4/17/18 Crystal

Last in bounds day of the year for me. Fun way to end it.

And some words to go with the (kinda grey) picture...most of the day was way bigger sunny than this shot....

Short Report - Another bonus pow day on the last Crystal lift served Tuesday in the never ending winter...and it brought out the hard cores...but overall still a very light crowd...Deep snow in the wind loaded typical places, not deep snow in the wind blown areas, small enough crowd and enough open areas early allowed for lots of sloppy left over early afternoon - had a blast couple of runs with Ryan (lift opp) during his lunch break down REX chair line and Breakover! He is a really good fast snowboarder....Great day, quit early to socialize with BINX and his crowd in the ELK! Havent been in there in years...still the same, but the end of season beer selection was not so great - the left overs that the locals didn't want...

More Words Report - Cant say much else...glad I got up and went...variable conditions, some really good, some still doable, some not worth repeating. Best was GV Bowl, Grubstake Trees and lower GV area early, Rex chair line (big left over untracked when I did it with Ryan), Sunnyside, PB/BP's (more than a few times), OuterFerks, Lucky Trees and one of the Doors that I did kinda late in the morning (and it was still good)...I imagine South was big when it finally opened and assume the Hardcores had fun from upper E to North - but don't really know for sure. Vis was big from the start, kinda a cold day, winds up high at times (big wind drifts on the backside to LS). Finished the day via Kellys Gap to Lower E - cant say the bumps on lower E were very prime today...frozen hard all over the place bumps...never got soft while I was there.

Other - No soup report...didn't check...Elk was nice with the BINX crowd...pay lot was nice and small and still not full, rest of A was full, but a lot of folks had left even before I did. Some Elk on the road early this morning....drive up and down was very pleasant at speed...Great last Tuesday at Crystal and what might be the last "real" lift served pow day. QF will probably give the day high marks on the 3 point scale....think today might have been at least an 8 for late season pow days and a 2 for big sunny spring slush fun Hawaii days...but it was one of those half full kinda days...that make Hamsters Happy! Lookin forward to the big sunny hopefully warm end of the week.

Another bonus day.  The reported  6 inches of new really skied well. It took a while to figure out snow density, versus bottoming out , versus how sharp to turn, versus how fast to go. But even the figure-it-out runs were nice. With a bit of poking around you could find some really good snow and that lasted all day long.  Some unexpected areas brought me back for seconds such as Snorting Elk environs to Kelly's Gap environs. I did that with what I thought was going to be my last run of the day, but it brought me back.  The same bunch of five elk beside the highway on the drive up that we saw last time.  A Really Enjoyable Day
Visibility= .9  crowd= 1  Snow=1 [prorated for winter in April]  2.9/3

Southback was superb! Morning run on Niagra. Couldn't believe how good it was. Serious bonus day alright- can't believe they can close with this much great skiing.