04/09 - Crystal

A great day on the mountain. The first few runs in the morning however, were not the best. Yesterday's rain combined with last night's freeze made things brutal early in the day. Ferkberg was the worst. Lucky Shot a little better, and GV the best of the worst. We decided to make a run up Forest Queen to look at the excavation of C6. Amazing how much snow they have moved out of there freeing all the chairs and poles. The motor shack still has a bunch of snow loaded against it which is keeping tension on the cable. Wondering how they're going to release that? More on C6 later in the report.

By the time we got back from our single run on FQ, significant softening had started. Did a couple of GV/Ferkberg/Deer Fly runs, then jumped on the hamster wheel with many GV/Kelley's Gap/Sluiceway/Berry Patch/Lower E runs. It just turned into a blur. At one point, we rode up Chinook Express instead of the faster gondie to cool off and ditch the coats at the packs in favor of Polynesian wear. Then back on the hamster wheel. About 1pm, fell off the wheel only to find ourselves on another favorite of Memorial Forest to Greg's Gulch. While we tried a couple of other front side runs, none of them as good as the Gulch. But then, my line is pounded in there, so I am partial to it. Due to the overnight freeze, there was no stickiness to the softened snow. Big vert day.

As for C6, rode the gondie with Kim K who had the day off from patrolling and was free skiing. They have scrapped the original plan to put a wide spaced fix grip quad in favor of a fixed grip double similar to Northway. They will use the same pole foundations as the current chair and the top terminal will be in the same place. The chairs themselves will be three times heavier than the current chairs making them less susceptible to wind. They are also contemplating using a slat back instead of a solid padded back to further reduce wind impact. They have also already purchased the C4 replacement. It's a fixed grip quad from Deer Valley that was only used for a season before DV decided to replace it with a high speed quad. So, I think good news on both fronts.

Can't wait for another big day tomorrow!

Great info on C4/C6, thanks. I made the wise call to roll in lazy at 11:45 with my son, after the sun-in-the-sky had a chance to cast its magic spell on the mountain. Soft spring awesome bluebird till close. And hey, where is everybody? Deserted...

Ditto CD. Without heat, it's really ugly. With each overnight freeze and re-thaw the consolidation improves. And the Frontside, other than Greg's Gulch, needs it. A big change since monday, as the snow has corned enough that stickiness was not a problem. Good news 'bout the Six and Four replacements. Amazing to see the exhumed body of C-Six.

Ken
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