Crystal - 2/6

Woke up this morning and looked out the window...Whoa! 15 inches of snow in my yard on Lake Tapps. Best get a move on. Cleared the 'Claw at 6:50 and promptly got in line in a row of cars that went 40mph all the way to the mountain. Pulled into the A-lot at 7:55 and parked 2/3 of the way back. Figured the pay lot was big. But after walking past row after row of cars, I came to the pay lot which was minuscule. Good Golly Miss Molly, people got up there early today. And, with a lot of schools closed, it was crowded for a Monday. Side note. You can't drive your kids to school and you can't drive yourself to work, but you can drive several times longer to get to the mountain. Some kind of cognitive dissidence going on there.

Chinook opened at 8:45 with a fairly good sized line and once on the mountain, the snow was deep. However, it packed a bit when skied so the front side went fast. Got two runs there before everything kinda turned into mashed potatoes. Out to Bear Pits where we found more untracked. It didn't last long. Another side note. The top trail to the Pits has a huge hidden dip in it not in the normal place. Half way through the day with vis a little sketchy, AZ hit it and promptly double ejected and augured in head first. Sadly, her day was over. She was able to ski off the mountain, but longer term prognosis is not known at this time.

With most of the usual stuff skied off, hit Exterminator and found more untracked going around the left side of the cliff face. Worth a repeat, except went over Eagles Drop. Sometime between 11:30 and noon, Northway opened and along with it, Employee Housing. By the time we got there, it had been skied up pretty good, but was still a fun 1800 vert of free fall skiing. Powder Bowl cleared, so up we went. Very nice snow and then into the far right side of Lucky Shot trees. Also really good. After a few more laps, everything was fairly toasted, so quit on the early side to beat the stick-heads off the mountain. After everything had been skied, I think Powder Bowl, the left side of Bear Pits, and the right side of LS trees held up the best.

Pulled out of the lot and followed a long string of cars down the blvd at 25 mph (the aforementioned stick-heads). Once on 410, was able to pass the slowest offenders, then settled into a commute that went anywhere from 23mph to 50 mph. Much better after Greenwater where the roads had melted out and many of the slower drivers pulled off. Hats off to the 410 road crew. My most treacherous roads were getting to the 'Claw. Good road conditions after that.

It is pretty amazing how many people make it to Crystal when they can't get to work or school. If AZ has lots of neck pain she should get seen- occult fractures or disc injuries can be serious.

Sorry to hear about AZ, CD. Hope it is nothing serious.

Bigly day, Huge and fabulous.
Skied untracked most of the day by various devious means and dark arts.
Personally caused traffic jam on the Boulevard when I stopped while heading down to pick up some skiers that where at the old Northway shuttle access road thumbing a lift.

If I held you up, sorry but my I always pick people up there because I find myself hitchhiking from there quite frequently. Got honked at.....Peace and love right back at ya.

Apart from my personal infraction, drive down was very slow due to very dweeby tourist driving.

The amazing part was we made it to Crystal amongst all the bad snow drivers (many who drive WTF snow cars), fallen trees, and…. did I say bad snow drivers? We left Seattle at 5:30 and couldn’t beat the slow and scared. Many pulled over, turned around, and fled. An extra hour to Crystal via way backwoods routes due to closed roads/bridges. Somewhat heavy pow for a few runs got the carry momentum juices going. The untracked lasted only 2 runs, but the seekers got a couple more semi-tracked old school lines. Until Amigoette tried to add V to the Momentum=MVsquared equation (She can’t adjust M, just V) and was spit out of the BP traverse. Tweaked back, tweaked knee, day done. We’ll see, she’s a tough girl with a good Doctor/PT. The drive down was excellent traction till we got to low enough that the road was bare and wet. And the traffic was going 40. THERE’S SNOW ON THE SIDES! Might need to add a rocket launcher to the Skibaru……

Scottsmanm - by dweeeby tourist activity, do you mean the obvious snow newbies that stopped in the downhill lane to take pictures, (flashers on) and blocked traffic both ways?

Kkz
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Read your blog CMSkier... quite a trip...kudos for even getting to the hill.
No..I missed the flashing photographers but when I went down there was a Semi half ditched in the uphill lane( even the pros are failing) and the downhill traffic was being slowed up by an overcautious, self righteous twat in a Volvo.
Sorry to hear about your amigo....flat light is tough to handle.

CONS: stopped vehicles in the middle of I-5 due to snow on the road, EClaw McDonald's not opening until 7 am, partial visit to a tree well (skied with a reliable bud -- no worries)

PROS: Patrol Twitter, Memorial Forest, Memorial Forest, Memorial Forest (OK, warmed up now), Right Angle to Hole-in-the-Wall to Lower Right Angle Trees, C6 chute 1 (skier's right of chair), Bear Pits (Gate 2), Powder Bowl (west ridge), Pucker's depression (run of the day), Gate 8 to Lot E to shuttle to Gondola, Gate 10 (thigh deep), reliable buddies in the deep trees...

...typically, a 4 pm departure would put us right into I-5 traffic back to Seattle, seemed like lots of folks got "snowed in" (ha!) or went to Stevens -- so the return home was rapid (other than amateur hour on the Boulevard, as mentioned)...