Crystal 12/7/20

[ss20]

Resort or Ski Area

Crystal

Date

Dec 7, 2020

Snow Conditions

1. Slush or Spring Snow

This place has gotten some serious snow. I believe the snowpack is something like 125-150% of the seasonal average. Everything was open a week ago but due to melting some of the crazy stuff is now closed (Chair 6 and Northway). Today was a 40 degree spring day, with blue skies and minimal wind....rare from my understanding. Shadowed places like the Green Valley and its assorted bowls were packed powder. Frontside stuff in the sun was spring with some corn from all the freeze/refreeze cycles. At the bottom it was slow mank but that wasn't too much of an issue. Coverage was really good, even in the sun. What I like so far about Crystal is there's a lot of sustained steep stuff. I haven't gone too far off the beaten path but terrain on the "frontside" is consistent 1,000 vertical ft of legitimately challenging terrain with no let up. Lots of nice bumps on the hill today too. Very big. It hasn't snowed here in about week and it shows on the groomers and down low where there's some rocks and dirt getting churned up by the snow cats.

Tomorrow looks wet with dropping snow levels throughout the day. Which is fine as I have to be on the laptop taking car of Flatland things. I'll probably go out and give it a go in the afternoon up on the higher terrain. Then Tuesday night onward there's a constant chance of snow. Models indicating 6"-12" at elevation by week's end. It's a pretty good scenerio....falling temps through the week so we'll get heavy wet snow followed by dry stuff. I'm not expecting anything crazy to open up...but with the base that's already down I don't think it'll take more than a few inches of glop to get things skiing really nicely.

 

[chuckstah]

Nice. Keep the reports from your trip coming.

 

[abc]

Did you have to make reservation to ski Crystal?

 

[Edd]

Looks fantastic!

 

[ss20]

Did you have to make reservation to ski Crystal?

Yes, Ikon reservations.

 

[abc]

Yes, Ikon reservations.

So you have no trouble reserving days?

 

[ss20]

So you have no trouble reserving days?

Midweek with a few days notice it's been no issue. I reserved these days late last week. Also got Big Sky this Sunday-Wednesday.


It's all relative. Snowbird parking on weekends is sold out through something crazy like February. Killington it's been a non-issue from what I'm able to see 2,500 miles away, checking the parking site from time to time.

 

[ss20]

Super manky today but it did not rain at all and there were blue skies til 3pm. Got 4 hours out on the hill. Rain finally arrived tonight an hour ago but temps are forecasted to drop quickly. Probably just an inch or two at the base but could be 3"-5" up top by the end of the day tomorrow. Temps are right on schedule, should see a change over to snow in an hour or so

 

[jg17]

Looks like a good time, despite not having 6 and Northway open! All the early season snow was unreal, 6 and north were awesome the weekend before Thanksgiving. On Black Friday, traversing across the top of 6 was all rocks and did a number on my base, although the runs themselves were still pretty good. 6 reopened today and north should reopen this week with more snow on the way.

There has been no shortage of bluebird this season, which is unusual but nice. I found it pretty funny to be riding powder off of 6 on a bluebird day in November, when my last day up there was a whiteout day in June!