Blog Crystal : Crystal Mountain Washington : Skiing, Snowboarding, Backcountry Skiing, Snowshoeing, Lessons, Rentals

The 2010 Olympics are just around the corner and Crystal's sister resort, Cypress Mountain, is kicking it into high gear readying themselves for the big events.  Cypress will host the snowboard and freestyle events, including halfpipe, PGS, skier and boardercross, moguls and aerials.  The picture below shows volunteers hard at work shaping moguls.  Wouldn't it be nice if these guys would come to Crystal?  I could think of a few spots where their hard work would come in handy.  How about the newly dubbed Whit's End (the final face below the Northway Chair)?  Or maybe the Frontside?  Perhaps the top of Chair 6 could use some well placed, rounded moguls. 

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Last Saturday, January 30th, 3 skiers got lost in the fog right as we patrollers were conducting end-of-day upper mountain sweep about 3:45pm. They were finally found and returned to the ski area around 1am—over 9 hours later!  I figure others might benefit from knowing a bit more of how that sort of thing can occur to avoid getting similarly stranded.

Patrollers Mike & Ben were sweeping Southback that day–Ben, up the King and Mike toward Three Way Peak. They caught up with the 3 at Kirner’s Corner, just to the right of Little Alaska (informal names) which is the buttressy part of Avalanche Basin.  As they hiked, the most-experienced of the group indicated he’d skied Southback many times before.  I haven’t talked to the three, but mutual friends tell me that he’s an experienced South Backcountry skier who doesn't do dumb stuff and normally has a great sense of direction.  Once the group reached the top of the King, they told Ben they were heading down the Southeast side and that they planned to head left.  If you’re familiar with that terrain you know that puts them on what we call “SE Left” or, if they continued and crossed the ridge, the North side of Silver King.

At the top, the 3 left Ben as skier’s usually do, making fairly fall-line turns. Ben didn’t stick right with them since he was sweeping and also checking for others who might be disoriented in the thick fog.  He made wide traverses, periodically yelling “closing” and stopping to listen for responses.

We figured out later that it was so hard to see in the fog that the group ended up unintentionally traversing far to the right rather than veering left as planned. That’s how disorienting fog and the undulations of wind-drifted snow can be!  The group went SO far, in fact, that they crossed the entire SE side of the King, crossed “The Beach” (informal name for the flat-topped ridge of Silver Basin) and headed down towards Crystal Lakes in Mount Rainier National Park.

Apparently the group realized they were lost around 6:45pm and used cell phones to call 911.  It took until 7:30pm for them to finally get routed to Crystal ski patrollers.  The lesson to take away may be that you’ll want to have the Ski Patrol Emergencies Only phone number (360-663-3064) handy in your cell phone Contacts list.

When they finally reached Patrollers by phone, they could tell they were by lakes, so were assuming they were by Henskin Lake rather than Crystal Lakes.

This Summertime view from Google Earth may help if you’re unfamiliar with the area.  (North is at your 7:00 and the base lodge is just off-screen to the left.)  See how in this view, Henskin lake is way over to the left, and Crystal Lakes are way over to the right?  Pretty far apart, huh!

Patrol Director Paul Baugher could tell by the group's description of the terrain that they were not where they thought they were.  So teams of Patrollers were dispatched to search likely areas, and Mike and Max eventually caught up with the group and guided them out, down the Crystal Lakes trail.  After the snow petered out, that was close to 2,000 vertical feet of downhill hiking in ski boots.  Youch! 

When they reached State Route 410 (in the closed-in-winter part of the Park) Ranger Monica was there with a vehicle to shuttle them back up to the Ski Area.  Luckily for the 3 (and un-luckily for the rest of us) this is an el nino year and they didn't have to wait for the road to be snow-plowed before vehicles could drive up it as is usually the case!

