Crystal - 12/16

The inch or so of new wetter snow we've been receiving over the last several days has significantly improved the snow quality since last Friday.  The right side of GV Bowl was once again skiing quite nicely.  The grooming on Lucky Shot was pretty good and the bumps on the side skiable, if not rock filled.  We did figure 8's GV to Rex until the line on GV grew to humongous.  Then our figure 8's took us to the bottom out Kelly's gap and down lower E.  Pretty good and worth several repeats since there was no line on Chinook and the line on REX was tolerable.  About 11:30, we found the best snow on the mountain...surprisingly the top half of Breakover.  Fairly smooth and 6 inches of heavier piled up snow.  Fun.  Bottom half was a little more dicey, but no worse than lower E.  That was our go-to run until the wind kicked up and shut down REX and the Gondie.  Headed over to Forest Queen quick before the line grew too bad and did the much ballyhooed Chapelle's to Queen's Run to Snow Garden to Quicksilver for our last run.  Nice snow, but severely lacking in adrenaline.

Overcast all day and snowing hard when we left.  Forgot to look at the lots on the way out, but it was another crowded day with long lift lines impacting our vert.  

Adding to CD. Do Iceberg on your first run and everything after will be good. It took a run or two to get my ice radar tuned up and then it was easy to avoid the horrible spots and quickly skid through the marginal spots. The best line moved around a little as people scraped off one spot softening another. After Iceberg, we knew which aspects to avoid and a good time was had by all. Valley Bowl-C-3 Chairline-Sluiceway-Berry Patch (right)-Lower E was a high point. I was reluctant to try the Frontside after Iceberg, but got sucked in by the gang. Breakover good and Sunnyside best. And then the Rex Line - big. And the wind caused slowdowns, stops, and we bailed just before it all shut down. Snowing hard as we drove off and they’ve already got more snow than we had this morning.Ken

One last late bit of info about today -

A little more to late random info about today....Arrived extra late due to rock chip repair
on the truck...pulled into the A lot around 11am. Busy conditions at the base...A lot half
fullish, B and C very fullish - ouch.  Had been thinkin arriving late for the afternoon ski
would be okay...maybe not. Not to painful singles lines on CHex and REX, but heard bad
things about GV lineups and FQex looked from a distance to be to painful for a soup check.
Snow quality was better with the multiple days of a inch or two.  Skied my first runs of the
year down SunnySide (Yaaa JD!), pleasant enough and a good workout. LS was typical and I 
stayed on the bump edges. Sadly the winds kicked into high speed and the Bucket was first
to close and REX was doing the stop and go routine before it finally closed also....Spent
a few laps doing Stump Farm and Skid Road (old names). Skied nice enough till the CHex
line sent me home.

Other - Drive up was okay after I passed one truck that managed to keep up after that...same
on the drive down, got past one slow driver and didnt see anyone else on 410.  
Could have been a better day if not for the winds up top and the still fair sized crowd
for early season. Might be a challenge all season with the limited lift capacity.  And
tomorrow will be a zoo with all  the new snow.

Well, you guys are missing the big news from today. It Started snowing around 12:30, everybody went home, and it nuked all afternoon. Rex went on windhold, and uphill travel was legal, so I hauled it up and over iceberg to ski the GV ghost town snow globe till last chair at 3:30. Free refills, low vis. Lots of transport.  A few people showed up about 2:45 and I saw that Rex was unloading. Didn’t matter, SO MUCH SNOW!!!