Crystal - 01/21 MLK Day

Pretty mentally challenging day - lots of fuzzy vis conditions early and every once in a while during my short day, snow quality pretty good on north facing areas I tried when you could see it, another one of those GV Bowl/MIFB days early, MIFB had a little to much traffic today so it was getting kinda skiddy by the last time I did it. Best runs of the day were OF/BP's with one just good enough vis PB run (could have lapped PB a lot if not for the FQex weekend crowd on what is usually a mellow holiday monday!, was my weekday off for 20+ years) Talked to first day folks more than once on REX? No lift lines on REX or HC (HC if you could suffer the FQex lineup which was not as bad as the CHex mess when I made the mistake of going to the base during the 10:30 typical weekend mess - look at CHex...1 person, 4 persons, 5 persons, wow a 6 pack, never been witness to such a bad lift loading mess as today). Still got rocks on top of the Queen, but I did make one run out towards the south and it was not to painful to head that direction (no worse than heading to PB), would have stayed in Campbell Basin if not for the variable foggy cloud banks moving through. Crowd was immense on the main groomer runs, heard GVex was pleasant early in the singles lines...but? No clue anywhere else, heard that anything off piste on Saturday was toboggan conditions. All in all a pretty fun day in the Hamster Treadmill.

Other - Finally passed through the nightmare of CB lodge around noon, pizza looked nasty, soup was Triple C, guy doing salads and chili had the biggest line up for food - had a free Cliff bar from sometime last year (didn't get sick!). Pay lot was massive and I'm pretty sure a lot of the folks in the lot didn't have permits. B,C,D,E all full with cars still circling around for a space? Drive up extra early was a breeze and the drive down kinda early was happy.

Now, for another opinion. I really hate to give the day a 2 out of 3 rating because it felt better than that, largely due to snow conditions allowing a more expanded ski zone today. But alas, I must deduct for crowds and challenging vis at times.

Crowds: Drove up week-end early and parked four rows back in free A-lot parking. And, I was in the sphincter. Pay lot was huge. No lift lines early because they started loading CHEX at 8:30. Thanks for the tip, ddk. By 9:30, 5 minute lift lines on GV. At 10:30, a 10 minute line on FQ. And, hordes on LS and all of the FQ runs. Best stay away. Longest line on REX was only a couple minutes and no lines on C6 (even though they had impressive rope lines up) and Northway.

Visibility: Weird day with lots of micro-climates around the mountain. Consistent dense fog for the first hour between 5,000 and 6,000 feet. The LS side of the mountain stayed like that until noon. However, the GV chairline cleared up about 9:30 and even had some sun breaks on that part of the mountain while GV bowl was fogged in. Good thing because Grubstake and lower GV chairline were great. Skied that until I saw a break in the fog over on C6, so headed that way to the aforementioned big line on FQ. Powder Bowl was fun, but a no-repeat due to the rock garden on top and the line on FQ. Bear Pits is a bit scrappy at the top and the moguls have built up the rest of the way. Kinda fun. Headed back to GV and beyond.

Snow: If you liked packed powder and packed moguls, today was your day. After returning to the good vis in GV, headed to Northway where there was sun. And, the best snow on the mountain. Paradise Bowl, Bruces Bowl, and Northway Bowl all really nice packed powder. It was best to stay where it had been skied as there was a crusty layer on the untracked terrain. The chair line bumps at the bottom were a hoot. Stayed there until around noon, noticed clearing across the rest of the mountain, so headed back to REX and saw some brave souls on the front side. Jumped onto Showtime and it was just OK...about like Bear Pits. Next run down, Breakover was it. Rodent wheel time. It was really good to be able to ski the front side again after weeks of crappy snow there. Finished the day with some GV to Ferkberg runs. A good day for vert in spite of the crowds. Glad we only have one more Monday holiday.