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I’m a Sucker for a Snowstorm
I’m like a moth to the flame. When it snows, I can’t help myself. I have to go towards those flakes like my life depends on it. I woke this morning to a fresh snowfall. This time I debated on whether...
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Super Scientific Recipe for an Early Ski Season
It's getting to be that time of year when "talking about the weather" is about the most real conversation in our house. As my husband likes to say, "everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does...
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It’s Hard to Be Patient When You’re Waiting for the Ski Season to Start
A Prelude to Winter Waiting for snow is hard. It’s especially difficult at the beginning of the season. November can be a bit like Christmas–either full of good tidings and warm family moments or...
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Crystal Opens Tomorrow
It’s time to do my happy dance. Crystal Mountain opens tomorrow. I’m pretty sure this is directly related to the frozen spoon I slept with under my pillow on Friday night. I went to sleep with no...
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The Beautiful World of Avalanche Control
G.R. Fletcher is a ski patroller at Snow Basin. He's also the Snow Safety Director. His job is to manage snow--track weak layers, make decisions on opening terrain, and create avalanches with...
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Crystal Opens Wall to Wall (Almost)
It has been quite a while since Crystal Mountain was open “wall to wall.” Last season our entire ski area terrain only opened for about a month from early February to March 10th. (In case you’re new...
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When Winter Storms are Like an Abusive Relationship
This winter, the weather in the Cascades is like an abusive relationship. You keep thinking that the next storm will be better, that it will bring more snow, that the rain is a thing of the past, that...
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When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Ski Woodies
Don’t worry dear readers. I know it’s a low snow season. I’m perfectly and painfully aware of the meager snow depths in the mountains. I’m not going to try to convince you otherwise. Instead, I wanted...
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Top 10 Ways to Get Through a Low Snow Season
Here we are in the second week of March and the ski season hasn’t really started yet. Sure, it’s Snowmageddon on the East Coast, but that doesn’t help us out here. In fact, we really don’t want to know...
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What Kind of Winter Are We Going to Have?
Someone asked me last weekend if I knew what kind of weather we were going to have this winter at Crystal. It’s timely because I was just thinking about how nifty it would be if I could predict the...
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Meet Moose the Avalanche Dog
Crested Butte recently released this awesome video about the life of Moose, an avalanche dog. His handler, Dustin, talks about Moose’s job, his love of the mountains and how he lives to find people...
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It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Ski Season
Crystal Mountain received a nice blanket of snow this weekend. There’s about 8-12″ of snow in Green Valley, and its a nice dense base. One more storm like this and we can open the Gondola and Green...
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Crystal Mountain Opens Today
The 2015-2016 ski season starts today at Crystal. After a damaging wind and rain storm earlier this week, we are now blessed with an upper mountain draped (and caked!) in a wind-packed base. A few...
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Snow in the Forecast
After over a week of high pressure and inversion at Crystal Mountain, we finally have some snow in the forecast. While it has certainly been nice at the top of Crystal this week with calm winds, sunny...
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3D Trail Map Coming to Crystal
Ever wanted to ski the hill like a local? Ever wished the tiny trail map in your pocket showed all the best runs at Crystal? Fatmap 3D trail mapping app lets you do just that. For every skier or rider...
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Much More Snow in the Forecast
My what a difference a couple of weeks makes. In late November we had begun to joke that perhaps our ski area had permanently shrunk to Green Valley. The snow had gotten thin near the bottom of the...
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This is What Ski Patrollers Live For
Hard work is what ski patrolling is all about. Some might think that we’re in it for the skiing. And let’s be honest, skiing is a huge part of it. But if you want to really ski, I suggest simply...
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Snow Grooming: Making Perfect Corduroy
Of all the jobs at a ski area, grooming the slopes at night might be the best one. You get to sculpt the slopes into perfect strips of corduroy at night, then rip them up the next morning. Snow-cat...
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Best Unmarked Lines at Crystal on Fatmap
If you haven’t downloaded the new Fatmap trail map for Crystal Mountain, you should go ahead and do it right now. Go on, I’ll wait. You can download the app on your phone in either the iTunes store...
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Weather or Not: Hoping for another “Miracle Saturday”
For the past three weekends, Crystal Mountain has been blessed with miracles. Three Fridays in a row we’ve had rainy, soggy, extremely windy storms turn cold and calm just in time to lay down enough...
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