Crystal - 01/12 Big Pow Day

Short report - Arrived way to early - luckily...Biggest week day crowd I've seen...Badly operating lifts -
CHex non stop stopping early morning - watched the bucket riders get two laps in the sun before I got off
CHex and happily loaded REX...and REX had some problems at times also. Crowd was pretty massive, but since all the lifts were loading by 10:30ish the lines disappeared mostly. Snow was deep and fun early
and challenging on some sunny slopes by mid day. But a great day!

Lots of words report - Big early weekend sized crowds waiting to load this morning. As noted CHex had
issues early which allowed me to get a couple of nice runs on REX before the line started building. As other
places opened up the REX line disappeared - but the HC lineup was massive early and never really short.
Snow was deep and fun in the sun early, but quality decreased in the cut up left overs. Did PB/BP's late
morning and both were pretty nice left overs. Spent the early afternoon running GV bowl and MIFB...fast, fun, good vis, and not to many bodies to dodge anymore.

Other - Late CB lodge visit...forgot about the soup, but got a very good White Choc Macadamia Nut
Cookie. Base had Crab Bisque (but they ran out of it...must have been good).

Other Other - Pay lot was big and surprisingly full when I left...and all the rest of the lots were full
down to E! Very big crowd today - especially for a Friday. Fun day, long day...time to rest.

The score for today **:

0 for crowds. Huge and made worse by Chinook running half speed and only able to load 2 chairs before stopping and restarting. From the time we got in line at 8:40 until we got off the top of Rex an hour had gone by. Worst Friday crowds I can remember. Lot's of people getting suckered by the Crystal marketing report of 16" of powder. Come on guys...when the snow is falling and it's raining halfway up the mountain, you get 16" of heavy snow that doesn't come close to resembling powder.

1 for weather and visibility. Filtered sun most of the day.

1 for snow. While it wasn't powder, the heavy snow really helped the coverage. And, hitting Northway right when it opened allowed us a couple of mostly untracked runs before the line grew to 20 minutes. Back to REX and finally, no lines but snow that had packed hard in high traffic areas and heavy lumps where it wasn't. The one exception was GV bowl that was above the rain yesterday. Didn't make it to Powder Bowl due to the long lines.

So, another 2 out of 3 day.

** Quick foot scoring method

Yeah, it was a real cluster in the morning.  We like to get there just a little past opening so we don't have to wait in line for the first chair.  Man this morning was something else. The Gondy line was at least a half an hour and the line for Chinnock stretched up the hill.  We opted for Discovery to Quicksilver to Forest Queen.  There was no line on FQ, so we skied Rolling Knowles down to REX.  Big line, so back up to Forest Queen.  Still no line, so we thought we just lap FQ until Six opened.  It open at 10 o'clock and the line there was about the biggest I've ever seen in my life. We bailed.  Back to Rex, that line has now gone down to reasonable,  then to Green Valley where the snow was thick and skied up but still kind of fun.  The GV line was huge.  Down MIFB right which wasn't bad, but not especially good either.  Then to Sunnyside where the top was okay  the bottom was getting pretty thick and gloppy.  We did Powder bowl after an early lunch.  It was skied up, but the snow quality was a bit better and the visibility was okay.  After 12 o'clock Lines weren't an issue anywhere.  Snow coverage was really good. I skied on my new sticks and did not hit anything.

Rating: prorated for this year we've been having,  I pretty much agree with CD. Two out of three.

I almost couldn't post this under the Big Pow Day title. Only a starving Crystal marketing skier could call today powder. More like 18" of rain soaked heavy new. It skied really nice for the first few through, then set into lumpy potatoes. As said above, Crystal operations showed the crowd their lowest level of lift maintenance today. Maybe spend some of that snow making money on lift upgrades. Our timing was perfect on Northway's opening for 2 incredible untracked runs. There were a lot of unhappy people that believed the marketing, however, way over their heads, stuck in the thick snow, or climbing out the creek. They let us get 2 runs before they biggened the line. Best lasting snow of the day was Green Valley Bowl (and likely Powder Bowl - though not sampled due to the huge line). First Luckyshot, and then Iceberg, ground down to the ice and brown snow. Surprised the heavy new snow didn't stick.

I like the prorated aspect of QFoot's report. Normal year (when did we last have one?) 1, this year, 2. Out of 3.

+

During the big wait this morning at the base I noticed that the Gondola, Chinook and Discovery were all running at uniquely, varying speeds of slowness -- almost like the electrical power supply was intermittent.  I asked a few ops what was up and received replies such as "maintenance", "setting up for the day", "i have no idea" and "oh, i didn't notice".  It does seem as if the resort is continuing down a path of austerity in the face of damage done to it's electrical grid due to the early season strain of the snow making equipment.

Beginning at 12:15 pm, we began laps on C6 as the lift line had disappeared. The big ol' wet dump of last night certainly helped to cover up the rocks up top -- coverage was much better all around.

But on the other hand, we had skiing until 6 pm today!

And on the other hand, it does seem that the resort's marketing department is determined to keep on marketing. Even while giving you all the telemetry that you could ask for, they still tell you what you want to hear.

So who wants to cough up some beta on the I-5 return trail from North?

Did they open Southback on Friday? I left at 2 and people were waiting at the gate. Largest lines I've ever seen on a weekday- lots of pentup demand.

South was really good.....even better than the cache....thats snow was like 500 miles away from the resort. Often times the snow is better , but this was alot more better than usual.like really big better. fun day skied first chair till it was dark...and then the Elk really lived up to it's reputation as the best apres ski bar in the country

Glad I stayed home 🌂