain and muscles kicked in after 2 turns and it was game on. First run of my year, untracked Sunnyside. Excellent. It was heavy below 6K feet, but once tracked out skied great. Missed the early opening of Powder Bowl due some dork loosing a pole boarding FQ. Wait, that was me. The lift op didn't send it up the chair to our waiting group, so, got to stand in line for Six and ski PB with one pole. I've skied one-pole for a whole season before, another long story, so click in and Powder Bowl was great - once over the rocks in Main Chute. Re-united with my pole - new guy didn't know what to do with it - the Six line kept us from a repeat. Once skied out, the upper snow was great - Valley Bowl, Grubstake, Iceberg. Lower, it packed very firm and the first day legs grew jittery.

Mission accomplished. Ski some pow. Ski some heavy pow, Ski some packed pow bumps. Blow the quads out to get stronger for next time. Laugh, joke, and chase some ski buds around the mountain. Fall down when someone starts below you without looking and two people don't fit in the single track line, but the snow's soft.

New maps and signage this year. The Doors are on the map for the first time. Campbell Basin Lift is back to Chair 6. A new light for Short North. Southback is Southback, not South Country. The side-country gates are on the map. This new company might be OK.

Ken

While today was very good, yesterday was excellent.

It turns out that Patrol is concerned that Crystal's base layer (8-12") from Nov 26-27 is weak. Yesterday morning around 8 am, an inadvertent slide was induced in Upper Paradise and ran from gate 3 down to bottom of gate 6 - so that entire Bowl is filled with rubble. This avalanche was huge and its noise rocked the entire basin -- how could one not hear it? So will Paradise ski as rubble or as pillows when it opens? Although the covers of gates 1-7 (8/9/10) have been removed and rope lines being set, don't look for North to open before Sunday. Slippery slopes are in play.

Fun for Friday will include helicopter-assisted avy patrol for North+South. Meanwhile, don't be ducking ropes while Patrol is at work this Friday. Backcountry awareness for these risks!

despite the crowd , that didn't ski past noon....it was possible to "slay the pow" till 10;45.....then there were pockets, till noon . Pow was deep and skied really fast on an ultra stable surface. "Exterminator "....was heli-like in full sun without a mark on it for awhile in the am ,cuz the gate was at the top of the ridge..Thanks Crystal Patrol...I know it will be moved back down for the weekend, but it sure was fun having it for the last 2 days. I went through that gate 9 times....and it was like working in a powder mine every time....It's a great job working in a powder mine....hopefully it will re-open Friday

DDK is right the pizza station has devolved into a "total-mess"....maybe Domino's could set-up one of there hot spots there...It would be an improvment....."sad,really really,sad!!!"