Crystal - 3/11

An interesting day.  Windier than expected.  Groomers above 6,000 feet were fine and groomers below that were very hard.  Off piste was a mess with GV and most of the front side being un-skiable.  Finally found some sorta good stuff on the Campbell basin side of C6, particularly the skiers left side of the chair.  Heard good things about Powder Bowl, but every time we were up there it was totally fogged in.  Finally found the goods on a very narrow slice of the mountain on skiers right side of Snorting Elk bowl accessing it from the Grubstake traverse.  Smooth, steep, edgeable with continuing snow blowing into it from down below.  Every lap, the snow got better and our previous tracks were gone.  We did so many hamster runs in there, I got dizzy. About 1pm it starting nuking snow and combined with the howling ridge top winds decided to call it a day early before we lost the exposed skin on our faces.  Hopefully, lots of new snow tonight to improve tomorrow's skiing.

And more random opinions about today - Pretty good mostly grey day, LS was great grooming early (lucky(!) about that), GV bowl and PB had nice snow (when you could see it) and especially PB mid day when the vis was very nice and the snow was soft cut packed. Mostly light crowd, but every once in a while LS looked like I-5 rush hour.  Never strayed far from my Hamster Treadmill, so others will have to give the full report.  Did hear that Northway was not primo today (Fireman might have uttered the words “worst run of my life”?)  Heard plus and minus (and watched the pluses) about folks heading south (Appliance side of the King looked good watching a few folks ski it). 
Did follow WhiteStar Carl into Bearpits once – he said he thought it was pretty good…ouch oh my…worst run of my day.
Some winds on the top blowing out of the east again.  Fairly cool day, snowing pretty hard when we left, way to early.

Other – No soup at CB lodge again today…Beef Vegy Stew – hhhmmm.  Fairly busy in the lodge when I passed through.  No lift lines noticed anywhere I was today.  A lot typically over sized for the pay lot, B lot full to the shuttle stop and C had a lot of cars…so it must have been a fair crowd today.  Fun as usual.

Took a lot of poking around today to find something good. Groomers, OK early, held a new kind of snow for me, packed ice balls. They degraded quickly into ball bearings of yuck (Luckyshot, Iceberg (aptly named), and Downhill). Campbell Basin, Chute 2.5 through the trees, held our attention till the fog and long roundabout wore thin. I think they moved Powder Bowl, nothing but gray over the lip. Chute -3 between Rabbit Ears and Upper K2 was very nice, but not worth the 2 chair roundabout.

6,200’ was the general rain crust elevation, but wind direction randomized things. Elk Snort held the best snow, although short, it was steep and fast. Till the blasting wind and quickly forming fog drove us down. Telemetry said gusts in upper 40s - my face said 50-70. Who knows what’s in store for the next 4-5 days.

Other- Since we quit early due to fog, wind, and…. odd snow, Amigoette got hamburger at “The Grill”, to eat on the way home. 10.75$ for a burger that would be rivaled by an AM/PM 99 cent all day on the rack special. Never again.

Ken
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Strong East wind (40+) at times on the hike but fantastic snow on the East facing chutes of A basin so just yo-yo'd that all day. When the snow picked up after 2 the wind shifted south and Campbell started to get some coverage of the lumps and rain crust at the bottom. Raing in the parking lot when I left at 4.