Dec 16: My first day

http://vimeo.com/17898318
Old boy posse of Dayton, Ogborn, Al Osborn and John for a good day at Crystal. No new, but remnants of a storm. It's cold and it's windier than normal. Today it's high of 44 in the city. Crystal is calling for High of 20 lows' of 15 all weekend. Rained today.
Great season so far.Summit:
14° F Base: 21° F
24 Hr: 2" 24 Hr: 2"
Total: 51" Total: 33"
Video:http://vimeo.com/17898318

12-10-10

Oh man, did I miss one today. Crystal has been going off. Jeff and Sally called and said it was an 8.5 on the Gooood schedule.
Ken Dayton , sking with the FOGS should have been there too. A photo on the Crystal website read:"Heading to Soutback to finish control work. What's that in the sky? Oh that would be the sun. 18" of fresh powder and clearing skies...it doesn't get much better than that!!! http://vimeo.com/17426541
The nunbers are building. I've yet to get up there...healing a cold. Video of Dec 2 here

Crystal Conditions, November 23, 2010.

Overnight 24 Hr 48 Hr 72 Hr Total Depth Season Total
Summit -4° F 3 in 16 in 26 in 26 in 42 in 64 in 21 mph
Base 4° F 3 in 16 in 24 in 24 in 29 in -- --

Thanksgiving is shaping up really well. Sorry I won't be there.

November 19, 2010 Opening

A reasonably early opening @ Crystal. Check the Video @http://vimeo.com/17019525.
It's not a big opening. 40" total so far.

Overnight 24 Hr 48 Hr 72 Hr Total Depth Season Total
Summit 15° F 0 in 0 in 6 in 7 in 26 in 40 inches
Base 23° F 0 in 0 in 6 in 7 in 19 in -- -

Cold though, and if some moisture comes, we'll be in for a great early season. Now for the real stuff, coming out of the Southwest, a big wet Hawaiian Express with temperatures below 32...It's got to be coming.

Behind the Aahhh’s

Behind the Aahhh’s

Check out this article by one of my first guides to Chamonix, Mike Hattrup. In 1999, Ken Dayton and I went to Cham with a crew from Pro Ski Services. Lead by Martin Volken, Hattup and Ronaldo Bara, we were shown around the Chmonix that Mike has made his movie, The Blizzard of Ahhs. Scott Schmidt, Greg Stump, Glen Plake and Hatrrup! There were 2 groups in our possse. The old guys like Ken and I and one other over 35er whom I can't remember. The younger group had Jame the redhead, Peter Avolio and I can't remember who else. Peter Avolio was a wild young man that couldn't get enough challenge. He had yet to meet his future wife and life in the yoga world, Lisa Black. He was still a wild child. We stayed at a hotel near the train station. We would pack extra breakfast sandwiches at the morning buffet to take as lunch or snacks. We all wore harnesses, which I thought was a bit over the top, until i got roped up and dropped into my first couloir, the Poubelle, which Hattrup mentions in this article. We spent on night in the Triomphe Hut which was very memorable. You talk about good food and drink! At 11,000 + ft, it was wonderful to have a safe place with stews and wine. The snoring is a bit of a sleep impediment though and the hut sleep experience isn't great.
In the morning, We had to negotiate our way off that hill by compass and ski roped up so no one went suddenly missing in to a crack! Awesome memory and my first touring trip. Hope to do it again.

October13, 2010

Getting ready @ Crystal with the new Gondola. Website has highlights. Check it out :http://vimeo.com/15390069.
This winter is predicted to be a VERY heavy winter. A La Nina year that could be huge. We'll get the posts going.

December 26 with Julia. Beautiful, Fast and NO snow

Crystal is not exactly a great place to go groomer skiing, now is it? You have Lucky Shot, Ice Berg, the run down to Green Valley, and then all the Green/ Blue runs over on the left side, but those are pretty lame. So basically, you use it up pretty fast.
On this day there was virtually NO edge to be had either, especially on fat skis. It was so hard that we watched people release their edges and launch their asses into never, never land. Oh they landed all right, somewhere hard and immovable a lot of the times. Saw one helicopter and one aid car arriving, and I'll bet that wasn't the end of it.
As of January 9th, it's still not snowing much,,,er,,at all. Let the drought end! It's colder and snowier in Ohio than it is here. Jet stream needs to move.

Jan2, 2010. It's starting to snow again, but it's warm.

I didn't go today, but it looks to be getting better after a very long dry period. Here are the stats:
6" in the last 24 and 11" in the last 48 hrs at the summit. Base levels are now 40' at the base and 66' at the summit.
Let's hope it keeps raining/snowing up high as forecasted .