Crystal - 05/20 OUCH!

Ski and Hike report - OUCH! Haven't ever had the pleasure of skiing and hiking in GV like today!  Amazing snow loss in the last week.  Groomers did a good job of getting snow on the cat track from the top down towards Pro Course....but it was a hike to get back there after the first run from the Bucket....Snort Elk road looked promising, but there was no access to the bowl back there and the path from the Northway fork was ten feet of side stepping through rocks and patrol snow boulders when I did it the one time I did it...not worth repeats for me.  Only survived for a hour again today and it was not because of the crowds.... mostly cause I be a whinny wimp about having to hike for dodge nasty rocks.  Best for me today was a sticky first run down the center of GV Bowl  and a couple of hikes back up from GVex to repeat the entrance to the main bowl from the Bucket....and  then it got hot!  And I bailed...ouch! Gotta say the worst skiing I've experienced skiing GV Bowl at the end of the season. Do to random luck I did it the first bucket ride up by my self...nice to have walk around space...ride down was sweaty hot!

Other - Crowd a lot smaller than last Saturday, but a very large crowd of tourists, views big but hazy, sun was hot....soup at the top was a Roasted Tomato?  Special folks area of A more normal sized but as empty as last week, there was a Pay lot area back this week after none last week and it was full (of permit folks?), rest of A full, B had a few rows and I seem to remember noticing cars in C.   Drive up was stupidly early and nice and lonely, drive down was at speed and happy with a fair amount of traffic heading up.  Didn't notice any elk today.  

Other Other - Season synopses?  Pretty weird for me...bad health just after T-day, Multiple big rain events destroying conditions multiple times, full on winter during March and half of April and finally what looked like a promising spring with sun and a big snow pack that disappeared to mushy mank because the temps never dropped below 50 at the top overnight during the last month of the season - OUCH!  Heard lots of good things about the big skiers doing the big bump just to the south...sadly I'm a lazy rodent so the summer hiking and biking season is now the focus....Have a Great Summer!  Next post might be Hood....or more likely opening day next season.