Crystal - 2/28

A really nice 4 out of 5 day. Wait, what?

A year ago, I adopted Quickfoot's 3 point rating scale: 1 point for crowds, 1 point for visibility, and 1 point for snow. After a year, I think there was only once that I didn't give a 1 for small crowds. Being retired, I just don't ski on week-ends or go to crowded resorts, especially on holidays. So, it really reduces the rating system to a 2 point scale and skews the ratings. So, I'm dropping it. As for the visibility rating, I'm going to change that to general weather. There are times when the visibility is good, but I'm skiing into screaming east winds that I think should be deducted for. Or, other times when vis is in and out, but the weather is quite comfortable. So, weather will be a 2 point scale: 0 for when it's a white-out or raining, 2 for a day like today...bluebird, light winds, and tolerable temps. But what's really important is snow. So, a 3 point scale for snow conditions with a 0 for icy groomer days that drive me home early and 3 for those epic powder days and awesome spring skiing corn snow days. I suspect there will be a lot of 1s and 2s for snow. Snow today I'll give a two resulting in a 4 out of 5 day. That feels right. We'll see how it works. Here's the report

Free parking began at the bridge and the place felt deserted all day. Ultra light crowd. Beautiful weather and a bit on the chilly side for a couple runs, but nothing another layer didn't take care of (which was shed around 11). The snow was all about north and east facing slopes. Yes, the front side was awesome. The screaming east winds from 2 days ago, smoothed all the east facing slopes. Then, when it started snowing last night, the wind shifted from the west and dumped the new snow on top of the aforementioned smoothed spots. Made for some of the best front side runs of the year. Powder Bowl mainline chute, Bear Pits, Outer Ferks, GV chairline, Exterminator and Eagle's drop all great. Actually got first tracks on Eagles Drop at 11am! GV wasn't quite as good as there were lots of frozen chicken heads lurking below the surface, but they quickly disappeared as they got sheared off with skier grooming. Also, my one run on the Campbell Basin side of C6 down .5 wasn't quite as good as elsewhere. Unfortunately, the front side started getting impacted by the sun around noon, so no telling what's going to happen to it overnight. Oh, well, there should be other stashes that are still good.

Aaaaahhhhhhhh! More wordy words about today. My scale for today - YEEEE HAAAAA, WHOOOOHHHOOOO, the days I live for. Thanks CD for expanding the 3 point scale - I'd add a point on the vis oh meter scale, but it is your scale. My view - totally big, totally fun, totally prime - just totally!

Conditions report - Cold early, light crowd, beat the Gondy Buckets to the top by a lot (CHex opps opened earlier than normal), big BLUE BIRD day, no winds, nice warming sun (south facing slopes will be impacted), screamer groomers (well MIFB only one I remember doing), GV Bowl center to start and kept moving right for the first few runs - then Doors 1 and 2 (CD skiing REX chair line to my left on one of those runs), SunnySide, EH (in the morning awesome untracked and in the afternoon still awesome untracked), a couple of laps in untracked PB/BP before lunch and another fun one after, Exterminator for my last run still lots of untracked...
Inch or two or more new, some blown in was very nice - diamonds in the early morning sunlight. Never skied Campbell Basin side of 6, but CD did look pretty smooth when I saw him in .5, the rest of that side looked nice and should have skied nicely. Chicken Heads? Hhhmmm, thought they where kinda like slalom gates. Wanted to go to the King which looked great, but being kinda lazy opted for the painful EH run with that awesome I5 - Yadda Yadda!

Other - Soup at CB lodge definitely was Veggie Minestrone for the month...hope tomorrow is something new, pepperoni pizza was good but small and fired up the afternoon hamster treadmill, socializing was pleasant and funny in the lodge. Pay lot smallish and not full? 5 buses rest of A lot was pretty much the crowd today. Drive up and down was definitely end of season quality. Great day, you all should have been there and sorry I'm glad you were not - ha ha!