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

Flagged the Gondola line today.  Did it in snow shoes, but we should have worn skis.  There's still plenty of snow in Green Valley (several feet in places) and no rocks showing through.  Surveyors marked the tower locations a few days ago, and now the sawyers can start cutting the line.  The bottom terminal will be located where the Market used to sit in the plaza (see photos below).  The first six towers will be on Lower Exterminator.  Then the next five towers will start along the bottom of Upper Exterminator, then cut into the treed area between Exterminator and Leo's Rock (the cliff on Upper Bull below the dogleg), then finally across the top of Upper Bull and Middle Ferk's.  This middle section of the line should even open some hitherto unskiable terrain, which is a nice bonus.  Tower 12 will sit on the knoll above Middle Ferk's.  Tower 13 will be just to the right of the tree island in Green Valley.  Towers 14 and 15 will be on either side of the cat track just below the top of Rex.  The top tower will be to the left of the offload area of Rex.  Finally, the top terminal will be located slightly uphill of the old radio building on the ridge between the Summit House and the trail map.  It's an exciting project and nice to see it come alive. 

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Justus the Snow Phone girl sent me this photo so I could help spread the word about this Summer's changes at Crystal:

The most dramatic change will be installation of a gondola--the first in the Pacific Northwest (if you don't count the one in downtown Spokane)--going from the base area, about where The Market currently is, up to the summit ridge near the top of Rainier Express chairlift. 

If you don't already know, a Gondola has a bunch of smaller cars that cycle continuously, as opposed to a Tram which only has 2 larger cars which run opposite each other.  I think I heard that the plan is for our cars to hold 8 people.

It should be great for sightseers--I don't think there's any prettier view of Mount Rainier than the view from the summit of Crystal Mountain!

The other big news is installation of a Terrain Park on Magoo, the trail that runs underneath the Forest Queen Express chairlift.  It's going to be what we in the biz call a "progressive" park, meaning it'll have beginner and intermediate scaled features, mainly rails, boxes and jibs.

Imagine the possibilities!

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (4)
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Has the state of the economy left you feeling a little blue?  Well, we've got something for you that's worth getting excited about!  Get an adult full-season Quad Pass for as low as $544 when you purchase with 3 other adults.  Similar deals available for youths, juniors & seniors.  Sale begins April 1st and ends May 31st so you must act quickly!

Visit the Crystal Mountain website for details 

Purchase online starting April 1st or in Guest Services April 1-April 19, 2009. 

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (4)
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

I haven't posted anything or responded much lately because I've been illin'!   (Cough, cough, cough!)  This is just a quick message to those who have linked to Crystal's blog or any of it's articles.  I'll be back with some stuff actually pertaining to skiing and snowboarding within minutes!

First, thanks for thinking the Ski Patrol Blog is worthy of mention.  I had no idea so many people would look at it, and REALLY no idea so many people would look at it more than once.   (Shout out to the budz in Poland & Africa!  WTF???)

Second, the charming Stacey Merrick, Director of Client Services as LexBlog, our gracious host, spent some time with me Sunday when she could have been out riding, helping me understand how to be a better blogger.  (Check out her bio page, and the MySpace page of Seattle's cool professional Double Dutch jump-rope team of which she's part.  Who'da' thought?!)

I'm adding "Topics" to past articles so those looking for particular subjects will be better able to find & track them.  Apparently, that means something about each article will change in such a way that old links may not work unless they're updated.  My apologies if this is an inconvenience to anyone, but it seemed better to do it now, while the archive is still pretty small.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (2)
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

After four long days of Hwy 410 being closed, the road is finally open again and operations have resumed!  I woke up this morning 5 minutes before my alarm was set to go off to a loud boom.  Since then I've heard another 5-10 bombs go off.  Patrol is busy this morning doing avalanche control work.  Since last Wednesday, 27 inches of snow has fallen at mountain-top!  Most of it has consolidated but with a gain of another 6 inches last night, the first day back was an early one for patrol (I am not a patroller but I do work and live at the mountain).   The groomers are soft and fun.  The snow off piste is dense but pretty smooth.  Looking ahead.... Get ready for sun & Hawaiian shirt weather this week.  What a winter this has been. These extreme weather events have been far from normal.  But then again, I'm not really sure what "normal" is anymore.  What I do know is it's January, we have a great base, and the lifts are rolling.  Check out the video conditions updates on the Weather & Conditions page, in the upper right hand corner.  We'd love to hear your feedback on the video updates.  See you on the slopes!

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link