March 9, Crystal BC

Just a quick conditions report on our trip to the Crystal BC yesterday. We skied S from Sliver Basin out into Crystal Basin (I think that's the name...everything there apparently has a name even if I don't know it). We found 5-10 inches of new on a firm crust, which softened a bit on the S slopes by afternoon. E and N slopes, especially the more exposed ones, stayed firmer underneath.

Skiing was very good in the more sheltered spots away from the ridgelines. Down in the gut of some of the bigger bowls we found close to a foot of blower which hid the crust pretty well. We got a couple of nice long 'fast powder' runs.

Overall we saw very stable conditions, with just some sluffing that was typically pretty predictable and limited to the slopes with a firmer crust under the new dust and a pitch over 40 degrees. We saw little evidence of propagation - the new stuff was just very loose and the crust below seemed to have things locked down underneath.

Can't say it was bottomless, but some of the lines were really fantastic. Definitely counting this one as a powder day (finally)!