Crystal - 02/22

Basic report - Nice day, great snow, great grooming which was smooth and fast and cold early, kinda in and out on the grey oh meter (but mostly in), snowing pretty good by 11am (at least) and nuking by 2pm (telemetry didn't seem to show the early part - but it was very noticeably getting nicer and nicer), any off piste I did as the day progressed was darn left over good (I really do like left overs!), ultra light crowd on the lifts - especially during the afternoon, never a line all day.

Way to much more verbiage - Snowpack is getting really deep based on a tree I check at the bottom of REX that has a spike in it and a noticeable old ribbon mark around the trunk (in the big year (09?) way back when the snowpack was at that spike - only need four more feet). Had a fairly casual morning being nice to #1! (conditions very nice and empty on FQex) After a way to late and to long lunch (big slice of pizza) being nice and having a good social with Ms Ferk and #1...it was hamster time - PB/BP's to EH to Doors 1 and 2 to OuterFerks to another Door to Exterminator for the wrap up run - all fun, all great, and I was not really ready to quit cause it was snowing really hard...which made the drive down entertaining.

Other - Soup at CB lodge was actually Veggie Minestrone (hhhhmmm was the soup of the week), pay lot was holiday massive and typically not full, B and C maybe 2/3rds full. Drive up was nice and fast and empty till the end when we bumped into a slow group, same on the way down except it was snowing hard almost to Mud Mountain dam area and painfully slow behind a string of cars following a truck with a trailer - ouch!

Other Other - and yes I5 is easy and fast and never ending as is the long traverse out to the start of EH and yes I have wax and yes I still hate I5 - but 2k non stop EH is pretty fun...still haven't ridden Northway chair this season??????? Huh! Gonna set a record.

Concur with ddk's report, but will note that as good as today was, yesterday was better. I have to deduct a quarter point for some snow deterioration and another quarter point for the very occasional in and out visibility. But, an extremely nice 2.5 out of 3 day. Maybe a 2.5+? One other add. While the front side skied really nice yesterday, it was a one and done today. Best snow on the mountain was a toss up between Powder Bowl left of the main chute, bottom half of GV under the chair, and Employee Housing as far right as you can get. Jeez, that's a fun run.

It was a very sore third-day-this week for this too-many-chores in Dec/January guy. But, worked through it thanks to some patient ski buds and finished feeling strong right to the last stop at the bottom of Outer Ferk's - then I was very toasted. Best snow was Terminator's "places", EH, and Outer Ferk's. Even Windy Pass. I avoided the one Frontside try and actually skied a groomer - Iceberg was flat, but it's carvability is waining. Valley Bowl improved as the downhill skiers smoothed out the WTF-are-all-these-traversers-doing lines. C-3 Chairline still great snow. No pizza for the wicked and we skied the good visibility through lunch - does a beer on the chair count? Snowing pretty good at noon as trees were the place. Looks like a big dump on the way as predicted, but winds were also increasing.

Fun Facts for ddk - the traverse from C-6 to Campbell is .63 miles. I-5, .63 miles. The travers from PB to BP and then BP to FQ is the same as Rex to EH. But, I'd agree, EH is NOT worth the big workout, stay away. I'm amazed for a run I never see people on, how skied out it gets.

Thanks to TAYer ?? can't fine the name, for the Hillmap app .

Ken
+

I-5 is better than the traverse out from the Back Bowls at Alpy, especially if you get out toward Piss Pass and the Clever!