Crystal Mountain

Yesterday I made my way to Crystal Mountain. After some coffee in Bellingham, I drove a few hours to Seattle, and stopped at the Trabant Chai Lounge to visit the owner, a friend of mine from back in high school. More coffee, and a bite to eat, and I was back on the road to Crystal Mountain. I found a nice little parking spot around 12:30 and made camp for the night (in the car).

Crystal itself is beautiful, nestled in a steep and deep valley, with a good variety of terrain. Unfortunately, the snow was still a bit thin, and there were rocks poking through in plenty of places. Nonetheless, there was a healthy base, and both express six pack lifts were running. I took a ride up Chinook to survey the lay of the land, and followed the very light crowd down the hill. Nice easy runs, good for cruising, though a little sticky from the rain. Yes, it was raining on the lower part of the hill most of the day, which had me so soaked I had to change at lunch time into a dry set of clothing. Time for a new jacket - mine has been tested, and it is not waterproof. The pants were great, though - North Face rocks.

I did manage to find my way over to the Forest Queen, and there were some blue runs, with some that were black on the map, but not really so bad. The most interesting was a run with 'caution' markings from the Chinook lift. It was a traverse to get to a steeper section of the lower mountain, and about two hundred yards from the lift, there were 2 seperate creeks. So, did I stop and go back? Of course not! This was an interesting and new challenge for me. I climbed up the hill a little bit so I could get some speed, and then slid as fast as I could on the sticky snow. A jump right off the edge - and I did a face-plant on the far side of the first creek. Cleared the water, but I was going so slow there was no chance to stay upright and make the jump. For the second creek, I managed to get a bit more speed, and the satisfaction of jumping that creek and staying upright was thrilling. I slid away with that "I'm on top of the world" feeling. Who needs a terrain park anyway?

Here I am enjoying a snow flurry at the top of the Forest Queen lift.















And this is a view of one of the small bodies of water just beginning to freeze over. Good reason not to cross the rope lines.














A video of the view from the top of the Forest Queen