It's pretty common--human nature perhaps?--for skiers & boarders to ride all day and save their biggest adventures for right at closing, when everyone's the most tired and it's closest to option-limiting darkness.  Don't be so attached to your "goal" that you overlook environmental factors that can turn an adventure into a tragedy.   Luckily THESE guys were hearty and everything turned out OK.!  

Shwoo! 

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A while back I responded to a comment about the moguls going around the last little corner at the bottom of Northway before you load the chair. 

I thought it might require a winch cat to get around that side-hill corner but apparently it doesn't.  At least not last Saturday.  The Grooming crew smoothed it all out!  Folks I talked to were pretty psyched!

It seems unlikely that they'll be grooming there nightly, as Northway IS diamond and double-diamond terrain (advanced & expert skiers & boarders, only) but it's nice to know they have the ability to stomp down those bumps from time to time!

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Last Saturday morning, a real nice gentleman swerved off the groomed portion of Upper Skid Road into some deeper untracked snow to avoid some kids.  He was in an area where warm groundwater creates some holes in the snow, and he took a little tumble.   He wasn't hurt much and was real nice about it, and that was that.

Subsequently throughout the day, a few of us had conversations with several of our long-time veteran customers who saw the commotion right after the gentleman fell.  The common theme was that some of our most experienced skiers aren't responding to our hazard markings the way ya'd  think they'd want to.  So I'm writing to explain a little more of it here.

First off, when we poke a stick of bamboo in the ground, we're trying to draw your attention to something.  Like "lookee here!"  It could be a hump or a dip, it could be a rock, stick or stump, it could be ice or water, possibly a drop-off or a step-up, or maybe something man-made.  It's kind of like we're saying: "somethings different here and if you don't have your eyes focused on the snow surface ahead of you, you're going to want to do so now!  There's something to watch out for and possibly avoid!"

Sometimes we put bright yellow plastic "CAUTION" disks on the sticks.  They indicate that there's a little more to watch out for.   In addition to focusing your eyes on what's dead ahead, you should also be more generally cautious in a bit larger area, which can include slowing down, looking farther ahead, and if not stopping, at least being prepared to stop to avoid some kind of hazard.

So the area the gentleman traveled into looked like THIS as you approached  from a ways above:

and we thought that was adequate marking to indicate this was an area in which to be cautious, what with the SLOW banner, about 10 sticks of bamboo, 4 of which had yellow CAUTION disks (kind of hard to see in the photo) spaced out around the bare area.

The area looked like THIS from just a little ways above (the 4th CAUTION is just out-of-frame to the right):

...and just so you understand what I'm talking about, THIS is what the area looked like from below:

 ...see, it's not like it would be impossible to get through there.  In fact, I've talked to plenty of younger Advanced & Expert skiers and snowboarders who don't like it when we close-off little areas like this because they're like mini natural terrain parks with little lifts and hits and gaps that are fun to jump over--especially when the snow's all floofy.

But that day, we heard from so many of our long-time customers who indicated they don't increase their cautiousness when they ski/ride past CAUTION signs ("Oh yeah, I NEVER slow down when I go by those signs") that I felt like I had to explain what WE are thinking when we place hazard markings.  We're trying to help you manage your safety and the risks inherent in skiing and boarding.   PLEEEZE!  Pay attention to the signs around you--both here and at other ski areas!   We all try to apply similar logic to our markings, and we all want you to not get hurt!

Enjoy what's fun and challenging for you, avoid what's hazardous for you, and don't harsh on my homies if you choose to not pay attention!   It'd be a bummer if someone's inattention forced a ski area to have to close-off  every place a few little rough areas exist, right? 

And remember, for safety, we recommed you stick to the groomed portions of trails.  Thanks!

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A few people have asked about the weather data that shows on Crystal Mountain’s main webpage, why the numbers are sometimes screwy, why the snow depths don’t match their own experience, etc., etc., etc. Let me explain….

