1/8 - Crystal

A 3.5 out of 5 day.

There was no carpool enforced parking today, but the pay lot was week-end huge extending four poles lower than the Snorting Elk bridge. Amazingly, it was close to full when we left. Also amazing were the crowds on the mountain. No real lift lines (except C6), but a delayed start of Chex at 9am and the gondie going on wind hold created quite an early morning line on CHEX. Rex was on hold for a while after that waiting on patrol. The weather started off nice enough with the wind dying down and patches of blue sky. But as the day went on, there was off and on snow flurries with fog that caused some visibility problems. Also, the wind kicked up mid-day top to bottom. 1 out of 2 for weather.

The snow up top was very nice and the groomers had a couple inches of new on top of the groomed. First run down Memorial Forest was excellent powder until 2/3 of the way down where things underneath got firm. Doors were very nice as was GV bowl and Grubstake. We Waited in too long a line for C6 right after it opened and did Powder Bowl. Snow wasn't bad, but all the avie debris beneath it was. Not worth a repeat given the line. Also did a one and done down Bear Pits. While the snow conditions were nice enough, my leg conditions were not after taking 10 days off. Overall, 2.5 out of 3 for snow. The coverage is great as a result of this past storm.

And more words about today...only problem with CD report was CHex opening - pretty sure it was 8:45, problem was waiting
at REX for who knows how long, but it was still worth it....and the rest of the story...

Very nice day for everyone on the mountain and #1. Arrived extra early to deal with the A lot
issues...Lucky - none...us low life two person car pools got to park - though it was way back like
a weekend parking lot (but at least not B or C lots). Good karma start. Got my second fav spot on
CHex for upload, lineup built and then the line went ballistic as the Gondy folks found out that
it would not be running due to early morning winds - only lasted for an hour or so. Fair sized
crowd to start and definitely folks on the slopes, but as lifts opened the crowd dispersed and even
for a busy Wednesday crowd it was pretty pleasant.

Snow quality - very nice! Especially up high, not so good down low. Big early sun made for a great
Sunnyside first run and that was it for uncut fresh untracked snow in the core...amazing how fast
the freshies disappeared in the core area. Spent the late morning with #1 on FQex - pleasant and
after a early lunch I finally "kinda" kicked into overdrive...Sunnyside, Doors (should be called
glades now - lots of summer thinning opened it up big), Bearpits!, OuterFerks (ouch still challenging),
back to Doors and Sunnyside, oh so happy (other than my wimpy lungs and quads, kinda felt like
early December). Nice almost sun break mid day and then as we quit a pretty good snow storm.
Actually the mid day left overs had lots of new fresh and was very happy for me.

Other - Soup at CB lodge NOT! None? Huh? Pizza and beer was good, fair crowd in the lodge.
4 buses in the A lot, lots of cars in the pay lot? tags? rest of A, most of C and
a bunch of B (but widely spaced) was full...so it was definitely a good day for the Crystal
bottom line. Drive up was totally empty early, drive down kinda early was okay.

Other - Soup at CB lodge NOT!

No soup, no chili, ramen noodles are inferior to old udon noodles and the price has gone up . . . new Wapiti was closed so I had to drive to Enumclaw for coffee!