4/2/18 Crystal

10 inches of blower pow on ice. Sunny.

Looked like a multi car serious injury accident on the boulevard this morning. Anyone know the deal with that? Seems to be an increase of accidents on the boulevard in general this season. Not sure the reason for this. There also seems to be an increase in downhill traffic in the morning (not sure where these people are going). I always enjoyed the drive to Crystal because the dead end road means you generally don't have to worrow about out of control yahoos coming at you in the other lane. Maybe limiting downhill taffic from 7 am to 9 am would prevent some of these accidents that are occurring. It sucks seeing a person carted into an ambulance just a few minutes away from the Crystal parking lot.

hhhhhmmmm....Lordy a really early report!.....and more words about today, but maybe not more enlightening!.....

Short Report - Pow Day!

Wordy Report - Arrived extra early (just cuase...luckily since a nasty accident happened on the blvd after I got up), very light crowd all in all, though the late opening of the upper mtn kinda put a chill on the early morning rush (Rex didnt start uploading till 9:30 on the dot), lots of fun deep in wind loaded areas, lots of light snow on crust on other exposed areas. Coombas were happy and any one on a surf board (snowboards included) was having a great day....PB/BP/OF was my go to run most of the late morning into the early afternoon - very happy. It was nice to get a mostly great vis/sunny/some grey big views of Rainer kinda day finally...rather than the recent fog outs.  Grooming probably was good, though the ice layer in places was very obvious on LS and MIFB when I did them coming from PB or GV Bowl (a lot better on the big piles of left overs between the main lines used by most folks)...Very nice bonus powder day...though I would really like the last three weeks to be sunny and warm and mushy and....right now not looking so good about that wish...oh well still a great day for the 2nd of April! Quit early to save some leg for the big sunny say tomorrow - I hope! Hopefully the real off piste folks will post....including myikat?

Other - No soup report from CB lodge (actually no food or much of anything else including the base lodge for lunch with only the BullWheel available - glad I brought a very nice sandwich today).  Pay lot was accidentally big this morning (no parking crew to set the start point early enough) and actually did have a number of cars...but not full, cars in C and B.  Drive up for me was casual but definitely icy and snowy, but sadly heard of a nasty accident on the blvd in the sandflats area?...Drive down was bare pavement and fast...

south opened in the afternoon and wasn't as icey

QRM (Quick foot Rating Method): 2.5 out of 3. Light crowds, great vis including a lot of bluebird skies and a slight downgrade due to snow. There will be those that disagree with me, but the foot of very nice light snow was not enough to cover the frozen death below in a lot of places.

Arrived to a big pay lot. Like 8 rows below the Alpine Inn bridge. Heard in the lodge that the first two cars up this morning mistakenly parked next to a car that was left there overnight thinking that was the beginning of free parking due to the absence of parking-man. I really like when JD is up first...he knows where to set the line for free parking.

Chinook started loading at 8:45 while the gondie didn't. Only Chinook was loading as both REX and FQ were on hold for late avalanche control. While all the big boys waited for REX, we got two excellent runs (the first one untracked) down Chinook. The third time up, REX was still on hold, but FQ was loading. Another excellent run down Rolling Knoll just in time to see the last of the line loading REX. Skied down and got on. The aforementioned people who waited for 45 minutes for REX to open were pretty much one and done on the front side due to the aforementioned frozen death underneath the new. However, there was some very nice snow to be had with a little poking about. The trick was to find where it was fairly smooth below the new, then ski the crap out of it before others found it. I tried hard to get a line going on the right side of GV, but there just wasn't enough participation. However, just to the right of that close to Pro Course, oh so good. I think GV will ski better tomorrow after some settling this afternoon and overnight. Didn't attempt a Kelly's Gap, but Snorting Elk was great. Oh, and early on, GV to MIFB to Lower Bull was awesome with 8 inches new on top of the newly groomed. It didn't last.

Coverage is great and today was a lot more like a cold February day than an April day. I'm with others...ready for some big sunny spring days.

Altasnob,
My ski buddy Mark was driving up this AM and when he got to the S turns just before Rocky point, a
Ford Taurus came around the corner too fast and lost control and went side ways. Mark could do nothing but broadside
them resulting in totaling I believe both cars. Mark thought the Lady was going to die as she turned completely Gray.
Mark has a couple of minor cuts and he and his neck is very sore. the air bags deployed. The people in the Ford were headed over Chinook pass but were a little confused in there route finding.
Mark said he may try again tomorrow but if he is sore now just wait till tomorrow.

John, really sorry to hear this. That Taurus was T-boned bad. I'm glad Mark is OK. So, the Taurus was trying to head over chinook Pass to eastern Washington? Maybe they thought that was an alternate route since Snoqualmie Pass was closed this morning.

Probably see you tomorrow.

Good snow on N faces- snorting elk bowl and the King were superb. Did a half dozen runs off the ridge to the Throne which were delicious till it got cut up. First run into A basin was harsh with even the brief sun effect and frozen chicken heads but our one run down Hourglass was rockin- smooth from the wind and no bottoming into crust. SB opening was delayed by 'poachers' impacting the control work. Patrol was pissed. The tele tribe had fun!