December 5, 2013, Crystal Southback tour

We knew that Crystal was going to open SB today.  We also knew that it had already been well skied over the last week by tourers, so this would just mean more tracks on the existing tracks.  Exercise isn't a bad thing and nobody wanted to shell for a ticket, so we started touring up to Silver/Three Way before 9, after the check-in with patrol.  Didn't see any of the lift-served group until about 10:45, and the numbers were scarce (midweek? cold temps? no "recent" snow?).

I'm still high on how much better-than-expected the snow out there was.  Not only were there still a fair acreage of untracked lines, it's a rare continental-like snowpack.  A week and it's still soft dry blower with no sun affect.  Two thumbs way way up on that.

As other posts have stated, stick to the NE aspects; the W aspects are scoured and the S aspects are showing some sun damage.  Coverage is definitely still early-season at the base and the traverse to Silver, but we never hit bottom on the chutes.

A few interesting results in a hasty pit: evidence to support the possibility of depth hoar formation.