Crystal - 01/06 New Normal?

Aaaahhhhh another day of the new normal!

Short (not) ski/snow report - Extra busy due to the dang overnight snowfall...ha ha....snow quality was a little heavery and wind scoured in places than yesterday...but in lots of places it was very awsome deep and happy when it was first trackes...Due to crowds today was like a heli day - lots of standing around for very big fun runs!  My first hour - Sunnyside untracked with varialbe conditions up top but oh so sweet on the bottom 2/3rds.  Headed to FQex cause REX line was a disaster (and ex Amigo yapping about the FQex line)...got lucky to see CH6 just starting to load...Biggest run of a very sad short day!  PB deep and untracked (between the bomb slides) into BP's (first time for me this year) which was even better! Ouch!  Spent the rest of my short day on QSS (Quick Slow Silver), no lift lines, nice and mellow world and actually some nice turns on the left over groomed smooth with a few inches on new - hate that chair, rode it more this season than any other year since they built it.
Other - Heard the soup at CB lodge was vegy vegan something with Kale. Ouch!  Crowd today was bigger than expected, but it was a pow day...ready for a total dry spell to slow down the powder snow crowd.  Heard that there is no snow in Utah and Colorado?  Also cause of IKON passes there are a lot more non local folks around....complaining about the Crystal operations?  HHHHMMMM go home.

Other - Drive up ultra early was a happy and the extra early (new normal) drive down was mostly happy...except for one food truck.
Snow great and deep, snow pack is set for a while even if we dont get much more.  Coverage on top of The Queen is great and I hope we dont have to wait till March for the "old" normal weekday skiing...or the rest of the west getting some snow and all the non local IKON pass folks can go away... Cams right now make it look nice  at least in the lift lines  you can see.

Huge early morning lines, but managed to time the openng of a couple chairs just right yeilding 4 of the bet runs of the season from south to north.  By noon, the high density snow had packed out everywhere and...everyone left and the sun came out.  Ahhh, the good old mid-week days.  So nice to be able to ski down to REX and GV and just get on the chair without anyone there with a stick.  Had to get my brain switched from powder skiing to bump skiing, but once done, another 90 minutes of great skiing with no crowds.  Just one note of caution.  There are two big trees down across I-5.  One you could hike around, the other required ski removal.

Long time reader, first time poster.

Got in line for Chinook around 7:55am.  Boarding started at 8:30am sharp.  Got in line for REX.  Opened around 9:05.  Jumped right into GV with great quality snow.  No line at the lift, rode up single.  Lapped GV 5 times total.  Here are the wait times: no wait, 2 min, 10min, 16min, 25min (singles line, via my Slopes app on my watch).  Finaly went over to gate 7 (Crazy line-up at gate 1) and waited for the rope drop into Northway.  Got lucky and only waited about 17 min for patrol to show up.  Run of the day into Northway...deep and untracked.  Wait was only 4 min.  As I was waiting the line grew and grew...I was worried but decided to do a run down Brand X.  Great snow up top.  Sticky/thick the bottom 1/3.  Didn't even get to the steep/rocky part before the turn to the lift when BAM.  The liftline was around the corner, up the steep part, and into the open bumps section.  Attached is a panoramic shot after I hit the corner (yes, you can zoom in and still not see the end of the line over the ridge).  Total wait was 20 minutes.  

At this point it was 12:30 and I had to leave by 1:30 so I took a run down Left Angle Trees (snow was GOOD!) to head to the parking lot (fearing long lines everywhere).  Was shocked to see Chinook empty...literally.  I skied into the maze and got a chair to myself.  Decided that FQ was probably where everyone was and planned to skip it but again, skied right on (waited 4 chairs).  Took a ride up 6 to end the day with a run down PB.  So happy to finally not have to sidestep the top!  Average snow...thick at the bottom.  Decided to rip some groomers to the base as the quads were screaming.  Got to the car at 1:18PM.  

As referenced, these lines are the new normal.  But most are happy to just be out there.  Waiting 25 min to get on GV was painful...reminded me of my years learning to ski back in NJ and PA.  Props to the Crystal crew for continuning to keep things moving.  

Just shy of 5 hours.  13,522ft vertical.  Considering I skied about the same length on 12/31 and only put in 9K vertical it was a success.  

 
 

Got in line an hour behind the early arrivers, 15 minutes before opening. The early birds, after their hour Chinook wait, all lined up for a hold-for-avie-control Rex. Instead of waiting, we got a couple warm ups on the old C-5 Chairline’s untracked. Tried to tell the Rex waiters where the good snow and lines were and got a F-You for our efforts, won’t be offering info again. Six opened and a run-of-the-day PB-BP ensued. Funny, the lift-ops name was listed as Not Dan, wonder what that means.  And then, the big waits. So, we went for the best T2B run untracked to…… Go find it. A thickening Frontside didn’t inspire, so we headed North when it opened. Untracked trees into untracked creek chute (tried to stifle laughing as we bounced through the pillows, but couldn’t) into a big lift line (but smaller than REX), and then the line was twice as big when we loaded the chair. Next was the biggest run on the mountain. Excellent if you stuck to the correct side. I-5 was as packed and fast as it gets other than the 2 downed trees and the sad looking snowboarders walking out. What’s up with Crystal. Huge lines, parking into F-lot, and online tickets still available. And they were running Six and Northway at half speed. I’ll be glad when people go back to work, back to school, and ddk can have soup in the lodge instead of standing in line. 

Nice report Middkid...keep it up.  The picture of the line on Northway is crazy.  Good thing we were ahead of that.  I did notice when we loaded the chair, the lift op barely had to hold the chair back.  It seemed the chair was not running full speed which made for a long ride and helped create the massive line.  Of course, the operators didn't know why it was running slow.  It's too bad Crystal treats them like cows and doesn't give them pertininet information since they're the primary face to the customer.