May 19, 2002, Crystal Mountain

Gary, Ken, Dorothea, Jeanette and yours truly, converged on Crystal with designs on a trip over the ridge at Silver Basin and down to Crystal Lakes. By the time we got to the top of chair 4 the ceiling had dropped to the top of the ridges and the top 2-3 inches of snow on the groomer was pretty slushy. In that we were there more for the skiing than the destination, it was enough to cause a reevaluation of our destination. We suspected if we kept to our original plan the snow would be too unconsolidated off piste and the visibility would be bad. So we skied down from the top of Chair 4 to pick up the queens cutoff and climbed that (Gary and Ken did an extra lap on the toilet bowl pitch) up to the top of the Gay Ranger (Chair 9 - now actually called the Forest Queen).

Now you've done it, Charles; we ran into a guy with two dogs (Duke and Merlin) at the top of the GR. He recognized us as the "Turns-All-Year" crowd and wanted to place an order for Two cases of J-Jelly. We referred him to you, Charles.

From the top of the GR we yo-yoed various aspects of Upper Downhill and Campbell Basin until we'd had our way with the good skiing snow returning to within 100 yds of CM Base via Downhill and Skid Road. Snow was two, to as much as six inches of slush on a solid base. On steeper aspects surface "hissers" (wet slides) could be triggered. Some dirt starting to show at lower levels of the ski area, especially west facing aspects. Still plenty of snow at upper levels.

Pics to evaluate snow conditions and coverage can be viewed here. Rumor has it that CM is still considering opening for skiing in Green Valley for next weekend. That's either good for you or bad for you depending on your preferences.

Ron Jarvis