February 5, 2006, Crystal

"Let's head to **** (insert ski resort here), no one will be there, everyone is watching the Bowl. <br><br>We pulled into the lot before 9, heading up the lift around 9'ish...no, the resort was not empty but Crystal does an amazing job of dispersing the crowds. When we arrived at the High Campbell lodge, I looked up into the Campbell Basin, than looked at the lift. Slope was completely untracked...a perfect blanket of white bliss. The lift was running...hmmm...so we skied down to check it out. About 10-15 hearty souls in line already, we decided to queue up and see what the skinny was. 15-20 minutes they said (until the lift opened). We looked up again, the light clouds beginning to lift, the early sun throwing a soft glow over The Throne. So we waited...and than debated...and waited...and debated...after about 30 minutes we waited...until finally, around 10:00 it was a go. <br><br>The next 20 minutes unraveled like a fairytale. Sitting patiently in the chair, looking around at the buttery slopes, our excitement grew. For a very brief moment our visibility was diminished by some light clouds, but as we approached the end of the chair, the scene that unfolded was worthy of a National Geographic cover shot; a cloud layer at about 6000 ft, Mt Rainier's massive girth radiated in the morning sun against a cobalt blue sky. Silver King and a few other taller peaks sliced through the clouds. Mt St Helens, Mt Adams...the volcanoes of the NW, all so perfectly shaped and covered in white. <br><br>Now, had this been any other moment in time, we probably would have stopped and shot a role of film, but we're skiers and powder freaks, and the slope below us was waiting...<br><br>If you've ever tried telemark skiing, and if you've ever had that feeling of weightlessness, where the snow is perfect; light, untracked, about 12 inches deep and oh-so-soft, and you find this rhythm, bouncing down the mountain-side, effortlessly...you know it's going to be a good day. The Seahawks may have lost, but we surely didn't. <br><br>