Crystal - 03/04 Great Day

Ski Report -  

Short report, great, grayish early, but big sun  most of the morning,  fair big winds up top, great packed styro on the north facing slopes, firm early on the south.  LS was the best groomer run for me today.  Best off piste was the 5 laps in PB and any run down GV bowl.  Crowds light, no real bad lift lines to speak of.   Great Day!  Coulda  skied to closing based on quads and brain and the EXP's that were ultra happy. Snow pack  is awesome and the only rocks are exposed by some bad night grooming, digging down to the dirt layer in spots.

And the Long wordy report -
Great day, nice and light early crowd and it was a nice and light crowd all morning even during the typical  10am rush.  #1 (the original) and I  arrived early and got a spot with the true xtal hard cores, early opening after all the FreeRiders and CMAC skiers got up loaded.  Managed to get a lucky first chair on REX and on the ride up noticed that there were only a few chairs behind me - wind hold? Not ready on the upper mountain?  Had a nice empty run down GV Bowl (very nice today) and MIFB which was pretty IB, but with good vis and empty slopes and smooth it was nice.    Rex not loading?  Oh headed over to FQex to hook up with #1 (the original) - but sadly CH6 was open and loading and PB was calling - three laps later finally bumped into #1 (the original).   Got 5 very nice runs down PB today, coulda done a lot more - tried to stay in the middle between the fake rope lines down the center - dont think I traversed more than 5 ft at any time and the skiing was awesome - no frozen lumps, but nice wind blown packed styro bumps all the way.   #1 (the original) had a great day early on the empty FQex slopes and also had some great runs in GV and on LS.   Winds blowing on top some strong some here some there and based on telemetry mostly south westish,  unlike yesterday were it bounced around from SSW to SSE.  

Other - As noted arrived early after a at speed drive.  When we left the Pay lot was pushing 3/4, B 2/3 and C getting full.  Drive down was early enough to be very pleasant.
 

Yesterday, without thinking, I referred to my wife as #1.  That has been copyrighted by ddk, so my #1 (not the original) will be simply LD from here forward.

Ditto ddk's report, but we stuck around later and the front side softened, but the really good loop was Valley right side out Kelly's gap to great spring soft bumps on Sluiceway and Lower E, then three chair rides up for PB, then down to REX for a repeat.  Many of those.  The big puzzler today was the gondie not running and Rex running half speed from mid-morning on.  The wind was from the same direction as yesterday and didn't seem to be blowing as hard.  That contributed to some early afternoon waits.

A great week on the mountain starting to feel like spring.  Oh, Crystal announced today next year's base Ikon pass will only be good for 5 days at Crystal.

CD,
We will have unlimited at Crystal With Blackout dates is the way I read it.
Who cares about those blackout days anyways?
Good day on the mountain.
ddk and cd summed it up!

 

A lot of words her to say none of this will matter tomorrow. If it’s warm, rain, if it’s cold, nasty chunky ice.

Squeaked in a great day between an icy morning that had me hoping to last till 11. And a sunny, warm down low, wind blown in softness afternoon that was a hoot.

BINX - we have the Base Pass this year with unlimited days at Crystal and 5 everywhere else. Next year will have to upgrade? to the Full Bitchin’ Ikon for unlimited Crystal. But with service like Crystal’s, it will be worth it. (hmm, chairs slowed to a crawl, broken down yesterday, closed runs for only the elite (extremo kids and racers today) and some lift ops that seem to be in a coma) Yes, worth it.

I stand corrected. See thats why I'm still working.
 

That's why it's great to have this job. Wait, what? I'm not getting paid for skiing. *rethinks retirement* Nope, all good. See you soon.