Crystal - 04/04

Looked kinda grim early this morning, high overcast, fairly cool, marginal grooming (MIFB anyway - not groomed, glad I was smart enough not to try it. Not groomed? End of season is really starting to kick in for the ski area). But LS was icy enough and GV Bowl had a inch or so of untracked between the bumps - nice enough to make me happy.  Early hamster path was GV Bowl to GVex and then the back side to LS and REX and that was the floppy figure eight for the first hour or so, then around 10:30 I started doing SunnySide and Memorial - both just smooth enough to change up the hamster path. And the sun got brighter and brighter and what had looked like a bad day early turned into a mighty fine day.  After a early lunch the hamster treadmill was Doors and Breakover and SunnySide - prime hamster repeater - and Memorial.  Pretty much the limits of my day.  The new from yesterday was pleasant where folks from yesterday hadn't skied it, where they did it was nasty - like MIFB? Day ended up better than expected and it got me out of the lowland pollen zone.

Other - Had Chicken Noodle at CB lodge, pizza looked marginal, very short stop in a very quiet lodge.  Base was empty and mostly shut down when I left. Pay lot small and the rest of A was not even full again today.  Drive up and down was pleasantly quiet also.

The day looked like it had potential, but I knew it would be delayed until the clouds moved off. My latest start ever still got me to Crystal too early as there was no traffic the whole way. I was late enough to miss one icy groomer, but committed to Valley Berg not knowing it wasn't groomed. Voted the worst Iceberg conditions ever. Insert some OK Valley Bowl with a lot of icy groomer ho-hum. Tried Powder Bowl and the only plus was it was better than The Berg. Then the clouds moved south and it was soft within minutes. The rain and an inch of new made Memorial and Sunnyside the place to be. Then, added Upper Bull to Lower Bull Run and a no-line Gondy ride back up. Recycled these runs for 3 hours till the coating of new snow went sticky. Ended going out the Gap-Sequence which was excellent (other than the sticky flats). It's melting out fast, but the Rock Skis loved the challenge of slicing around the brown. It's spring, a lot of heat needed and new snow will quickly become sticky slop.

No time for soup.

Ken