November 30, 2018, Climbing at Crystal

We knew the lifts and coverage would be pathetic, but we wanted a couple rides on lifts, so we put our touring gear in the truck. After a couple spins on ChEx we fetched the packs and skinned from Tink's into Silver Basin. There was a rain-crust base of a few inches with not much new, visible boulders, and an interesting creek crossing. A number of the bowls and a few chutes had turns; with a good skin track in place our optimism grew.
Headed down from the low point on the King ridge; despite some obvious shark fins, we had 8" fresh in places and minimal base. Got a couple chin shots from boot-top snow! On the way out upper Quick had real and manufactured snow before rocks under the groomed.
Note: there were rocks both hidden and visible; we skied cautiously. At one point I was linking teles, felt the under layer harden, and thought, "Hmm, time to switch to alpine turns!" and on the very next turn banged over a pillow-sized hidden boulder. If I had done the tele then my trailing knee could have smashed the rock instead of my P-Tex. The season is still so young.