Crystal - 12/29

Another day, another different day....Arrived earlier due to not needing gas...Arrived
to a smaller free space in the A lot (way smaller...why...cause more space needed for 
night skiing? hhhhmmm....)   but still in the A lot which has really nice ski back to your 
parking row!   Other early info...got first single slot and still  did  not get first chair,
ouchy two days in a row (oh sorry we dont know who gets here early?)  Oh well what is
a chair or two? Other than having to socialize in the covid times.  

Conditions vis - Not what I had expected, wrong sunny lens early, had a few sun      
break pokes, but the  trend was working to the grey out zone. (Actually very sunny just
before I left standing at the top of Gold Hills looking at the whole beautiful 
Crystal Mountain basin).

Conditions  Snow  - Nice enough,  could use sharper edges on the EXP's ...especially on  
MIFB.  GV Bowl skied happy, other groomers I skied were pleasant ( ? oh...AranSkid/
Skid road,  short left overs on Gold Hills outside the CMAC racers areas). The next
storm will really help the overall conditions. Cant wait to hear about the front side
of REX?

Conditions crowds - Lucky earlier start than yesterday which allowed more faster high
speed runs off REX and GVex...but it passed my tolerance level when I tried to head
over towards FQex and HC a little to late....FQex line was just bad enough to send me 
down valley. Lift lines on CHex/Gold Hills/Slow Silver were all either empty or not to 
painful during the typical morning rush.

Conditions parking - A lot more space reserved in the A lot for who knows what...night
skiing? Folks with out legal permits?  Oh well.  A not close to full, B almost full,
C D E and H all maxed out...nobody in F...so it was a right sized crowd in the covid
season. 

Soup report?  Who knows - BINX? Not likely.

Drive up early was happy, drive down was early enough to be happy, no Elk notice
by my bad eyes. 

Bottom line - A pleasant fast,  to short, very fun enough ski day. Every Ski day is
always FUN! (unless you break a leg or something else). Cams make the lift lines look
very small at 2pm.

Firm, firmer, and icy. Oh, flat light.

On the lift before 8:30. Valley Bowl was OK, but I thought the styrofoam snow would be friendlier. Iceberg was very smooth, a good thing, you couldn’t see the surface in the flat light. On the Frontside, you could see the stuff thrown up yesterday in the piles of locked down, frozen ice balls - one and done. We got one run on Grubstake in a 5-minute sun peek that was OK, the other in the flat light was difficult. Not much energy in the icy coasters (Luckyshot) and the moderate lift lines made it feel a lot colder than expected. 30 seconds of energy, skid some icy groomer to the lift, wait 10 minutes, ride up, and….. where to go in the flat light?

Even leaving early, didn’t beat ddk out of the lot, that guy’s fast. 

Ken