Crystal - 01/22

Ski report - Totally Hamster Happy Treadmill day for me...New from yesterday improved the groomers and some up high slopes...not many places I can report on do to the treadmill mental problem I have. GV bowl, LS and MIFB, plus a few runs all the way to the bottom of GV and my last run via Skid road (old name). Did one beat me up run down the Old SunnySide line - doable but not recommended for a lot of folks I know. Best for me - GV Bowl, West Face, lower GV bump slot and upper LS bumps. All of which gave me a "real" ski work out day - so I was happy for that. Would have stayed longer today if the sun had really come out.

Other - No lift lines early, CHex started loading at 8:25! with not many folks around. Minor typical 10am rush - less than normal, noticed at that time that FQex had a small backup of folks. Most the morning was ski up to the lifts and get on. Made me happy and worked out the quads skiing and not standing in lift lines. Talked to a lot of visitors from other areas that still have not got much snow, we are lucky on what we have. The views today early were big and interesting from Adams, St Helens and Stuart up north, plus oceans of clouds out east. Rainier - hhhmmm didnt notice.

Other other - No clue on soups...given up on that process, Pay lot was not very full of badly parked rows, B lot fullish of even worse parking rows, C pushing full and that was it. Drive up was just early enough to beat the slow drivers and I left early enough to have a very pleasant at speed drive down. Fun day, fun soft snow in places, fun icy nasty bouncy snow in other places to keep the brain working.  Ready for next weeks hopefully minor snow falls all week - hope it does not bring out the powder crowd. Have a nice weekend! and stay safe.

Bear Pits was worth a repeat, but not a third trip.  Sunnyside was worth a repeat, but not a third trip.  Shouldn't have done Lower E at all.  The few skiers in Powder Bowl were doing a lot of traversing to find a line, so didn't try.  Lot's of Valley-Valleys and Valley-Ferkbergs.  As the day went on, the snow got worse as the groomers were scraped down to ice and off-piste was getting even firmer than the morning.  Sun started to come out at 12:30, but too late and too cold to do any good.  Left early after 4 hours on the hill.  Still better than projects at home.

In any other year, Valley-Valley would have rated an C-. Today it was the best of the lot. Iceberg kept you on your toes avoiding patches of ice a hockey rink would have been proud of. Sunnyside early started, OK, and lower down bordered on dangerous when the ice was covered by breakable crust. Bear Pits was skiable icy bumps, not necessarily fun, but doable. Some T2Bs, Iceberg-Deerfly started OK, and degraded as the day went on. Grubstake gave me a pounding.Least workout day of the year as it took very little muscle to skid around. Left just as the sky cleared - too late to even enjoy the views. It did bring out the blueness of the ice on the Frontside. Hoping the snow for monday is more than forecasted.