Crystal - 1/4

It was very nice to be back on a non-holiday week-day. As expected, very light crowds and zero lift lines. In fact, today's snow could have used a few more folks skiing it off-piste.

The 9 inches of new base-building snow was fairly heavy. They had groomed Lucky Shot while the snow was falling and it had 5 inches of snow on top of the groomed that quickly turn it into ungroomed. On the other hand, Iceberg was groomed after the snow stopped and skied better than Lucky.

Once on the front side, we quickly discovered the wind had blown a lot of snow in there, up to 18 inches. From the chair, it looked completely smooth, but it was anything but. The new snow was heavy enough to make it tricky, but light enough to hit every hard frozen mogul just below the surface. We spent a lot of the day trying to pound a line into Showtime (under REX). By about noon, we were starting to get one. The valley never did get any lines pounded into it and remained unconsolidated everywhere. The big surprise of the day was lower Bull Run. Best snow on the mountain, so we did several Valley, Ferkberg, Bull runs to the bottom. And, walk right onto the gondie. I love mid-week skiing. Never went up to Powderbowl or into Bearpits and Northway was closed, although we would have stayed away.

The sun came out off and on all day and the winds were generally light. It was definitely a lot warmer than the past 3 weeks. So, a great day to be in the mountains and somewhat tricky snow to improve our technique.

When we left, A lot was full (many empty rows of pay parking), B-lot only employees and a couple of straggler motor homes, and C lot a third full.

I have no idea what happened today. A great looking 10” of new hid packed-pow-turned-hard-crunchy-moguls underneath. The best snow was Mid-Frontside where it had slid down to a reasonable layer of smooth, soft steepness. Getting in and out was lots of work. Sliding snow was everywhere from the avie control of Powder Bowl to the small self-triggered slides on the Frontside. As the heavy new skied out, it quickly went to hard packed crud. The sun really warmed up the sunny aspects for awhile before the muck set up. Follow CD’s report, he’s the one that led me to find fun in the nooks and crannies.

Ken
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