12/30/11 Crystal Mt

Thought I'd get a late morning start at Crystal and targeted being on slope at 10a.  Ended up being behind 2 miles of stopped cars just a before the blvd turnoff and turned around after an hour wait.  Assumed the resort was turning around cars due to no parking (as every car coming down was saying such).  Put a tweet out to save any other late comers trouble, but then heard from @crystalmt that they had parking.  Any clue what was going on this morning between 9:30-11a on 410 just before Crystal Blvd?

P.S. Alpental skied wonderfully today so the day ended well

We arrived in A lot at 7:30. At 8:30, the Gondy line was long so we got in Chinook. By the time we realized Chinook was broke (took 25 minutes to get workers and ski patrol up the first pitch) the Gondy line was around the deck, across the stairs, over to Store-a-Ski and the kiddie lesson area. We didn't move till 9:20 and loaded at 9:30. The issue today was just the crowd. Heard the vacation herd was slippin' and slidin' on the BLVD and traffic was backed up 8 miles down 410 as well as up the BLVD. Talked to a couple that left Greenwater at 8:30 and were on their first chair ride at 12:30. The snow was great once up, however the knee-deep fun lasted only one run. The cut pow, excellent. Got one untracked run on Northway before the masses, also excellent. Northway's opening removed the Rex line and we cycled Frontside cut pow in the trees with zero line the rest of the day. So nice to be in soft snow again. Snowed hard at times, 4" on the car at day's end. Most of today's crowd looked like day-trippers, blew their wad, and won't be back tomorrow. Hope replacements are not in the wings.

Ken

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Ah, yes. You've experienced the "Crystal Mt. powder frenzied holiday crowd Sh!t show". Totally normal, and to be expected on the first legit powder day in almost a month at a popular resort with a dead end two lane access road, inexperienced winter drivers, and limited parking.
We had a fun day there yesterday high on the mt with the few new on crust. It started snowing hard as we were leaving, and I was bummed that I had to work today, then we started thinking of how it would actually play out....

Glad you had a good day at Alpy.

Well, that paints the right picture. Appreciate that. Digging Crystal's new preloaded go cards. Know I can just use that plan for another day now. Hey, any day to go up to the mountains is a pretty good day in my book. Thanks for the intel.

Sorry you got bad info Andy. I spent the last week in the new and improved B-Lot reservation only RV area, where good time was had by all. Little weeneys with cocktail sauce around the campfire last night and early shuttle ride to stand in line this AM. I am not sure why snow seems like such a surprise somedays. Patrol was out bright and early this am. I heard first AC work booming at 7:10 on Rock Face. They held the gondola until Chinook started spinning, then 9 was on the fritz. Snow was deep but not necessarily epic. More like deep and heavy. Lots of fun to rip with big sticks. Patrol hustled and got North open early in the day and South after lunch. The higher the elevation the better the quality. Sorry to say I wasn't motivated to make a PB lap for ddk so can't comment on the quality of the rocks nor bumps. Just somehow can't wrap my head around that one more than 10 or 12 times a year. Today it paid to be a counterion, I left M world and frontside to the hard chargers and snow board slashers and settled for creamy laps off the elk and short lines in Green Valley till about 11. North with some fresh was tasty to say the least. All in all this is traditionally a week best suited to social skiing. It's great to see so many families and kids getting up and out. I would hope the drive and hassles of so many folks were offset by the joy of snow. I am looking forward to Sunday night when my favorite parking lot empties out and I can prepare for a relativity undisturbed week. BTW it doesn't pay to offend the guys who plow the lot, just sayin.

Oh yeah, we skied both PB and CB, and had no real trouble avoiding rocks. The right turn/switchback approach to queen-throne ridge traverse was still windblown exposed rocks.

P.S. Alpental skied wonderfully today so the day ended well

Glad we skipped the trying to go to Crystal part and just hit Alpental in the afternoon. Good fun, and as a nice bonus we skied to the side of the car at the end of the day. Semi-tracked was setting up like concrete but there was plenty of fun turning to be had. And no lines on the quad.

i can confirm that it was people on the bld between mile markers 2-3 putting chains on their cars. up to 13 cars. parking crew set the record for how many cars were parked- nobody was turned around. the resort gave a one hundred dollar bonus to the parking crew. the bonus will make for an awesome bar tab tonight for my bandmate, dave.

northback was epic. buillion tomorrow.

Since I have the ears of several crystal locals here, what do you use to get accurate information on crowds, parking, and road status before you're actually there?
This is compounded with basically no 410 cell coverage if you're inroute, but I never feel there is a central number I can call up there to get info and I don't think it's appropriate to bother the ski patrol (which has an active dispatch thru the day) for non-injury/emergency issues. Nwac telemetry is snow/weather, Kim/Cory's Blog is a day or so back, tweets are terrain opening, and the website is glossy. Anyone use any other resources?

Jungle telegraph, nod nod wink wink

Since I have the ears of several crystal locals here, what do you use to get accurate information on crowds, parking, and road status before you're actually there?

It's easy, leave home early, arrive early, beat the people that can't drive in the mountains. Especially from christmas to mid february on the weekends. Arrive before 8 (we plan on 7:30-7:45) and never a problem. Weekdays are more casual with arrival around 8-8:15 works unless it's a big powder day. Early and late season weekends you can slack off 1/2 hour. As for road conditions, Subarus with high performance snow tires. Road is never a concern.

We spend the extra time sitting in the lodge letting our boots warm to our feet, talking big with our regular buddies, and watching the lift lines. You can time it for minimal line standing and maximum first tracks.

On Cluster F. Friday (last friday) we parked at 7:30 after driving all the way to the mountain at 60 with no traffic. All those years of working with a 3:50am wake up paid off. Sleeping in till 5 now seems luxurious.

Ken