april 9, 2007, 3 way peak/crystal basin

knowing that i've been deprived of washington mountains for the past 8 months, monika agreed to take me on a short tour on monday morning.  at 6 am, she called to report that the telemetry looked best down south, so we headed to crystal.  the weather was blustery and snowing when we arrived in the crystal parking lot around 9:15, and after some fumbling around with gear (more so on my part than monika's) we began skinning up under the quicksilver lift by around 10.

the snow was pretty solid underneath our skis, but there was a nice soft fluffy 2" or so that had accumulated already.  at the top of the lift, we followed the trail through the woods to where the crystal basin opened up.  at that point, the snow had stopped and we were beginning to see sunny skies above.  here we discovered about 4-6" of new on top of a very consolidated base.

we continued skinning up towards the saddle adjacent to 3 way peak at ~6500'.  after a few pictures (which i'll post when i find the cord to my camera in my luggage), monika lept off the ridge into the clean line below, making graceful turns.  my virginia legs did not allow me to look so graceful when it was my turn... ::)  the stuff on top was nice and soft, but the stuff underneath was a bit chunky and grabby in the infamous cascade style--but i was happy to be in winter anyway.  :D

after skiing down about 1900' to almost the bottom of the basin, we decided to make one more lap from a slope just above us.  at this point the clouds rolled in and the snow began falling once again, with a little more gusto this time.  we climbed another 600' and hid from the wind behind a rock outcropping while changing modes.  the light was a little flat on this descent, but the turns were still a blast.

we finished with a fast ego-boosting run underneath the quicksilver chair, and were back at the car by 1:30pm.  thanks monika for a great girls day out!  i was really glad to try out my backcountry legs again after a long hiatus, and loved spending the day back in the cascades in good company.  8)