I’m really excited about all the feedback from the last blog post about skiing with a patroller and learning the ins-and-outs of Crystal. Kim and I will go through all the input and come up with a way to go over all your questions on Saturday February 18th. We’ll meet by the Easy Searcher on the South side… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Place Names
Subscribe to Place Names RSS FeedTour of Crystal through Patrol Eyes
Posted in Avalanche Hazard, Closures, Conditions, Employment, News, Place Names, Safety Patrol/Speed ControlWho here would be interested in taking under an hour to ski with a patroller and go through some of the ins-and-outs of Crystal? We would like to offer a chance to ski with a patroller to our locals (you), in hopes to answer any questions you may have, share avalanche conditions, and ski some secrete… Continue Reading
Free Avalanche Awareness Class
Posted in Avalanche Hazard, Closures, Conditions, Place Names, WeatherCheck it out: Free Avi Course This is a great night of good people, some snacks, and a chance to gain the inside scoop into the avalanche conditions around Crystal. It is also a great time to get all your questions answered by patrol. It starts at 7pm in the Chapel and goes however late… Continue Reading
The “New” Employee Housing Run
Posted in Conditions, Place NamesThis weekend Niagras (sic) and the new Employee Housing run opened for the first time this season. We’ve been open WALL TO WALL at Crystal the past few days, which is far ahead of last year. I spoke with a few skiers in the Elk on Monday about their first turns down the new run,… Continue Reading
Employee Housing: New Slide Path, Old Ropeline
Posted in Closures, Place NamesLast season a large avalanche ripped out a new slide path just south of Niagras in Employee Housing. Shown below with the new slide path, this area has always been known as Employee Housing, but had filled in with trees in the past few decades. Much of this area had been reclaimed through limbing. While… Continue Reading
What’s New at Crystal This Season
Posted in Avalanche Hazard, Conditions, Events and Activities, News, Place Names, WeatherWith the prediction of another La Nina season, we’re hoping for a repeat of last year, with an early start and record snow. Or at least plenty of powder days and few major accidents. One can dream. A few changes at Crystal could have a big effect on the skiing. Here’s my top 3: Snowmaking… Continue Reading
Rock Climbing Shutterbug
Posted in Place Names, Skier/Snowboarder StoriesClimbing Rabbit Ears to get a good photo.
Chair 6
Posted in Place NamesHigh Campbell is my favorite chair- really that I’ve ever ridden. I mean, how many other lifts take you to so much terrain? From 6 you can, hike to controlled areas and enter a door-way to endless touring. Powder Bowl, the Throne, and Double Oughts are some of the best lift service steeps around. The… Continue Reading
New Secret Squirrel Stash
Posted in Place NamesIn an ongoing attempt to open up new terrain in the Northway area, the sawyers were at it again this summer. I’m pretty sure this will be my new favorite tree-skiing line. Notice how the trees have been limbed, making what was once a mostly unskiable slog through thick timber a lovely romp through the woods and away from the crowds. Can anyone guess where this is? A super-special attaboy/girl to the first one who comes up with the correct place name.
Place Names at Crystal
Posted in Place NamesSo I have this idea. I want to compile all the place names at Crystal. I want to compare new and old names; I want to share the source of these names. For example, many of you can probably guess why the gully in Memorial is called Gregg’s Gulch. (If not, see earlier post about… Continue Reading
Li’l Tiny Radios
Posted in Place NamesRusty recently wrote a comment about GMRS radios. I thought other people might be curious about them as well so I’m copying my (brief) response here: I always wondered if the ski patrol monitors any GRMS channels for emergencies. I seem to recall that Mt. Baker’s ski patrol monitors Ch 9.11. I know GRMS range… Continue Reading
Avalanche Basin Boundary Line Now Longer!
Posted in Avalanche Hazard, Closures, Place NamesMore and more people seem to have taken up the sport of hiking uphill into the runout zones of avalanche paths in A-Basin, when we have it closed. I dunno, maybe they caught Olympic fever this week and wanna get a jump on it being a 2014 demonstration sport. In any case, ya’ gotta admire their willingness… Continue Reading
Backside Search
Posted in Place Names, Skier/Snowboarder StoriesLast 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… Continue Reading
Whatever Happened to K2 Face
Posted in Closures, Place NamesActually, the K2 Face gate isn’t too high. It’s just not there. In fact, K2 Face isn’t there! Poof–Whole thing–just gone! Look at your Trail Map. It vanished!
What’s a “Ferk” & how do I become one?
Posted in Place NamesKen commented about the renaming of "Iceberg" to "Middle Ferk’s". He thought it might have been Marketing having trouble selling a ski run called “Iceberg”. That makes sense, but there’s an even better story. I figured others might be interested too, so let me take this opportunity to tell the story again. Here’s an exerpt from a letter written… Continue Reading
Avalanche Basin “Traverse-To” Gate
Posted in Avalanche Hazard, Closures, Place NamesWe have re-established the mid-slope “traverse-to” gate from Campbell Basin into Avalanche Basin, with some changes in how/when it will be open…..
Informal Names Part II….Northway
Posted in Place NamesContinuing on from a while back, here are some informal Ski Patrol names for undesignated areas typically accessed by the Northway Chairlift.
Crystal Mt. Hotels Video Blot
Posted in Place Nameshttp://crystalmtvideo.blogspot.com/
Crystal Mt. Hotels / Snorting Elk Photo Blog
Posted in Place Nameshttp://crystalmt.blogspot.com/
Crystal Mt. Hotels / Snorting Elk Blog
Posted in Place Nameshttp://www.crystalmountainblog.com/
Informal “Mountain Top” Place Names
Posted in Place Names…what follows are names, followed by descriptions of locations, for places we have names for, off of what we call “Mountain Top”, the summit of Crystal Mountain itself, and areas accessed mainly by the Rainier Express and Green Valley Express chairlifts…
What do you guys call…?
Posted in Place NamesI often get this question while riding the chairlift. What do you guys call the "s-turn" or "rock face" or "berry patch". I am often surprised by the disparity between the Patrol names versus long time Crystal skier’s names for places. So let’s get the record straight. I would like to collaborate with the skiing… Continue Reading
2012 Dirtbag Ball
Click the photo to find out more!
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