March 1, 2006 Crystal Mt

Skied for a few hours this morning. There was a cloud hanging over Crystal till ~11 AM. You could see the clear sky a mile to the North. It was starting to break up when I left. It looks like it rained up to ~6500 a couple days ago then froze. I would guess the top subsequently got about 8-10" of thick snow made thicker and wind slabby by a very strong breeze. In Green Valley Bowl I never did hit the old rain frozen base. I think that was due more to its deposition propensity and the significant "wind temperering" than to depth of the newly fallen. The bowl was very wind affected but had relatively consistent depth and texture and thus was skiable if you worked at it. Iceberg and Exterminator were a combination of wind slab or blown off frozen crud and with some of most wind sculpted snow I have ever seen on these runs. Iceberg was getting skied out and thus ok but save Exy and Breakover for another day. The groom was pretty good actually because of the density of the snow even though only about 4" fell at the bottom after the rain. From my observations and the apparent extreme wind I can't imagine anything in the BC being much good. But maybe someone will find a stash out there....