Mt. Rainier has the tendency to attract it’s own special weather systems, and while other resorts in Washington were seeing rain, Crystal Mountain was getting layered with sweet surfy duff. I caught the last couple days of the cold spell and got some runs with dedicated local Zach Kurfurst….

Zach grew up in nearby Enumclaw (about 45 minutes from the resort) and has been schralping fantastic lines for the last 20 seasons.

Kyle Miller and Jacob Hase were found atop the Queen and King peaks with the past 4 days of pow-hiking echoing in the legs, so they had no choice but to continue the reverberations. Up, down, up, down….

When the sun peeked out, people got weird. Blair Habenicht appeared like a bird in a couple different trees. For the view, I imagine. Then he started practicing those flips the ravens do.

Sun comes, sun goes. Blair’s strapping his bindings in trees, he’s airing over them. This is the special effect of maritime weather patterns on Cascadia’s inhabitants.

Yes, winter is alive – even though it feels like spring right now. Get out your bizarre tuques and racing suits, drink lots of (water?) and do a snow dance. Temperatures are dropping! Check the progress at www.skicrystal.com, and enjoy the suspense, it’s like Christmas all over again.

Catch air!