Crystal - 02/29/16 Happy Leap Day!

Hhhhhmmmmm what to say…new snow, nice vis, to casual hang in the lodge with #1 early…still got on a fairly early CHex chair – after the early rush…Mountain was perfect smooth in every direction (other than the patrol slide paths on PB). Nice early sunny, great early groomers on LS and MIFB…PB kept calling….with the very light crowd still got some nice big deep turns on Powder Bowl….hard cores took their time cutting up everything, so lots of left over on the mountain. Vis started leaving around 10:30 – looked kinda grim, but by 11:30 all was good again. Warm early temps kinda messed with some of the sunny slopes – almost soft to not so perfect what evers..?’s and when it started to reset it was not so happy. Valley Bowl was worth many repeats for me (as PB was also), anything north facing and protected from the big winds yesterday was very happy. Crust was firm on any wind exposed or south facing. Crowd today was pretty light – yee haa.

Other – Soup was Tomato Bisque (again?), since it was casual Monday I actually had a bowl – hhhhmmm…looks better than it tastes??? Tasted like Tomato soup? daaahhaa!
Parking was pretty typical everywhere. Fun day, some sun, some grey, lots of “season is over” crowds – PRAISE THE LORD! Lookin forward to the next couple of months.

The smooth looking slopes covered by the new snow held lot's of surprises lurking underneath in the form of frozen chicken heads, goat heads, cow heads.... Kept finding them everywhere...front side, Powder Bowl, Bear Pits, Lucky Shot trees. However, not so much in Green Valley which skied great all day. But the big winner of the day was out in Northway. Paradise Bowl, Northway Bowl, trees north of Northway Bowl, and Brand X. Smooth, deep and no frozen heads. Heard great things about Morning Glory as well. I think that will be mentioned in the next post. Made the mistake of skiing out Kelly's Gap when we left Northway. Sluiceway was rain crusted as was Berry Patch. Low point of the day.

Overall, a really fun day and weather better than expected.

Very nice day. Chair 6 delivered again, the further you went the better it got. Traverse is holding up well. PB rite to BP good, although BP was a bit thick. PB left chute gnarly, but once through skied well. GV, the usual stuff was all good, even the low down face under the chair. Northway had the best stuff of the day. Another bonus day, as my brother keeps saying "Gee i'm glad i'm a skier"
DDK, I don't know how we never run in to you, we even skied the Doors!

East and north facing chutes on the King were groovy- hamstered them all day.

After a couple Frontsides of new over icy firm, Powder Bowl and Bear Pits disappointed with the rugged underlayment. Anticipating the Northsides from yesterday’s wind, jumped to Northway when the light turned green. Paradise, Sphincterville, and run of the day, Morning Glory to Brand X repeats. As the weird new snow quickly went from thick new over ice to frozen…stuff, south of Northway degraded into Valley Bowl goodness and everything else yuckyness. An excellent day as we got the unexpected sun and turned the new snow into tomorrow’s soon-to-be-frozen junk. Sorry.

Ken
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