Home > Trip Reports > February 1, 2004, Crystal Mountain Backcountry

February 1, 2004, Crystal Mountain Backcountry

2/1/04
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
4380
7
Posted by ron j on 2/1/04 5:23am
What with the preceeding day spent by many of our gang at a mounties avy field trip and the super bowl taking it's toll on the yen of backcountry skiers, it ended up with just the MadDog and yours truly at the trailhead for a planned, easy paced day to harvest some freshies.
We had pretty well had our way with our pit work and stability tests in the same area the day before, thus we knew things were pretty solid and stable below the most recent foot or so of snowfall since the last crust had formed in the snowpack. So we were mainly tuned in the effects of the most recent weather, snowfall and changing elevations and aspects.
What with the overnight freshies, we didn't need to travel far from the car to start harvesting the goods. We worked several pockets that seemed to have been so far overlooked by the weekend's turn earners.
Here's a shot of MadDog sampling the goods:

More pics of the day's skiing can be seen at:
http://groups.msn.com/WildHeartsSkiing/crystalbackcountry.msnw
looks good out there can't wait till I can get out there again.

Nice pic.  Looks like conditions were awesome in southback.

It was one of the best days yet!  With deep freshies, sunny skies, and new untracked lines everywhere we were like a couple of kids with a quarter in a penny candy store and had our own "super bowl" party in the bc  8)

Looking over towards the lift serviced area at Crystal around 9:00 a.m. and seeing all the freshies already tracked out across the whole mountain, we just shook our heads, smiled and were glad that we were out earning our turns and not paying ($$) for them.  ;D

For sure one of my best days yet but I find myself saying that alot. ;D  Yea the resort and it's bc (in some places) sure gets tracks on top of tracks on top of more quickly.  Crystal is the mountain with a thousand locals and locals here can be referred to as locusts cause they harvest fresh snow like such. ;)

I caved in this year and purchased an unlimited pass but made my money back within 6 weeks (just before ski/board school starts).  Even during those cash strapped seasons where there's a will there's a way around lift tickets.  Anyways hard to put a price on turns when conditions are this good. ;D

hard to put a price on turns when conditions are this good. ;D


Nicely said Snoslut, and as Ron said in reply to your lift serviced riding, "You certainly know how to find the inbound goods at crystal."  Good job with staying one step ahead of the crowds.  ;)


Nice pictures.  My neighbor Mike and I mined the east slope of Mt. Hermann yesterday.  Fast food powder five minutes from the baker parking lot.  The snow was amazingly nice!!!  We thought we were in Utah.  

The grande boys were taking the big lines on Table.  Most of been pretty stable as nothing went.  Hope the weather lasts for another good weekend.

Nice, Gregg,  
I get grins and warm fuzzies floating through knee deep freshies 5 minutes from the car.  No, we don't get as many runs as they do in area, but it sure is pleasant, what we do, isn't it?  



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february-1-2004-crystal-mountain-backcountry
ron j
2004-02-01 13:23:50