Spring arrives at Crystal Mountain

This was a great sunny cornfest. Some fantastic Spring conditions, magnificent views, light crowds and no lift lines.

Just how I wish Crystal was all the time.

The groomers rocked, especially early as they softened and turned to vanilla ice cream. The glacier (aka Middle Ferk) was all global warming, grippy and slushy and huge fun.  Venturing into Powder Bowl and Northway paid dividends too as these GoPro (not very edited!) clips show.

Great weekend. Spring was welcome. But hopefully Winter will return soon 🙂

Saturday 9000m, Sunday 8400m vert

37 days,  285,400m vert , 10 powder days

 

February – finally winter arrives

It took the lingering effects of #fuckingelnino a month or so to dissipate. But when they did – kaboom! Normal services were resumed in Pacific Northwest winter climate. It felt like mid-December rather than February, but we weren’t complaining.

It was a violent pulse of weather too, like the storms had been building up against a stubborn wall, which finally fractured and let the pent up energy through. We had serious snow in Seattle, Eastern WA was hit hugely, and serious weather abounded. We watched 100mph winds close (and apparently derail) lifts at Schweitzer one February Saturday. Mission did pretty well keeping their chairs running when we were there, despite some wild weather closing the hill early on a couple of occasions.

This all, of course, did wonderful things for the base and snow quality. We had great skiing every weekend, and while no deep pow, lots of nice 4-6 inch topups. The best day was Friday at Schweitzer. No people. Cold but not brutal. And a solid 6 inches of super light pow everywhere.  It was one of those days where every run was great.

Here’s some sunny footage from the Sunday after the wind storm.

Next stop – Austria. The annual Lech trip 🙂

Mission Ridge: 7000m, 8300m

Schweitzer: 10,300m, 9000m

Mission Ridge:  8200m, 8400m

Season Totals: 26 days, 195,800m vert. 6 powder days