Crystal - 03/04 The Never Ending Cold East Winds

Conditions - Sunny!, Cold!, Windy! up top from the Eastish directions again - made for almost pleasant warm rides on REX and CH6, great screamer groomers (well MIFB and a couple LS runs), GVB/MIFB was my fav race the treadmill run - Valley got better, nice smooth happy small baby bumps, MIFB stayed smooth all day do to the light traffic. Light crowd, no lift lines anywhere (season is over isn't it?), very dang cold early - made me wear that dang face mask crap..hate that! But after and extended late CB lodge visit talking to much(? me), to way to many folks ( Lyle, Craig, Mr Ferk, Quick Foot and who knows else, plus some food) the afternoon was a almost pleasant - did pretty much GVB (prime) to MIFB, fun, fast and just warm enough to be able to survive. Early morning I was hunting for decent bumps to warm up - OuterFerks, Sunnyside(doable okay), PB (a few times, the rocks up top are out in force again - dang). Snow quality is Rocky Mountain squeaky cold and firm and chalky on the north facing slopes and the snow pack is not getting any thiner with the recent temps and even the weekend crowds(?).

Other - CB lodge had Tomato Bisque (and I got a scoop of rice with it, very tasty on a cold day), Pizza still looked kinda marginal and the slices were sadly small - so no pizza for me. Pay lot smallish, rest of A full with a few cars at the top of C and that was pretty much it. Drive up and down was at end of season weekday happy, a few deer and elk in the morning (and even a rogue elk between Greenwater and Fed Forrest on the drive down?) All in all a okay day in thee never ending cold winter.

Yes it was cold. I had to wear my facemask from the early morning to about 1:00 then I had to put it on again for about 2:30 to the end of the day. There wasn't a cloud anywhere near the sun all day. The early morning off piste areas were disappointing because they were just a little too frozen and clumpy. Everything did get better as the day progressed. Powder Bowl main chute was a bit too icy at the top but better from halfway down on. Outer Ferks had okay snow but the moguls were huge, Bear Pits left also had big bumps and uneven quality snow.
The runs that brought me back for more were Snorting Elk Bowl skiers right, Green Valley Gondy Face, ddk's favorite, and Northway Peak into Northway Bowl. Bruce's Bowl also skied well.
I found that I did have to watch out for rocks, especially in Northway.
The place was empty.

New ratings for me also. The old three-point system was just too analytical, so I'm going with Fun Factor and the Stoke-o-Meter
Fun factor is self explanatory. The Stoke-o-Meter reflects adrenaline, Adventure, thrill
FF = 3/5 SM = well it did get off the peg. 2/5

just warm enough to survive and almost pleasant warm, hmmm.

Quick foot, I like the new rating. I was thinking about incorporating a less analytical score into my new rating, but then it just got too complicated. I think between your "mountain experience" ratings and my analytical approach, people should get a good sense of what's going on at the big mountain.

wonder how's that make the real big mountain feel?

FA, The big mountain is in the top 5

CD, Yep

so on a crystal blue day does it seem your skiing Rainier?

FA,  The big mountain is in the top 5

Baker
Glacier
Rainier
St Helen (rip)
Adam

43956

And you can't hear I90 traffic....😉 ....PS and you can see Hood, so maybe it's 6 of 5!

maybe start another thread for this discussion