Crystal - 03/19 Spring Fun

Little words report – Arrived early, easy drive, typical A lot, cold, blue skies, sun, cold, light winds, hard packed groomers, harder packed off Piste (didn’t try any till late morning/mid day), lots of high speed screamers early (perked up the vert o-meter a bit)…mid day to late afternoon was primo fun!

Lots of to many words report – Drove early to get a parking space on what I expected would be a busy day…got slot #1 on CHex in front of a fairly small early crowd – never noticed a real lift line again till I headed up FQex just before 11am (and it was not really bad since there was a very good efficient ski patrol gentleman directing traffic).  Quick stop in CB lodge for a lucky social with Ms Ferk – she mentioned that Mr Ferk might be heading out EH way…got lucky when I bumped into him at the bottom of REX as he was heading out for lap two…and it was a very good lap…2k non stop smooth enough soft enough go anywhere enough fun…but I hate I5 so it was only one lap for me…I5 was okay fast in places, slow in others, dips and not many hard pole planting sections…but…
So for me back to REX and the front side was starting to go off….Did a number of runs in M-World getting it in shape for tomorrow, probably SunnySide would have been nice, but REX chair line – ShowTime – was very happy fast and soft and warm…Other big line was BearPits!  A pain to traverse out there, but soft eand way to untracked on the bottom half – many repeats laying slush 11’s.  Some how all of a sudden it was 3pm and I had probably the biggest hamster vert day of the season for me…and I was tired and I needed to rest for tomorrows (hopefully) bigger soft spring vert fest…

Other – As noted I stopped into CB lodge and got lucky again with a nice bowl of Chicken Noodle (and the Ms Ferk report bonus).  Pay lot was fair sized and fairly full when I left…B and C pretty full, so it was a fair sized crowd.  Never had a real lift line on REX, don’t know about other places.

Other Other – Never did HC lift of PB…duh!  Looked ugly and north facing slopes were pretty balled up nasty frozen crap…watched a lot of crash test dummies trying to ski Hamburger and PB – not recommended!   Great day all in all, better than I thought it would turn out based on the first hour or so….One of my longest ski days and definitely one of my biggest vert days of the season.  Great!

No reason to get an early start, as the groomers were icy and hard and the off-piste was an unskiable wasteland. I’d burned out on fast hard groomers after just a few. Luckily, got a tip from a patroller to head to Northway. I though it was a terrible idea till I remembered it was closed the last few days. Woohoo. The rain crust was smooth, carvable, non-breakable, with 4-8” of buttery new on top. And nobody was there. Took many runs to track out Paradise Trees to Brand X while the masses skidded Luckyshot down to piles of shaved ice amongst zero traction ice. At noon, the Frontside had changed to soft slush over coral heads.

Yesterday was really active as there were slides all over the usual suspects. Lots of rolling, now frozen, slush balls below the cliffs and steeper aspects. Things will be nice if it’s warm and pretty ugly if frozen.

Ken
+ & Video

Like CMskier I got  later start and arrived at about 9:45 I think to find the pay lot full.... the horror.. I blamed ddk for always complaining the pay lot was not full and them cutting it down in size.  After Mrs scotsman had calmed me down , nice parking attendant Wendy found a place for me... thank you Wendy.

Hooked up with PNWBrit( Banned for life) and his wife and we rolled the usual groomer trail. By lunch time RA was creamy and really nice. Hit Frontside all afternoon and RA 3 more times. Brit and the ladies went to Elk at 2:00 but I kept skiing to final bell as I'm training for AK.

Spent all day trying to persuade people to go out South or ski the Cache with me but nobody wanted to hike and risk skiing bad snow. When i did venture off-piste I found it pretty good.

Beautiful day.

If I'm not mistaken, today is 03/19. Did the past rain delay cause some aneurysms?

If I'm not mistaken, today is 03/19.

oops, I blame ddk

And Scottsman, there was no need to start early, but I did, and had an hour on you. An hour of icy junk that is.