03/29 - Crystal

First, let me get my whine out of the way. Rex was running at 70% speed all day and for the first hour and a half stopped multiple times on each ride up. We were told it was suffering from a Code 5 fault. A trip over to GV revealed that chair running at a lift-op confirmed 80%. What the heck is going on? Definitely noticeable and irritating after riding blistering fast and well maintained chairs at Whistler/Blackcomb.

OK, now for snow conditions. It snowed all day sometimes hard. On the upper mountain it was cold enough that it kept the clothes and goggles dry. And, it was oh so good. Knee deep in lot's of places and go anywhere fast, if not a tad heavy. Skied the entire front side from Ferkberg to Memorial and on across to all the doors and then LS trees. Saw some poachers in Bear Pits. Not the smartest. Never made it out to Northway fearing the wetter snow down low and potential crowds. Heard from several it was the place to be in the morning, and yes, some crowds. As far as REX and GV chairs, no lines, light crowd. This was my first Saturday of the year and ski season must be over for the vast majority.

We ended up leaving a little on the early side succumbing to the slow chair rides, increasing ridge-top winds (that actually shut down the gondie for a while), and an increase in the wetness of the snow. At the base, it was definitely wet.

On the way out, noticed the huge pay lot had at least 4 rows worth of emptiness. Also, the space reserved for busses had no busses. Drunk-O guy was at it again.

My dog didn't poop in the parking lot. I have no dog.

Sick snow up high. Top of Morning Glory into Brand X was silky till the chutes where it got heavy. Did three runs in Powder Bowl and it was spectacular skiing- knee deep , clean lines. There is an upside to the loss of Chair 6- PB has the best surface I've seen in years.

happy that drunk o guy has migrated to the southern resort.
b

What CD said. Plus, the frustrated liftline crowd spent the morning wondering if there was a way to build an avalanche that would take out Rex. What a POS. That said, between Green Valley pow (while Rex sorted its slow self out) and later Memorial to LS Trees, we skied some of the most fun snow of the year. I was happily soaked mid morning by the constant boot-to-neck wake of snow plastered on my pants and coat. Later, I was soaked as the snow level rose to mid Rex. It was easy to leave early with the fun-O-meter points accumulated during the morning to early afternoon. Unless you were demo-ing skis and swapping them out in the rain at the base.

(Tried to keep an eye on CD, no poop seen)
Ken
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wondering if there was a way to build an avalanche that would take out Rex
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Funny, I was thinking the same thing. I was on about the 6th Rex chair and it stopped about 10 times before I even got on. I could not count the number of times it stopped on the first ride up. Later it was making an awful clanking noise and only stopping once or twice each ride. What a treat!
The lousy Rex sent us to GV for the first couple of runs on our demos for some really sweet lines on Grubstake. The Soul 7 was a good pick for that but my favorite of the day was Nordica NRGY 100. Only a 177 length but there will be a 185 coming out. Turns great when we bailed on Rex for one run and did the Frisco gate down the rope line and into the tight trees. Then hammered the lightly cut Sunnyside and charged Lower Bull.
Warning, Halfway down Upper E to the bottom of Lower E is avie debris. Not fun but the Soul 7s did manage it. We had a fun day trying different styles of skis from the quick NRGY to the bomber Salomon LAB 109 in a 190 length. That one is a high speed crud buster but needs a lot of area for the turns. They were not happy on the cliffy part of Elk Snort (Snorting Elk from the high Grubstake traverse).
It was moist at the bottom but not raining, even at 37 degrees at 3pm.

Lots of nice powdery shots today, more than I expected, right to the last run. And rain masquerading as snow for part of the day.