Crystal - 2/6

A 2.5 out of 3 day. Beautiful, cold, crystal clear skies and a very light crowd. Snow was a 0 in some places, a 1 in others, thus the .5

Drive up was very nice with 410 in great shape once out of the crap in town. Pay lot was two rows below the bridge which was due largely to space reserved for HHW buses (7 parked there when we left). I don't think A lot ever got full. The 5 degrees at mountain top was perfect weather for us to climatize for our trip to Big Sky next week. An extra layer and mittens instead of gloves and comfortable all day. GV right was nice packed pow with a little bit of variable snow in places but good skiing. Ferkberg was firm and stayed that way all day. Took a run down Bear Pits. Not advised. Variable is an understatement. Oh boy, looks like another day of cycling GV and Ferkberg. Headed up to C6 where there was just enough snow to hide most of the rocks on the top of the PB side. I knew they were there, but still did some minor damage to my ptex. PB right skied OK to good. Again, some variability that caught you by surprise. Headed out to Northway where we found the best snow with Bruces Bowl the big winner. Anything in the sun was set up pretty good, but all the shady slopes were great with the exception of the last set of bumps under the chair. Took the traverse around after the first run. Came back and cycled the valley for a while as that was second best snow, then finished up with more Valley Ferkbergs. A nice 15 degrees on top when we left.

More fun than expected. Luckily the wind was from the west and the sun felt warm through my near max bundling. No rhyme or reason to the conditions. Some north facers were good, some oddly icy. Some groomers carvable and fast, some skidded and fast. As CD said, Northway shaded areas were good to very good. Bear Pits and Grubstake sucked, The Frontside worse. Iceberg started OK and became a scary skid-fest later although slowing down never occurred to me. Most people stayed away today so no crowds. Northway had about 8 skiers. Things will improve with some skier grooming and a dash of new.

Ken

Screaming groomers in the AM with wife and friends. Hiked the Throne after a late lunch and enjoyed the chute just N of the summit. I noticed I do not bootpack as fast as the ski patroller on the same walk....

Other: We wanted to visit the Summit House but there was a long wait, so it was down to the very slow service of the Bullwheel, but excellent nachos that fed four.
Our ski bus is second closest to the loop. I skied to 20' from the storage compartment. I know the buses are in the way at times, but they sure are nice to nap in