04/14 - Crystal

Another fantastic Spring day. I think we must have paid it forward with all those early season poor snow days. Today started soft from the beginning due to the overnight warm temps, but a high haze helped keep the snow in great corn condition all day with stickiness only noticed towards the end of the day on the lower runs. Our best runs today were Bull Run top to bottom and Upper Bull Run to Snake Pit and out Lower Bull. Found Melby's memorial skiers left of Snake Pit and took a humble moment. Honorable mentions to GV, Ferkberg, Memorial Forest and Kelly's Gap/Sluiceway/Berry Patch/Lower E.

I think I saw more festive wear on the mountain today than any other day this season. Lot's of Hawaii shirts, etc. As with the past week, just a great vibe on the mountain. Too bad it looks like the near perfect corn snow may end tomorrow with forecast moisture and cooler temps.

And the long winded next part of the day report - Very nice day, warm from the starting gate, maybe not as blue bird with some high stuff blowing through, but still warm and nice enough to have a really big hamster kinda day. No crowds all day, no lift lines ever, nice early morning groomers on Lucky and MiddleIceFerkBerg (MIFB). I was nice to #1 and did Kellys Gap and lower E before the lunch run. Started doing SunnySide around 10 today and it just got better all day. Had a nice quiet CB lodge soup run late morning – kinda sad though, no Chick Noodle (WHAT?). Finally re-checked the HC mess today – still pretty impressive and they are still pushing a lot of snow around. After that back to the REX treadmill, everything softer, everything more fun, kept repeating it till way late in the day for me, it was pretty sad having the whole front side of REX to myself with nobody else around to enjoy it – another so sad suffering moment (like 1 second anyway). Crystal was pretty empty today and almost deserted when we left. Season is truly sadly almost over…at least the lift served season – touring crowd is starting to salivate….Gotta say it has been a great spring skiing run over the last week or so…I live for these kind of days.

Other – As noted no Chicken Noodle! and I finally brought my own BIG soup spoon today…So I did the Triple C – it was very good, a little spicy and lots of “unknown” good tasting things in it. The A parking lot looked like it had been kind of full, but it was getting pretty empty when we drove away. Some overflow towards C???? Found my at least third season pass today – tower four on REX, kept looking at it for most of the middle of the day, finally picked it up – Gave Brian(?) a couple of Gondy rides to his total for the season as we were leaving. Office said I qualified for another GOLD Star on my new/old pass. (I’m gonna sell the next one). Big news is that is a solid fact as of this morning – the new HC chair will really be a 2 banger like Northway, a little more expensive than the cheap triple, but apparently John really does like us! Other not so good news – REX is not on the spring schedule yet, but I keep bugging everyone I know that it should be….though it would probably make everyone happy if I moved my spring skiing to Blackcomb after this next weekend……

Best corn day, and one of the best overall fun days, of the year. With the weather change tonight, all academic. Abandoned the Frontside as the nicest corn pushed north. I'll second the snow/fun-of-the-day nod to Upper Bull and Snake Pit. Nice soft snow allowed laughing at the end of a wild 50mph tumble after catching an edge tucking behind CD.

C-6 as a double is old news, but those nice tracks up in Powder Bowl were from the guys getting GPS coordinates for three Gazex avalanche control tubes that will be built this summer allowing remote avie control of PB. Lots going on this summer.

Ken
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three Gazex avalanche control tubes that will be built this summer allowing remote avie control of PB. Lots going on this summer.

Wow, I had never heard of those before! Sweet improvement.

Probably dumb question...why Powder Bowl over any of the other paths? Is it first on their control list (opening Luckyshot and therefore REX)?

why Powder Bowl over any of the other paths? Is it first on their control list (opening Luckyshot and therefore REX)?

Exactly. They want to be able to control Powder Bowl so they know it's safe to open upper Luckyshot. Especially when Six is on hold in the morning for wind, they won't have to hike up to do control. Also will allow then to quickly get PB out of the way and move on to Campbell, North, and South. Thought I heard mention of some in Campbell Basin but forgot to ask for clarification.

K

Details just posted . Also coming, for 15/16 season, snow making at the top of Six.

Ken

Snow making? Really? Pumping water to 7K just to make snow in that tiny little space? There could be plenty of snow to cover the nastiest parts of the traverse... if you can snatch it out of the wind and air. Seems like what they really need is a snow fence . Wind direction is predictable enough up there that it should work fine. Even if they did have snow making they'd have the same blowing-away problem much of the time.

Temporary overnight snow fences used to work well. However, that was before the increase traffic of today. I don't think it's a wind issue, it's a sideslipping-off-the-top issue as more intermediate skiers try to get through the first 3-4 turns.

Even more news today

Maybe a third new chair for next year.

Ken

.....C-6 as a double is old news, but those nice tracks up in Powder Bowl were from the guys getting GPS coordinates for three Gazex avalanche control tubes that will be built this summer allowing remote avie control of PB.....Ken
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Ah yes, old news for you and sorry nobody else…there has been a lot of back and forth on what the new HC chair was gonna be – that’s why they built a four banger gate system at the bottom last summer (I would assume they will need a new one now). Even over the last few weeks when I’ve corned the top folks it was a moving target….oh well…personally I’m in favor for the double, not the snow making, or the big torch flam throwers, but then I don’t ski skier left side very often – so not a big impact on my world. Last rumors from the patrol and maintenance folks would have been a triple – till the insurance money changed the dynamics, even last week the thought was a “cheaper” triple then the more expensive new double lift now planned. Ski Patrol didn’t get the official word from the top management team until Monday morning. Notice all the recent articles are a little more informative about it and most of those happened after Monday – per your links.

Other - New QuickSilver lift should have been built last summer – till management decided to move the alignment into the woods. The original alignment, length and express status from the one depicted on the current marketing report is a pic from the orgianl 2004 Master plan, but I guess if your not paying attention its close enough, its not the current planned shorter, slow quad chair, ending lower than the current chair, but starting lower than the current. Next new chair will not be this summer, hopefully maybe next summer is really an option, if you read between the lines, and hopefully the sad option is the Kelly Gap chair for lots of folks – great for up loading early in the day, very bad for all the Angle runs! – bumps are gonna get bigger. But that’s outside the Hamster world – so no big deal for me.

Most of this thread should be in “other” section…oh well….

The reason the news on C6 was "old news" is because I had already posted about it on 04/09 as a result of a long discussion with Kim K. going up the gondie. Kim was aware of the plan (obviously) before any official statement was released to ski patrol, media, etc.

Aaaahhh...thankyou for pointing out my error!