Crystal Amphitheater Ski Tour (Winterfest) - January 7, 2023

Leader: Forest Dean

Participants: Elizabeth Moore, Chris Soriano, Scott Williams, Joe Wagner, Mark Albrecht, Ashley Prunier, Tim Ward, Sean Colvin, Luke Jacobson

We gathered our large group in the Lolo Hot Springs parking lot at 8:30am. Club member Andrew Twardowski had arrived earlier and buried a couple of beacons in the snow and allowed us all a few minutes to do a quick beacon search prior to heading up to the Crystal Amp parking lot. We started skinning about 9:20. All of us were pleasantly surprised to find 4-6” of fresh-ish powder atop a solid base. Followed the skin track up to the “Pillow Line” then dug a couple of pits to see what the snowpack looked like. No propagation on our ECT’s. We divided the group here- 4 of us skiing down the Pillow Line, while the rest continued to tour to the far west end of the Amphitheater. Skiing was really good on all runs. We all met up again an hour and a half or so later. A couple folks headed out earlier. Most of us got 4-5 ski runs in. Weather was great- not too hot, not too cold. We finished after skiing roughly 9 miles and 3000’ of gain at about 4:30pm. After a parking lot beer, we headed back to the Hot Springs for food and drink around a nice bonfire. Fun day with a great group!