Crystal -12/5

Another wordy report. so the short part - GREAT DAY!...and the rest off the report...another mighty fine day in a might fine early season…I arrived extra late, but still in the A lot…jumped onto CHex around 9am – no line (duh).  Started casual since sadly my quads were kinda achy again this Monday…not as bad as last Monday..but…Snow quality was great, vis was good enough, crowd was not around, REX was finally not stopping (sequencer yesterday?). PB called pretty early…top of HC is pretty much nasty worst of season rocky…can side step the rocks (or walk?)…but off the top into PB was very happy fun, good snow, left over big pockets still (?).  BP’s the line I did was challenging at times…but the snow was nice…first PB/BP line of the season for me sometime around 10am…Yee Haa!  Most of my sore muscle Monday was anywhere from ShowTime to SunnySide to Memorial Forest….all fun, all easy fast, all happy with the nice vis.   Expanded my normal world and did a few runs in the Valley – very nice (Ann’s run, got that bump line down), Snort Elk bowl (plus other fun stuff)…Did a big run down Upper E to Lower E...very nice (at least upper E!...lower was more skied out scraped to firm pack).  Gotta say Upper E from the wimpy entrance is pretty nice this year…all the tree trimming Crystal did this summer!!!!!

Other – Big day at CB lodge…Chicken Noodle already!....it was very good.  Crowd light all day and in the lodges I passed through.  South opened…but…? Looked good from a distance.

Other other – Arrived late to the A lot, not a problem on a weekday early season, when I left the Pay lot was admirably full! Rest of A packed, B lot had a few rows, C might have been a ¼ full..maybe….

Great day, Great start to the Season, Great meeting many folks, Great BIG fun…even got to meet Tianna(sp?) and Drew’s little future monster….lucky me I’ll be to old to ski by the time that little guy starts doing back flips off the nose of the King. 

My first lift day of the season and of course I had a nice chat with DDK. Exterminator leftovers were nice, soft and light, not as deep or heavy as yesterday's fresh on East Peak.

Silas, any concerns of stability on East Peak? Did you poke over into the Basins?

You guys took my snow. I was out of the mix for sunday and the leftovers today paled in comparisons to sunday’s reports. A little tough on the visibility made for some quad burners in the soft-fluffy to hard bump transitions. The cold didn’t help my wimpy early season legs since they didn’t reach full power till halfway down each run. Stuck to Rex most of the day as just when we were headed to Six, got a report it was really rocky on top. Killed a lot of scrappy tree tops on Bear Pits, Memorial, and Luckyshot Trees. BP and M-World were winners, LS Trees a loser. Tried a T2B, but smooth snow heading to Lower Bull belied the chest deep creek underneath - Insert double heel release and goggle removing faceplant flip. The lower mountain, < 5.5K’, is packing hard, but well covered. After a one run sun break, it began to snow and start the replenishment. Arrived early to a reasonably sized pay lot. Left early with sore quads and a traction control off drift though the empty back of said pay lot (Who’s paying for all those unfilled spots? More $$ than this old guy can afford).

Ken

What an early season it must be. Its only the 5th of December and DDK is skiing T2B exterminators,albeit with "achy" legs. My legs were killing me after yesterday and the thought of T2B exterminators,never occurred to me.The grooming was great and held up all day on Zero crowd.No line @ the gondola helped with the cold temps...."Great Day" indeed.

Yesterday was really good. We hiked Silver King once and should have done it earlier; I believe it did not open Sunday and not many people were skiing anywhere yesterday. Lots off deep untracked snow off S side into Silver Basin.