February 20, 2007, Crystal Mtn

The 5am NWAC telemetry showed 6" of new snow at the bottom and 16" in Green Valley, so it figured to be a great day. It was!

Snow had fallen overnight down to the Weyerhaeuser yard east of Enumclaw at 1000 ft, and soon a bit higher up Hwy 410 was thinly snowcovered. We came upon a freshly flipped-over Volvo wagon that had landed right side up, perpendicular to the road, with the windshield crushed and A-pillars badly bent inward, and the driver standing outside it looking stunned and dumbfounded. He was lucky to be alive and unhurt, and everyone else was lucky the road wasn't completely blocked (it was a straight, flat section of road). A few miles later on another straight, flat section of road, the pickup truck driving behind us suddenly did a 360+ degree spin and slammed backwards into the right side ditch (ironically, it was close to a 410-degree spin). Oh well, extra caution was certainly in order for the rest of the drive.

Rex opened promptly at 9am and the snow conditions were generally fantastic, 8-20" of light powder almost everywhere, except where high winds overnight had stripped exposed ridges down to a few inches of dust over a solidly frozen crust. But the winds hadn't damaged snow quality at all, only transported the light fluff into perfect deep pillows on lee sides and in the trees. It snowed on and off most of the day, but with a few sunbreaks and patches of blue sky. A few strong gusts during the afternoon raised impressive powder-storms that would briefly block the sun, but mostly the winds were moderate if you stayed below the main ridgeline.

Everyone was having a great time, even my friend Dave who has been teaching himself to telemark. I managed 53K vert just yo-yoing Rex, with nice powder on every run, still deep and semi-untracked in places even at closing time. I never felt the need to head farther afield if every run was great (and empty) right where I was. North/South backcountry were closed, but I'm not sure if High Campbell ever opened, it was mostly in the clouds even when Rex and Green Valley were in the sun. There was about 3" of new snow on the cars in the parking lot at the end of the day.

Pow again please, chair 6 opened at about 10:30, bombing was still going on in north back till about 3, the thone gate opened later in the afternoon, BC's will be excellent Wed, temps were droping as the day went on. Fluffy and sluffy but nothing big inbounds

Don't expect to ski the southback this week. Word has it they're saving it for powder 8s.

skied crystal today it was great. Northback was open first thing, great deep powder. it is amazing how the snow gets blown into that are so deep. They were bombing southback all day and opened it around 1:30. it was great over there too, although not as deep as the northback.
it was mostly sunny too, a fun day

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!! You guys are killing me! Send something down here to Tahoe will ya, I think it's pretty sad that the best skiing I've had all season was at Crystal over winter break :'(

Doing a snow dance for all Tahoe area skiiers.