Crystal - 3/1

The second day of the new rating system and I'll give today a 3 out of 5. A little better than average...that's about right.

The day started out cool with some clouds, but a forecast of clearing. Actually, the opposite happened. By noon, 100% high cloud cover and even some light snow. The cloud cover caused some flat light in the wide open spaces, so after yesterday's 2 out of 2 day, today was a 1.5 out of 2. Pleasant all day or the rating would have been lower.

The snow deteriorated some over night and my favorite runs with go-anywhere snow from yesterday were gone. Most notable was the REX frontside which unfortunately was a one and done today. Powder Bowl, Bear Pits, and Outer Ferks were all fun, but again, not as good as yesterday. We finally found the goods out in Northway on the shady sides. And, as has become a trend, Employee Housing was very nice. Niagara's was some of the worst snow on the mountain. So, a 1.5 out of 3 for snow resulting in the 3 out of 5 for today.

And probably more worthless verbiage about today with more expected soon - Twasn't yesterday, kinda what I expected for the snow quality in bounds, didn't expect quite so much mid day clouds and light snow falling?  Groomers (LS with #1 early and MIFB early) pretty nice - MIFB got beat pretty good so by my last path through it, it was not great. As expected North facing and off full on South facing slopes fun - GV Bowl kept sucking me in...which meant I had to make a choice - MIFB or Memorial? Memorial skiable but lots of folks would not have enjoyed it - worked for me. Beat my self up yesterday, so was kinda mentally lazy today - that meant not much poking around, especially when it got kinda grey mid day.  #1 had a good day, light enough crowd most of the day, got her up on LS earlier than normal and actually had a nice run out Kellys Gap before lunch with her! PB/BP was still very nice. Ended up being a kinda short day.

Other - Another month and its still Veggie Minestrone at CB lodge, what? I had a mega slice of Pepperoni pizza! Regular guy does cut them big, but it would be nice to get some variety. Nice social with Ms Ferk and #1.  Pay lot reasonably sized and not full, bus lot massive and had some number of buses?  C full to the shuttle stop as was B - so there were definitely a few more folks on the mountain.

Fun day as always, ready to sleep in tomorrow.

Wasn't up yesterday, so no reference point. Sunny aspects were quite damaged and the forecasted sun didn't materialize to soften them up. Some shaded aspects were great, some just weird. One Iceberg took groomers off the list. Memorial took The Frontside off (other than a late-in-the-day Door which we should have avoided). No plan to which shaded aspect were good. Powder Bowl just OK, Horseshoe Chutes as well. EH the best. And then the Go-Find-It untracked on Northway. Wow. Pucker's and Brand X also good and M-Chute was intense. Musta been a total of 8 skiers out north. Niagara a butt-pucker in the odd light and weird snow. I-5 fast and easy unless you get behind Team No-Wax. The correct area of Outer Ferk's was awesome after a huge dig-a-tip-in-the-soft-then-hard-snow of Bear Pits fall.

Northway Untracked Pow was an excellent lunch. Parking as expected. Drive up and down at what the speed limit should be. Some skier grooming will help smooth and de-crunch things as no-new looks like the future. Excellent spring skiing coming up.

Ken
+

Ken: No plan to which shaded aspect were good. Powder Bowl just OK, Horseshoe Chutes as well. EH the best. And then the Go-Find-It untracked on Northway. Wow. Pucker's and Brand X also good and M-Chute was intense. Musta been a total of 8 skiers out north. Niagara a butt-pucker in the odd light and weird snow.

Jim: EH on the right side is out of the sun. Anything north toward Niagara's too exposed to solar radiation and refreeze. What about Left Angle Trees? and Lower Right Angle Trees? If EH is good, then the Trees must be better. True?

Ken: Northway Untracked Pow was an excellent lunch.
Jim:  Bruce's environs, especially upper Paradise bowl. Did you slay the White Dragon?