claurel
New member
The first ski day of this very slow-to-start season for me was a day trip to Crystal Mountain. I'd been following all the weather drama closely — the late October snowfalls, through the warm November, the destructive series of atmospheric rivers, and the recent chain of colder storms — and was eager to see how things have shaken out on mountain.
Access to Crystal is limited to ~1000 cars per day right now. The road to the mountain was undercut by an adjacent creek and partially collapsed. Now there's a stoplight at point of damage, and traffic alternates directions across the gravel shoulder. Fortunately, the damaged section is short and the rest of the road seems OK. We weren't significantly delayed by the traffic control, and I'm optimistic that the DOT will be able complete the repairs (and there's a quarry about a mile away that could be useful.)
We enjoyed top-to-base skiing on good quality snow, 3-4" overnight, with temperatures in the mid-20s and brisk winds. OpenSnow says that 16% of the mountain was open, which feels about right. Coverage on the top of the mountain was good (especially the Green Valley area); thin coverage was apparent on some wind exposed sections, and definitely on the bottom half of mountain. Snowmaking was going full blast on the high traffic areas and has been helping a lot.
Increasing winds through the day eventually forced management to shut down the gondola. We were eating in the summit house at the time and had to clear out early, as the kitchen staff need to leave and download via the gondola before it stopped running. That was too bad, but two friends and I had our beers and lunch comped as an apology. The refurbished Rainier Express lift kept running, so we were still able to access all of the open terrain after lunch.
While enjoying a beer at a base area bar, I got some interesting information from a guy who said he used to be a groomer on the mountain. (Yeah, I know, but he really did seem to know what he was talking about!) I'd been curious why the Forest Queen lift hadn't opened yet. It accesses primarily beginner and intermediate terrain mid-mountain, so it seemed like recent snowfall should have been enough to allow them to open it. But, apparently a lot of the areas around the lift are very marshy. The massive amounts of rainfall has left the ground even more soggy than usual, so new snowfall has been melting rather than accumulating. The marshy areas quality for wetland protections, so the resort can't modify them to make them easier to cover with new.
Still finding stashes after lunch in the Green Valley zone
I'll never get tired of this view! By early afternoon, clouds had completely covered the mountain and it was snowing at Crystal.
Still need more snow!
Access to Crystal is limited to ~1000 cars per day right now. The road to the mountain was undercut by an adjacent creek and partially collapsed. Now there's a stoplight at point of damage, and traffic alternates directions across the gravel shoulder. Fortunately, the damaged section is short and the rest of the road seems OK. We weren't significantly delayed by the traffic control, and I'm optimistic that the DOT will be able complete the repairs (and there's a quarry about a mile away that could be useful.)
We enjoyed top-to-base skiing on good quality snow, 3-4" overnight, with temperatures in the mid-20s and brisk winds. OpenSnow says that 16% of the mountain was open, which feels about right. Coverage on the top of the mountain was good (especially the Green Valley area); thin coverage was apparent on some wind exposed sections, and definitely on the bottom half of mountain. Snowmaking was going full blast on the high traffic areas and has been helping a lot.
Increasing winds through the day eventually forced management to shut down the gondola. We were eating in the summit house at the time and had to clear out early, as the kitchen staff need to leave and download via the gondola before it stopped running. That was too bad, but two friends and I had our beers and lunch comped as an apology. The refurbished Rainier Express lift kept running, so we were still able to access all of the open terrain after lunch.
While enjoying a beer at a base area bar, I got some interesting information from a guy who said he used to be a groomer on the mountain. (Yeah, I know, but he really did seem to know what he was talking about!) I'd been curious why the Forest Queen lift hadn't opened yet. It accesses primarily beginner and intermediate terrain mid-mountain, so it seemed like recent snowfall should have been enough to allow them to open it. But, apparently a lot of the areas around the lift are very marshy. The massive amounts of rainfall has left the ground even more soggy than usual, so new snowfall has been melting rather than accumulating. The marshy areas quality for wetland protections, so the resort can't modify them to make them easier to cover with new.
Still finding stashes after lunch in the Green Valley zone
I'll never get tired of this view! By early afternoon, clouds had completely covered the mountain and it was snowing at Crystal.
Still need more snow!
