Crystal - 01/10

Short Report - Yee Haa! Whooo Hooo! Yes.

Lots of Words Report - Arrived early as usual after a casual drive...bus already in the parking
lot at 7:30? Ouch.  Small early lineup for CHex - had a nice social with Mr Waterfall on the
ride to the top...beat the bucket (finally, just barely and eskinmo)  Fuzzy light early, but LS
had a nice new layer on top of the grooming...and the nice light  layer proved to be deeper
than expected in many places and got deeper all morning with the cold snow falling.  Very
light crowd, no real lift lines other than a little cluster on FQex during the usual mid
morning rush from all  the bus folks. Did I say it was cold! Even more so on the top of  REX with the early winds.
Late lunch at a very busy CB lodge (#1 was having a great day and didn't want to stop).
Vis improved big time early afternoon and the crowds got even less.  Did PB - way better
and deeper than on Monday.  Then some SunnySide and Memorial (upper primo) with good
vis and lots of left over pillows.  Finished the day with many repeats in GV bowl to Grubstake
Trees to Grubstake all ending with Anns happy run.  Great day, way better than expected, #1
had a great day carving some very nice turns away from the crowds. I had a great day skiing
some soft bumps and lots of nice boot top+ light snow....and deeper in wind loaded spots.

Other - Soup at CB lodge was Minestrone again, Pizza was NW good, beer was even better.

Other other - Pay lot typical as usual, rest of A was full, C maybe half and B had a few rows.
So there was a few folks around.  Think I counted 8 or so buses.

Nice report, as usual and always a good sign that the skiing is good when you see the Waterfalls, hope they make up in the AM. Come Ullr, give it up! Think Snow

Funnest day of the season for me so far; I decided to be optimistic and take the fat tele sticks instead of my knee-saving AT rig that works on ice. It was a great choice for a day with twice as much new as forecast. I stayed high up most of the day; everything well covered and hardly saw a rock. I avoided the piste and skied untracked right up until leave time on run after run of untracked. All the bumps were well covered and skiable. I put in an out-track on lower Little P and rode that a bit. Chair 6 and Northway opened late AM, but GV stashes and Snorting Elk shots were great and lonely so we spent most time there. There was enough snow falling to fill in noticeably during the day. My wife really enjoyed her powder skis too....
Other: is there any rhyme or reason to when they turn on snowmaking? Do they save power/$/ by not making snow for the weekday retirees? Just curious; no snowmaking last Wedn. either, may have been too warm.
Other: Bullwheel had good tortilla soup. I had one bite and gnawed on cold peanut butter b/c I had to get up and out again!
Other other: the drive home on 410 is a jamup all the way from Eclaw through to River Road. I would have been grumbling if we drove, but we were on the bus so I just took a nap. I prefer going 164 through Auburn; it's 6/10 of a mile longer and has fewer slowdons and hgiher speed limits.

I spent a lot of the day skiing chair 6...Powder bowl was really good....the basin skied great....and out south was beautiful ,very quiet...lots of room out there so you never HAD to cross any of those annoying tracks....really great