After a nail biting night, I woke to mixed rain and snow at the base of Crystal this morning. When he got in a snowcat this morning, John wasn’t sure what he’d find in the higher elevations. The telemetry in Green Valley showed a little over a foot of snow in the past 24 hours. Not quite enough to open. You can imagine his surprise when he got up higher and had a hard time keeping the tiller above the snow level.

John Kircher buried up to his waist

At midmountain, John jumped out to test the depth of the snow and was buried to his waist.

Needless to say, he was pretty stoked. He called me not very long after to say, “You wouldn’t believe it. Somehow it snowed five feet up here!”

Sometimes I love it when the telemetry is wrong. Most likely the high winds last night blew the snow around, but not onto, the stake. There is probably a huge drift a few feet away while the snow stake is relatively free of snow.

So the 2012-13 season begins at Crystal. See you all up here on Wednesday. Check the website for details.

A word about Avalanche Hazard. Today and tomorrow there will be no avalanche mitigation. The avalanche hazard is high.  Uphill travel on or under steep slopes is not recommended. In addition, consider that this is great “base building” snow. It is very thick and heavy: perfect for making a solid base; not so perfect for powder turns. Be careful out there.

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• The Waiting Game (kimkircher.com)
• I’m Not Going to Jinx It (kimkircher.com)