It was a 5 snowflake day!

I plan on skiing a lot this year and hope to update this page regularly with my progress in that area.

On the way home from Crystal today I wondered if I should rate my ski days. You know, a "this one was a 5 snowflaker!" kind of thing. But really, isn't even the worst day of skiing worthy of at least 3 Snowflakes?

I guess I could start with 3 snowflakes and add one for freshies, and one for sunshine. Fresh snow and sunshine is definitely worth a 5!

But less than 3? Well, maybe if I contributed to someone getting hurt, that might be a 2 snowflake day. And I guess if I got hurt myself, that could be a 1 snowflake day - 1/2 if I got hurt before lunch.

But there need to be exceptions to the rules. Like, do I really care if someone else gets hurt if there's powder AND sunshine? Not really. Not unless ski patrol tags me with reckless skiing and revokes my pass. On a powder day. THAT would be 0 snowflakes.

November 30th, Days skied: 5

Crystal Blue Skis at Crystal!

I skied Crystal today; epic! It dumped about 2 feet over the weekend but I waited for the weather to pass and skied on Monday. With 3 or 4 inches overnight Sunday, the conditions were absolutely ideal on Monday. A few inches of freshies over a nice packed powder base.

A high pressure ridge moved in and sat right on top of Crystal. The skis were all but cloud free and deep blue all day!

I practically had a six-pack lift to myself. Half the chairs were empty, and the rest had 1 or 2 peeps. I didn't get my first run in until almost 11am because I'm lazy and hit some traffic on the way down. But I skied until they kicked me off at 4pm. There was so much snow I skied all the way down the path leading up to the mountain with enough speed to get all the way across the parking lot to my car!

Probably the best weather+snow I've seen in 2 years!

November 14th, Days skied: 4.

Crystal, Day 1!

I drove out to Crystal today. Conditions were a little iffy. There was a melt and refreeze on Thursday so conditions in the morning were quite icy. Reminded me of my youth skiing on the east coast! It snowed all day, however, and the snow was getting more fun near the end of the day. The snow, cold and wet had their own challenges, though.

It was snowing HARD when I left. I brushed 2 or 3 inches off my car when I got there, and by the time I had gotten all my gear stowed, there was another 2 or 3 inches on it!

November 11th, Days skied: 3

Blackcomb, Opening Day!

Blackcomb opened for the weekend and I was there! There was about two feet of snow in the week leading up to opening day, so conditions were great on Saturday. Unfortunately, the lift lines were a little extreme and I only got about 5 or 6 runs in. On Sunday, the lines were much smaller, but most of the good snow was used up.

Great to be back on skis, though, especially after such a terrible season last year!

I stayed at the Mountainside Lodge and will not stay there again. The hotel insisted that I remove my car from the parking garage after checking out on Sunday morning, before going off for a day of skiing. They suggested I drive over to the Whistler day lot and ski from there. This is rather annoying. The whole point to staying at a "mountainside" hotel is so that you can easily walk to the lifts. I did, after all, pay for two nights of lodging and two days of parking; it seems reasonable to expect to be able to ski two days from the hotel. Of course, I left my car in the garage anyway and, of course, the garage was all but empty when I left at around 4pm. This is not a good place to stay for a weekend trip.

Nobember 6th, Days skied: 2.