Soggy Crystal 1/23

Arrived 8:30 to 1/2 empty A-free and 3/4 empty A-pay lot and walked onto the Gondola. As we increased in elevation, the visibility became worse with almost sleet adhering to the glass on the cabin.  Jumping into G-Valley elicited the "oh crap" emotion as the setting up of 6-8" fresh, brand spankin' new concrete tried to grab my foot. And right there, it was OK if we left early.

The traverse out to Snort was OK, but the reality of the day set in again with ungroomed Autobahn and Willie's snot turns. For each run today, I had to stop once or twice and use my squeege for clear my lens. It never turned to frozen rain, just skiing in a saturated cloud.

Chicken into Lucky Shot was groomed and we found our rhythm. A right hand turn into lower Bear Pits turned into a quick U-turn back out to the groomer.  Hmmm.  Time for a 11:00 am lunch. It turns out that a cup of hot water is complimentary this year-- yep.

Up Chair 6 and viola! Very easy to avoid rocks when going left. I took the back traverse south to about 1/2 way to Hamburger before pausing to select my line. You could hear Patrol was still busy -- and the perpetual saturated fog wasn't helping. As for the snow density, it was about 7-8%, where 1% is blower and 10% is worst ever concrete. You could make your turns if you stood on both skis to power through.

Tree skiing was not possible. We laughed that it would be a pay me to ski creekbeds day. By 1 pm, the perpetual saturated fog drove us off the hill.  Still managed to have a good time despite conditions earning my worst day this season (out of 25).  7 buses managed to stink up A lot a lot.

Once things freeze, off-piste will be frozen garbage from hell. Enjoy.

Impressive report! Thanks.

Are you telling me that it rains at Crystal? I thought the sucker hole prevented that - maybe you needed to eat more soup.