Crystal 07/10 - Last day of the season?

I have a lift ticket from Crystal from July 6, 1999.   I thought it might be fun to break my personal record for latest lift served ski day in WA State, so headed up to Crystal today.   Very few people in the lot when I arrived before 8am and hopped on the gondola at 8:05am.   There were some high thin clouds which kept the temps perfect and the snow from becoming too mushy too fast.    Coverage is really dwindling quickly, with some interesting spots after Snorting Elk on the lower part of Huckleberry getting back to Green Valley. (ie.  take the right fork or you'll end up on dirt .  The best way to access Green Valley Bowl is traversing half way along the cat track towards Rex.  Any other little path through the snow immediately into the bowl is becoming rocky.

All in all it was a fun day skiing some groomers that turned into slushy bumps. There were particularly nice and big bumps under the chair,  although getting there is getting harder and requires a long traverse back once you get into the right side of Green Valley bowl.   Ran into Keith Henson mid-morning and we had some fun runs together.   Very light to non-existent lift lines, with someone on most chairs by mid-morning, but very few full chairs.    A-lot was full when I left after lunch.    I was quite impressed with the number of tourists and buses that were up to take advantage of the Gondola.   

The topics of the day were, will Crystal close today and what was the latest day that Crystal has been open?    Most people remember the record year of 1999,  but some people thought there may have been some sort of platter lift in Green Valley bowl in the summer for  ski camps in the 70s?  Anyone have any memory/experiences of that?

The Patrol I talked to  before I left said they were still not sure if they'll be open another week or not.    They said that they would hopefully make a decision later today.   They said the latest opening date that they knew of was July 14th, 1999,  so if they stay open another weekend they would break that record.   From what I saw/skied today, unless it's an incredibly cold week and they don't lose any more snow, I don't think I'll be back until their lift served season "resumes" this fall.  I had some great days at Crystal this year and having the option to lift ski into April, May etc was great.   I hope that Crystal really does continue to extend their closing date in subsequent seasons.

Ditto everything dave says....and my report.

Was today the season wrap? Lots of opinions say yes, some say the record late ski day is oh so close. Fun day all in all, smaller ski crowd, more tourists, sticker snow earlier, more rocks, high overcast kept the temps reasonable, shorter day for me and JD….Hiked Grubstake Peak a couple of times – just to keep JD from getting bored….and per my lazy whiney personality I complained a lot, but it was nice standing on top lookin at the wide North and getting to ski a great drop fall line run way down off the left shoulder….it was great! This will more than (can anyone really believe it?) likely be my last Crystal report…It was a great season and I’m lookin forward to a short wait for the beginning of next season. Have a great summer doing what ever makes life great…I will…ddk

Today was my 65th and last day of lift-served shredding in WA. Made it down to Crystal in time to be up top around 10:30 when the snow had just started to soften. Coverage was iffy in spots, esp. on the Northway side of the GV terrain. Huckleberry is almost completely gone and the run-out from Snorting Elk to the chair is quite the "choose your own adventure" (pro tip: keep going right until you can't and if given a choice, go right. Otherwise you risk hiking over dirt or fording a knee-deep creek, two things I did both of my 2nd run). The entrance to GV bowl is getting rockier by the turn so don't expect anything without a significant amount of hiking back towards the gondy if they decide to spin the lift next weekend. I don't think there's any way to keep the Northway side of GV open after today and if it is, you probably don't want to adventure into it.

I took a couple of pics w/ my phone:


Snorting Elk Lake from Grubstake Point/Peak.


GV bowl coverage (somewhat deceptive, the snow gets thin and patchy on the last pitch before the chair).

Looks like they're gonna go for it next Saturday. Cloudy forecast probably made the difference. Too bad my free day next weekend (every weekend) is Sunday.

I'm pretty sure I skied on July 23rd in 1972 or 1973, both world snow record seasons at Mt Rainier. Airborn Eddie was running his freestyle ski camps at that time. I don't remember a platter lift but I think they had one in Campbell basin on a temp basis, they had a couple world cup downhills back in the early days. The following year they opened on Oct 17th, now that was a long season.

I also remember skiing in green valley late in July back in the early 70's. I don't remember the date but always remembered it as the last weekend in July. The original gv double chair was built in the 60's. I think it was there for the second season which was 63-64. For the World Cup they had two handle tows up the back side of silver queen. The first went up the ridge from windy pass. Then you traversed over into Kempers and a second tow went to the top. They were to steep to haul tobagans up so they lowered them from helicopters as we stood on top of the queen to receive them.