Feb 16 Crystal Mountain

Shovel. Beacon. Probe. Checkpoint. Upper access only. Problem solved. This is the policy many other places and the results are fantastic. Alpental's lax policy has been enforced from time to time and when it is, the vibe, turns , and gapage are greatly minimized. Although ripopotums or whoever he is a bit rediculous, he s right that the fall line should be utilized. People are lazy and many times that works to benefit those of us who dont mind a hike or short skin. But really, the problem wil only grow larger with the size of ski tourism and waist size. I see it all the time at Powder Mountain. On any given day there is a vast ammount of tourists who have no idea where to go when the pickings get slim. But they do know that a long traverse out a ridge etc. may yield some less populated areas. Sometimes they end up down the road a couple miles and are stripped of their ticket and handed and courtdate for trespassing (rarely, but does occur). Easy access is the culprit. If you dont have to take off your skis, then there will be traversing and idiots with POV cams claiming they had a great day with their 3 turns in the "BC". Kircher and co. want those folks though, so I feel like the lower A basin gate is an asset to them to provide easy access to the southback. Stupid as it is, its appealing to many and a magnet for those less educated about the terrain and the benefits of breaking a sweat to earn some goods...the majority of Xtal guests. Get the policy in place and bam...I think you will see a difference.

Just a little observation from looking closely at the now-infamous bowl traverse in the pretty sunshine this weekend. From the FQ chair it sure looks to me like an enormous quantity of skiers who have indeed climbed to the top of the king or dropped in between the saddle and the summit take a hard right as soon as they can and ride that traverse as far out as they can. I'd have to say by the number of tracks that actually stay on the fall line all the way down that probably 70% do NOT ski the fall line to its natural conclusion. I'm sure there's no one here but me that's ever done that though, but at least I'll cop to it.



The farther you go in that direction, the wider and deeper the traverse gets, so I'm kinda thinking - being the devil's advocate that I am prone to being - that blaming it all on the 'lazy' who enter through the lower a-basin gate is, well, not exactly accurate. Not saying it's right or wrong, just what I saw.

Just a little observation from looking closely at the now-infamous bowl traverse in the pretty sunshine this weekend. From the FQ chair it sure looks to me like an enormous quantity of skiers who have indeed climbed to the top of the king or dropped in between the saddle and the summit take a hard right as soon as they can and ride that traverse as far out as they can. I'd have to say by the number of tracks that actually stay on the fall line all the way down that probably 70% do NOT ski the fall line to its natural conclusion. I'm sure there's no one here but me that's ever done that though, but at least I'll cop to it.



The farther you go in that direction, the wider and deeper the traverse gets, so I'm kinda thinking - being the devil's advocate that I am prone to being - that blaming it all on the 'lazy' who enter through the lower a-basin gate is, well, not exactly accurate.  Not saying it's right or wrong, just what I saw.

From my experience the traverse line you are talking about is at that elevation to allow you to get to the top of DFF without a climb. If you go much lower than that traverse line it requires you to sidestep up to get to the best( highest) entrance and best fall line down to Lake E. If you ski the fall line all the way down into the very bottom of the bowl ( assuming you are dropping from the King or the ridge) you will have to take a less direct run ( that is definitely not fall line) to avoid a bit of a climb or sidestep.
This also applies from my experience if you are skiing down the Throne into Avy Basin as well. Most people that ski down from the Throne down into Avy Basin also try and get to to the high point of DDF to get the most run for your buck. This requires you to hit a hard right and hit that traverse line below the King before the bottom.... so like you I think the Avalanche Basin traverse line is more to do with people trying to get both a King/Throne run with a good DDF run rather than people traversing from the Hamburger gate. I don't think its laziness that causes people in that location to traverse before the bottom but more a result of trying to get a continuous run without a sidestep interruption.

I skied out through the lower gate saturday to take a look in the sun. The area just outside the gate and below the rock face above, was skied out down to the trees below. There were only 2-3 tracks from the Throne/West Saddle that were impacted by the traverse across the bowl. (Impacted means the had to ski across a foot wide traverse for 4 more turns before ending up in the hole). Every other track from the middle/east end of the saddle, sawquatch, pinball etc. all turned and traversed. From that point, the traverse track grew in size from the dozen or so that went from the lower gate to a huge collector the rest of the way across the King. I'd say the a ratio of 10 tracks off the King pulling onto the traverse to 1 track skiing below it.
There was a guy just outside the gate that asked where "this run" ended up. I told him he was in Southback and best not to ski it without a guide to show the way as it was all powder and trees. He was grateful for the info and traversed back under the rope and skied the Basin back to the chair.

Wow! Guess it's not just the lazy and not-gnarly-enough after all!