July 2-3, 2006, In the snow shadow of Mt Rainier

This was not a ski trip, but I thought other Crystal Mountain skiers might find it interesting. My wife, son and I spent a couple days hiking near Crystal Mountain this weekend. I've always known that Crystal is in the snow shadow of Mount Rainier, but this trip really demonstrated it graphically.

In the photo above, notice how the snowpack disappears north (right) of Siver Basin (the basin just left of my son, in the distance). This picture was taken from Crown Point and it looks along the Cascade Crest toward Threeway Peak. Right now, the south edge of Mount Rainier's snow shadow is clearly visible running roughly along this crest. Morse Creek, Chinook Pass and areas to the south still have lots of snow above about 5500 feet. Crystal Mountain, East Peak and points north are mostly dry, with just isolated snow patches.

I've talked to people who did snow surveys in the 1950s to determine the feasibility of building a ski area at Crystal. They started out investigating Corral Pass, farther north and even deeper in the snow shadow, and abandoned it due of lack of snow. It was fun during our hike to really see the effect of the snow shadow, something normally left to the imagination. I've marked the approximate south boundary of the snow shadow on the map below. The north boundary is just a guess.