crystal 1/28

for a mountain that has only racked up 41 inches this month,the skiing was quite good.Not a lot of grooming for a Saturday, no middle ferk ...and I'm not sure GV main was groomed( don't think so ).. I'm not a groomer or a marketing professional, but there is probably a temperature reason.Deerfly skied great right out the gate,and at that time there was no crowd.....fastforward 90 minuets.....Crowded ...lines ,like big ones, and busy on the main runs. But everywhere I went was pretty good especially if you take into account some of the pictures of medium sized ponds under chairlifts that have made there way around the social medias.............north facing out of bounds trees were skiing really good.

soup ...3C
buses ....world record
road .....great at 8 am and 2 pm
weather....tranquil / nice

Gotta say very nice concise report - thanks...been wondering where you were?

As you might suspect, north facing aspects held the best snow, but also others with tree shade. EH still is holding up well but the trail is getting dirty and sticky. Finished the day with Sunnyside/Lower Bull that was decent. No lines on 6 or NW today. FQ and Rex had lines but they moved pretty quickly. Still lots of skiers/riders waiting for the gondy when Chex is wide open. I don't understand it. One row of cars and lots of motorhomes in F lot. Two elk at Crystal Village, one big one eating the lower branches and a smaller one, wishing it was big too.

Late weekend warrior report.
Arrived at top of Gondi with no expectations and met an old friend who had his Bc gear with him so we went and skied a couple of big lines off the backside.
From the first we followed a skin track that we named " The Northwest Passage" because it was audacious attempt at the direct line from the bottom of DP to Powder Pass. We were skeptical that the skinner could pick a good line...many had tired, including me and usually ended in the weeds.
It was a good skin track and my congratulations to whomever put it in.
The second line was a doozy and one I only ski a couple of times a year.
The top two inches was sloughing and traveling fast and it was a bit disconcerting to hear this hiss behind you. We had done a ski cut and some hand pits at the top and had discussed it and given a green light. Once in the trees it was very nice if at times, variable pow. Another long ski track out.
I was tired after that so I skied groomers for a couple of hours and went home very satisfied.
Still very nice recycled pow in the BC/Sidecountry if you choose your aspect correctly.

Sunday I focused on trying out my new powder touring rig... Blackcrow Anima Freebirds... love them. Skied nasty crud most of the day to get them dialed and encouraged Mrs Scotsman to leave the goomers and ski nasty crud for practice....she did great and her skills are improving every day.