Crystal - 01/29

Another sunny day, less folks on the slopes, better grooming, softer earlier on MIFB, GV Bowl the same but with less people skiing it, skied SnortElk bowl based on CD report - wasn't groomed today, but it was still nice, did LS once to ski Little Portillo since it was groomed - steep and fast, skied the Gully between SunnySide and Memorial - very soft before noon, rode GVex for the first time in I can't remember how long, one run down Rolling Knolls on my return from CB lodge and skied down Deerfly on my last run - so more variety in the treadmill today. Conditions are good if you like groomers and a few nice soft in the sun off piste areas. Started noticing some rocks in MIFB today. Winds were lighter, sun was warmer, views were just as big as ever, fun day at a very quiet and empty ski area.

Other - Think the soup was Tomato Bisque at CB lodge, I had a slice of nice Barby Chicken pizza and lots of water. Pay lot nice and small and pretty much everybody that was not a employee got to park in the A lot.

Other Other - Interesting thing was seeing a squad of GI's on teli style gear, white outfits and big packs skiing pretty much all over - on the groomers...some skied better than others.

GI 's on tele or AT gear? If the military is freeheeling I may have to take up snowboarding.

Same resort, but with a somewhat different perspective on today's fun -- so here goes.

Arrived too early (8:15) as we had dodged the school buses and elk on the ride down from Issaquah. Not a car in C; 2 rows in B and only the 1st 4 rows of A-free were full. The winds in the parking lot were surprisingly annoying though -- so I checked and was bummed to see 25 MPH from the SE. Hmmm...that meant that the wind would be cold and might work against solar radiation in the fight to soften the off-piste.  We bumped into some pals in the locker room and we were soon trying not to slip on the sheet of ice that had covered the bricks at the gondy station. Inside the cabin, we met a groomer who had been up all night. What a treasure trove of good beta and detailed info!

Once up top,  it was 39F and a cloudless sky (well, Rainier was making a small lenticular -- does that count?).  You could easily see (clockwise) the Olympics, Puget Sound pollution, Grubstake, Mt Baker, Glacier Peak, Mt Adams, Lizard Back Ridge, the MOON, Silver King and Mt Saint Helens. The grooming last night turned out to be quite  extensive -- and a good thing too as off-piste skiing was not possible once again.  We bombed 2 quick runs down GV and then ventured out to Snorting Elk bowl. We looked down Blazing Elk and noticed that it was groomed down to the lake, but we passed and traversed out to Autobahn. What a pile of frozen garbage that was. But we noticed that the groomers had really worked the runout at the lake so we proceeded to run the lake run 2x. So the groomers were game on in both GV and Snorting Elk bowls. Back up GV chair, then, after calibrating our apps, we bombed Pro Course (I clocked 44 mph) and then into FerkBerg -- which around 11 am was velvety smooth baby butt. No bumps, just very nice corduroy-type sugar that screamed for your edges. At the bottom there were a few pebbles here and there, but the big surprise was that all of the terrain just uphill of Midway had been groomed wall-to-wall. It took 2 months, but the resort finally got enough snow pushed around where today's grooming really stood out and you could really let 'er rip as you skied as fast as you dared.

Time for lunch and up FQ -- but chair 6 not running? It was not. I think that Patrol didn't have enough sleds or body bags because off-piste skiing was not possible today -- did I mention that? Oh, was Rolling Knolls fast and up REX to chicken shot (nice views) and then we were at bottom of Powder Bowl (and it's death cookies). Based on our groomer's tip, we peeked down Little Portillo and noticed the varying degrees of grooming overlap -- but at least the overlaps were parallel. So I clocked 47.4 mph and then Lucky Shot was groomed very nicely along its entire width. Whoa, very fast. And with very few customers at the resort today (only 1 bus), there were less obstacles in the way. We did that Portillo/LShot 3X while we waited for off-piste to warm up. But it never did. We tried the Gap, but dared not to venture off the cat track. Lower E wasn't toooo bad though.

Soon the top of FerkBerg was getting scraped, the bumps on lower Sunnyside were showing off lots of dirt and then the sun moved behind Silver King. So by 3 pm, we gave it up. I just wished we had known about the magical snow in Gregg's.

So does anybody know what's up with the RDL? The D has disappeared and it isn't clear if Dynastar rentals will make an appearance this season. I checked in both the RDL (atop the Gondola) and East Peak (bottom of stairs) and neither had any carving or racing skis. In other words, the skinniest hi-performance skis that you could rent today were Ross Exp 88 or the  Nordica Enforcer 94. In past years, you could rent integrated ski/binding carvers that would eat groomers/hardpack for $45 a day, with up to 3 days going toward a purchase. And if you played the waiting game, you could get a competitive price for new boards. This season, the resort is not selling new skis. But there are some real nice, traditional, well-made Crystal Mountain hats available for $21 at the RDL. Can't find those in the big ski store at the base.

GI 's on tele or AT gear? If the military is freeheeling I may have to take up snowboarding.

There is a Marine winter unit based in the Sierras that teles and trains high in the mountains. Wonder if that's them?