First off, let me clear up a common misconception. Ski Area snow reports—at least the ones I’m familiar with here in the Cascades—are generally NOT made up by Marketing Departments. They’re made up by machines. Cold, indifferent, machines.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, everybody knows somebody who gets all “Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura” about some sketchy friend-of-a-friend who claims to have worked in ski area marketing one winter, and brags about the morning they were so hungover they over-slept and just made-up random numbers on the morning snow-phone recording.

That probably happens, but it’s pretty rare. I’m sure Justus only does that 6 or 7 times a season. (Insert winky emoticon here!)

But seriously, that’s not how it works.

How do I know?

Well, I know because the telemetry instruments that send the Green Valley and Base & Summit automated weather measurements out to the internet always seem to be RIGHT in my way when I’m trying to heat up my lunch! The microwave oven used to sit right in the middle of the counter at the Summit House patrol station. But now it seems, every summer the Northwest Weather & Avalanche Center (NWAC) folks add more and more sophisticated telemetry instrumentation that has to be hard-wired into the T-3 line or something, pushing the microwave farther and farther down the counter. So now it’s like a crazy awkward yoga move every time I wanna pop-in my Lean Cuisine.  Sheesh! Could they make my life any more difficult?

Anyway, so where was I?

Have you ever looked at Crystal Mountain’s Facebook Fan page? You’ll see “Saturday ROCKED, with cool temp’s and face shots all day!” right next to “Saturday SUCKED, it was freezing and I couldn’t see a thing! ”  (By the way, Buck Up you silly haters that call yourselves "fans"!  I recommend you spend more time skiing & riding so you'll be cheerier and won't have to spend so much time grouching on your keyboard!) 

My point here is that in an expansive ski area right on the crest of a continent-defining mountain range, and just inland of a humongous volcano, conditions are going to vary from spot to spot. Since Crystal’s website developers have no way of knowing exactly where YOU’LL be making YOUR turns each run, each day, they integrate impartial measurements feeding straight from the NWAC, to show what the weather generally is in the area. The data is collected NOT for marketing or website purposes. The information is collected for forecasting avalanche hazard.  It comes from “Snow Science Study Plots” where the machines take the mechanical and sonic measurements that are available to us all via the internet.  (Click on "telemetry" links below for examples.)

Base Weather Plot (telemetry)

Green Valley Weather Plot (telemetry)

The reason the numbers sometime seem completely wacked, is that machines can sometimes be tempermental beasts.  When things aren’t all working exactly right, the little database converter software thingy can borrow numbers from an adjacent column for the column that’s not working correctly and everything appears way off . So if the overnight snow depth shows as 270 inches (which is actually the wind direction blowing from the West as measured in a 360 degree clockwise circle) you know something's up electronically, and it's not the Marketing Diva's trying to trick you!

Wind and snow settlement also play a role in your perceiving snow depth different than science does.  I'm going to explain this more in a future post, but basically it works like this: 

1. The wind picks up the snow in some places and drops it in others.  If you were to probe to the ground in Powder Bowl, you'd find 1 meter of snow on one side and 2.5 meters on the other.  And you're worried about a difference of 2" on the morning snow report???  We had 112 mph winds here a couple weeks ago!
2. Settlement is the tendency of air to leave the snowpack as it sits over time.  Ski areas all measure "snowfall" which may be different than the depth of the "snowpack" at the time you pass over it.   It's just how it's always been done.

Stay tuned for part 2 which will explain how to use the telemetry to pick where you ski/ride on a particular day!

And please consider donating to the Friends of the NW Weather & Avalanche Center, an organization that helps support and promote the nice folks who's work prevents avalanche accidents and makes my lunch hard to reach!

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Here's a little plug for a fun event coming up:

If you love to ski or ride you can make a difference in the fight against cancer by supporting Hope On The Slopes at Crystal Mountain on March 13, 2010.

“Hope on the Slopes” (HOTS) is a ski and snowboard event benefitting the American Cancer Society (ACS).  First conducted at the White Pass ski area in 2004, the event has grown to four Washington mountains for 2010.

