December 7, East Peak

We can file this one away in the "you don't know unless you go" category.....

Telemetry this morning showed winds gusting to nearly 70 mph at Crystal. High winds, temps around zero F, and maaaaybe some new snow, but maybe not because it wasn't showing up on the telemetry.... We nearly called it before we left Seattle. Good thing we didn't.

The plume of snow blowing off the ridge off East Peak was impressive, but the skin up was in the lee of that ridge, and the ski down was, apparently, where all that snow was falling. In places, the wind deposit was 8" deep. Sure, there was a rock solid layer of ice beneath, but if you skied gently enough you didn't hit it. Upper thigh and chest shots were had. The snow was variable, which meant you had to stay on your toes, but where it was good, it was really good. Where it was bad, it was borderline unskiable, but those places were surprisingly rare.

So we got sunny skies, perfect skinning temps, no wind (until we reached the ridge, where it was howling), and waaaaay better than expected snow. The pictures (which I'd post if I could find the cord that connects my camera to my computer) make it look epic. It wasn't that good, but it exceeded expectations dramatically.

Get it before it blows away.