Jan 1, 2009, Crystal

The normal 1.5 hour drive turned into a 2.5 hour drive with downed trees, skating rink roads, and heavy traffic, even early in the morning (what happened with everyone getting wasted on New Years Eve?) It was just barely snowing when we got there and later in the day it turned to full on rain at the base. Lapped Green Valley all morning and found loads of heavy, water-logged, powder that fractured on every turn. I was shocked that any of the upper mountain opened given how easy it was to get stuff to move. However, it seemed only the top 4 to 6 inches was sliding (the icing on the birthday cake snowpack). While the powder was not ideal, it was easy to find untracked and actually a bit fun. This heavy stuff is great for our base. All the superficial rocks were covered and you could charge with confidence. 410 was closed to uphill traffic on the way down due to falling trees. With Stevens and Alpy closed, Crystal offered up the best turns of the year!

I got there real early and picked up two Argentinian cooks from the Summit House in Enumclaw who had missed the Boyne Crew Bus. Very nice young gentlemen, one studying music( piano and composition) and one psychology in BA when not flipping burgers at Crustal.

I stuck to the Frontside as I was getting vertigo in Green Valley.
Did 5 laps of Frontside and Doors and then called it quits when it started raining at base of REX


I had same experience under REX lift, 10' cracks propagating on every turn and small 6" slabs which was a bit disconcerting until it got tracked out.

I want the low density stuff back please!!!!!

Oh Stevens was open in the morning, if you were coming from Lworth!!  No rain, and closed early (11:30am) due to pass closure.  I was surprised they opened the backside considering the cracking and sliding I could see from the lifts, but like you said, only the top stuff was going.

Guest relations was handing out free tickets to those who paid for a short (but sweet and uncrowded) day.

We lapped Green Valley much of the morning and afternoon. Same slabbing happening - got one decent size area moving under my feet at one point which got my attention and prompted me to traverse out of the moving snow. Wallowy in the untracked, but fun when I had the front-rear balance right. Anyone who hit a low angle stash regretted it quickly. We tried to stick mostly to treed lines to have some depth perception.

As the snow stiffened up into early afternoon, I took a few nice faceplants due to tip diving. I was even seeing snowboarders get serious tip dive.

On the other hand, areas that had been skied a fair bit (like the upper trees to skiers right of the Green Valley lift) became quite nice - basically firmed up into very skiable but yielding moguls. The temps cooled back off by mid-afternoon. It was nice to have a warm car instead of a cold tent to return to.

We tried one run over toward the base of Rainier Express and ran into cement-like snow near the base of the lift so headed back over to Green Valley.

The tree-fall along 410 was impressive. The road crew with the plows and chainsaws had their work cut out for them - many thanks to whoever you were!