For more information about the organization, see their website:  www.hotscrystal.com or view a brief You Tube video about HOTS here.

How it works:

HOTS participants ask supporters to make donations to ACS in recognition of their commitment to ski as many vertical feet as they can over the course of the event. All fundraising is done via an ACS website where participants establish a personal fundraising web page to share their message and show their progress. In addition to funds contributed by supporters, all sponsorship proceeds go straight to the ACS, as the cost of conducting the event is completely borne by participants, volunteers and the hosting ski areas.

To Register:

Registration is done online. The cost to register is $35 per individual or $150 for a team of up to 10 people. If you raise a minimum of $100 you will receive a complimentary lift ticket for the day!!! To register for HOTS, go to the HOTS website.

To get more information about HOTS:

Attend the "Information Night" at Harmon Brewery in Tacoma January 27, 2010 at 7pm.

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Here are pictures Chris took that kinda show the sequence of what happened one avalanche control morning.

Telemetry data from the previous 24 hours:  Wind speeds & directions, precipitation amounts and intensity, and temperatures, etc.  

5:30am Data Analysis:  The Snow Safety Director finalizes that day's avalanche control plan.

5:50am Morning Meeting:  Briefing the crew on that morning's plan.

Daybreak Field Prep:  Getting hand charges ready.  (photo lightened for clarity)

Patrick drops a charge into a cornice's sweet spot

90 seconds later, Success!  Hazard and difficult bowl-entry mitigated*.

Patrick kick-turns to get a good look at the crown (fracture) of a slab avalanche started by a hand charge he threw from higher up on the ridge.

Check back!  We hope to add a little more "story" to go along with these pictures when we get time--hopefully in a few days! 

* Keep in mind that mitigated means lessened, not eliminated.   Small pockets of avalanche hazard can remain after control work so use good snow sense when traveling in avalanche terrain:  Carry a shovel, probe, and transceiver that you're proficient in using, and keep a partner (who has the same equipment and skills) in sight.

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Commenter "Nick" wrote in about the steep, side-hill, mogul section at the bottom of Northway.  (He called it "nasty".)

I haven't heard the official word, but I know the plan for the future is to be able to groom the entire Otto Bahn run someday.  That last, steep, side-hill section, though, may require a winch cat to groom it and last time I checked, those puppies were SPENDY!  It wouldn't surprise me if it takes a while for the powers-that-be to want to dedicate that much resource to such a small portion of just one run.  But we'll see.

In the meantime, there is a free cat dedicated to Northway now and most of Otto Bahn is usually pretty smooooth sailin'!  At least when you get down to that short mogul section your legs should be fresher and ready to pound the bumps like a kid! 

Please make note that in the "Keep Everybody Happy for 500, Alex" category, we also hear from people who are steamed that Crystal  has made that terrain more accessible.  They prefer the snow be left in it's most natural state to discourage those who find that short section too challenging.  With 1,000 acres with one groomed run served by the Northway lift, I think Crystal's management is doing a dandy job of managing that Expert terrain.  Stay tuned...

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We had an unusual number of little injuries and incidents today and I had to (got to, actually!) rush down "the frontside" (single-diamond "Most Difficult" runs Breakover, Sunnyside and Memorial Forest) three times in a row. 

The snow there has largely fallen under cold temps and SE winds (that's wind blowing FROM the Southeast) averaging in the 40-50 mph range with max. gusts of 112 mph.  (But it's the averages that really create the skiing conditions!)   The result is fairly smooth, chalky snow and GREAT skiing.  There are still a few little crunchier patches which I think must be the tops of old icy moguls.   We had a few intermediate skiers feel they were in over their heads on that steeper terrain, but advanced and expert skiers & boarders seem to be having a BLAST!!

If I were you andI didn't have to work this weekend I'd go skiing.  Wait, I DO have to work this weekend but I WILL be skiing! (Neener, neener)   I hope you can make it up!

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