Crystal - 1/8

Hard day to rate, but someone has to do it.  Very small crowd, great snow, and good visibility in spite of the blizzard like conditions.  3 out of 3, right?  Not so fast as we have deductions.  While visibility was fine all day, the howling wind and constant snow made it a bit uncomfortable at times.  Not to be too much of a wimp, 1/4 point deduction for weather.  The big deduction also comes due to the weather.  They never opened the upper lifts.  Big full point deduction for 1.75 out of 3 day.  That feels about right.  Now, as ddk says, time for the wordy report.

Got up this morning to check the telemetry based on the forecast for high winds out of the east.  5am telemetry not bad and the Crystal report stated they were planning on running all lifts.  Got the gear ready and off we went.  Howling pretty good in the 'Claw and then outside of Greenwater, ran into a blizzard with snow piling up on the road.  Cool.  Pulled into the A-lot with free parking starting at the bridge.  Also cool.  But, the wind had obviously increased.  Crystal put the upper chairs on wind hold with a stated opening "later in the morning".  Oh well, off we go to Forest Queen.  4 inches new on top of yesterday's excellent snow.  It was nice to reconnect with some old friends:  K2 was bony on top, but the rest of the way down just like I remembered it.  Cisco and all the runs through the trees from the Cisco gate a real hoot.  Even Queens Run by-pass through the trees to Chapelle's with a right turn into the gulley was fun.  The whole time, it's puking light snow that's so cold it doesn't even touch your goggle lenses causing refreshes every couple runs.  Oh boy, the top is going to be great.  As the wind was dying down on FQ, we see all the upper lifts change from on-hold to closed for the day.  What?  Head to the bottom of REX to catch one of the lift ops.  They said Crystal sent all the lift ops home at 10:30 and there was no one to open the top.  Great.

If the wind lets up, tomorrow is going to be one of the best days of the year.  Sadly, there will be one less person fighting for those freshies as I am unable to go tomorrow.  Hope you all get some.