Crystal - 3/26

Arrived at 8am and my world got rocked. I parked in the 3rd row and in front of me in the second row was the putty truck. Hmmmm, ddk was late. Walked by his truck and right in front of him in the first row was ddk's truck. Two putty trucks? Is it a trend? A movement?

In the lodge found a solo JD, so paired up with him today as I was solo also. The weather remained cold and the wind calm in spite of a forecast to the contrary. Crowd was very light as expected. The vis was a challenge off and on all day from either a cloud rolling through or just very flat light. And the snow has firmed up a lot. One and done runs: Memorial Forest and Grubstake. Hard, chattery, bumped up stuff covered by an inch of new. Worth a second run: Powder Bowl, although it's gotten much firmer and I was surprised at the number of rocks popping out on top already. Also worth a second run was Kelly's Gap. Sluiceway and Berry Patch firm but fun and lower E was big, hard bumps, but consistent with a nice flow to the fall line. Runs with many repeats: GV to chair-line or Ann's, Snorting Elk, and GV-MIFB-Lower Bull Run (very nicely groomed). With the firming of the snow and the off-and-on visibility, it was a 2 out of 3 day.

Very sad to hear someone lost their life on Niagara's on Saturday. Too many ski deaths this year.

Pretty accurate report...didnt do some of the bad CD lines (lucky me)...found other Hamster fun places....and the rest of the in bounds story.....

Short Report - Light crowd, fuzzy vis at times, light snowfall most of the day (which was noticeable in some of my fav places), great screamer quality groomers early, fun off piste in a few lines I found that fit the Hamster Treadmill requirements...fun day.

More Words - Arrived early to a very quiet end of season Monday.  No lift lines, no real crowds other than maybe LS during the peak mid morning rush but by then I  was in the off piste world...MIFB and LS were great and fast and smooth early and really pretty much all day....Did a few of those early and then started poking around...GV Bowl was nice when the vis was good, Last Door was the go to Hamster run late morning and early afternoon...Outer Ferks (hard skier right Lucky Shot Trees) was a fun steep and narrow crank those turns run....#1 was having a great day and we skied late morning and early afternoon.  Finished our day via SnortElk area to Kellys Gap to the base (I liked Lower E bumps...I like bumps and had a very good bump day today).  Felt cold, grey on the vis but still mostly good conditions.  PB was firmer than expected and a little fuzzy on the vis when I did my after lunch lap....would have been good with better vis. Snow pack is end of season deep and the ski area is end of season empty!

Other - Nice small pay lot this morning and still mostly empty when we left.  No shuttles today, so there were not many cars below the A lot....No soup or Pizza or Rice Bowls (or heat) at CB lodge (definitely end of season food)....I had some chili - haven't gotten sick yet. Drive up was fast except for the Elk at the Ranch area, drive down was nice except for the big stud white truck who did not want to allow anyone to pass him (or her?)....didnt see him anymore after a couple of curves... 

Not finding reports on this fatality. Any info? Treewell?

I was told that it was a 59 year old experienced skier who hit a rock with his chest at high speed.
Massive internal bleeding and trauma.
RIP.
Condolences to his family.

hurts reading that, vibes to the family:-(

Crystal is really keeping wraps on this. Ski patrol confirmed it with me, but was not forthcoming with information. I don't know if that is out of respect for the family (in which case, I'm sorry I even posted anything about it), or if Crystal's marketing department is trying to keep it out of the news. Either way, it's a sad story. I can only assume he/she died doing what they loved.

Today I asked a patroller about it and also pretty tight lipped- just said it was a traumatic injury and barely replied to any further question. A least he confirmed that it wasn't a slide or treewell. Interesting that it didn't make the news.