Crystal - 12/27

Kind of a hard day for me to rate, but I think it all shakes out to a 2 out of 3 day with a half point deduction for crowds and a half point deduction for visibility.

Went through Enumclaw week-end early and was stuck in a string of 20 cars. Fortunately, they were all driving close to the limit most of the way. Pulled into the sphincter of A-lot. It soon became apparent why...the biggest pay lot I had ever seen at Crystal. And, it was almost full when we left. Hordes of people everywhere which only grew as the day went on. Fortunately, we never waited in much of a lift line partly because Crystal started loading Chinook and REX at 8:30, which quickly dispersed the crowds around the mountain. And at 10 when Chair 6 opened, the lift status boards were green wall-to-wall. Visibility was off and on all day with it mostly being off in the morning and slow improvement as the day went on. Never had the forecasted clearing and temps stayed cold, but were nice due to no wind. The snow was great everywhere and Bear Pits reminded me that I wasn't in quite as good of ski shape as I thought. Never made it out north, although good reports from there. And, Powder Bowl was fogged in all day, so no go there. Just when I was going to give kudos to Crystal for starting the lifts so early, we got stuck on GV for 25 minutes starting at 10:40. That sucks and takes some time for the ski legs to return.

Skied all day with LD and most of the day with Bob New-heart (AKA Tall Bob). It was good to see Bob on the mountain again and he skied strong all day. Glad he's back!

When we left, the lodge was wall-to-wall and people were complaining because apparently they were running out of food at the cafeteria. Couldn't really find a place to change out of our ski clothes, so just got partially naked in front of a bunch of CMAC'ers.

And to many more words about today - Another day - lots of tired muscles, extra early - still not early enough, cold, windy up top and blowing up the valleys, new snow, very nice new snow, made most everything a lot better, kinda foggy - in and out, getting better vis all day which helped my tired muscles. Skied from PB/BP's (foggy PB, always nice every lap of BP), Green Valley, SunnySide, MIFB(nicely groomed early), EH - very nice mostly cut up left overs (must have been really fun for the first folks), I-5 out - hate that thing, not bad actually other than my lack of the correct wax. Nice vis in the early afternoon and some extra effort chasing CD made for a fun easier time. Crowds pretty big, lift lines on REX - short but pretty full chairs, with everything open the actual body count was pretty spread out.

Other - Soup at CB was The Triple C again today (seems like its one soup at a time till they run out of all the bags), fair sized early crowd in the lodge, had pizza (some chicken, jalapeño, peanut sauce thing - tasted okay). Crowd in the base lodge when I left was January weekend impressive (can't imagine sitting and oinking in that environment. Pay lot was fuller than yesterday and just as big, rest of A, B, C, D, E were full with some folks stuck parking in F! Ouch!
Drive up was happy fast early, and okay and stupid at times on the early drive down - would hate to see the late closing time drive! Fun day, Good snow, more tomorrow.