12-21-12 Crystal Mt Solstice Party

Those that waited for yesterday's late mountaintop opening did an excellent job of tracking up Rex and Green Valley. Today was the best packed/cut powder in a long time – as good as tracked snow gets. When Six opened, the line was huge. It stayed ½ huge all day, but the snow was excellent. The biggest crowd of the year made Rex lines 3-5 minutes until Six opened – then were gone. Six was 10-20 minutes all day. Couldn't find bad snow anywhere. Northway opened just before 2, but we skied Exterminator and out instead. Heard the line on NW was huge, and as we drove out there were lines of people walking up the blvd from the Lower NW bus stop.
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Arrived at 1.15 PM.....got a recently vacated place in A lot right at the front.  YES!

Took one ride in the Gondola to the top and then headed into the backcountry for the rest of the afternoon and never rode in the resort for the rest of the day, even coming down.

It was glorious and quiet with magnificent lighting and views .

Saw no signs of instability but there was a lot of soft slab in places and humongous amounts of snow.

Its was PNWBrit( Banned )'s birthday so we let him ski first. We also let him break trail first.

Best powder turns on the season. Amazing conditions but that soft slab requires you to make correct  micro-terrain choices.....so be careful.

I too had a great day. The snow was as good it gets, the chop was very fun and I still found the low hanging fruit left over from the day before.  A big thanks to the group of skiers that help me pick up my gear on the Otto B after I hit the wind roll by gate 4 ( I was going too fast to see the cation disk) as I turned to gain speed I hit the first of the three rolls and I went lawn dart style through the air( this must of been a sight to see, as something this big this low in the air needs a traffic controller to land)  on landing my stuff was all over the place, poles up hill, skis to the left, pride stuck in a tree, ego 3 feet in the snow. After I put things back together and skied off into the storm, I felt lucky that all was good to go. I fall from time to time, but mostly I can feel it coming, slow motion tip overs or skis slips on steep hard snow, but a high speed thing for a 60 year old was not a good thing. The three young skiers got out of their skis to help, or they thought they would have to do first aid or something, but thanks for stopping to help me get my pride out of the tree.