Crystal - 01/05

Ski Report - Very nice snow both on and off Piste!  Typically limited first hand report from me...but Doors great, LS Trees great, BP's great - but there are still lots of poky baby trees to dodge.  Fun beat myself up day, vis was not as nice today like yesterday - which is one of the reasons there is no HC report from me - I'm waiting for some post?  Groomers I did were mostly good but some places in GV had way too many "funny" ripples?  As noted, my problem with some areas was vis (and wimpy quads - ouch!).  But did hear the usual secondhand reports that EH was very repeatable and I5 was above average run out.   I'm pretty sure anywhere on the mountain is pretty incredible, but still a surprising amount of Xmas trees poking up through the snow.

Other - Took an old person break in CB lodge...pleasant, but no pizza today at all and the soup was the never-ending Lentil something or other.  Lots of folks lined up for the other options.

Another Other - Arrived typically early and got closer to the front row of CHex...fair sized early crowd, but smaller than the last couple of days.  All core lifts running early on time, but also mostly on diesel again and REX sadly runs very slowly without real juice.  Would have not been any lift lines today anywhere if the power problems are resolved - heard Greenwater has had no power for days.  Drive up was early enough to be pleasant, but snow on the road from Mud Mt.  Drive down would have been even better except for the 35mph person that just could not be nice - no traffic after I got passed "it".  Pay lot was impressively pushing past half full, B and C were pushing to full with buried cars in D and E...The new normal till the Pass's get their act together is a lot more folks in the parking lots. 

FUN DAY - burned up  my quads!

We were a little later than ddk to the mountain (third row of the princess lot).  Longest weekday drive to Crystal ever.  Right out of Enumclaw, we were in an endless line of cars going 35mph at most.  To make matters worse, several large branches and downed trees across 410 between Greenwater and the blvd blocking one lane or the other.  One of the downed trees required a 5 mph pass on the narrow shoulder.  Once on the mountain, everything in my world was right again.

I went skiing today.