two skiers missing at the Crystal Mountain

I don't think they went out that way Joe, though I could be wrong. The whole thing doesn't make sense. They ran into a car on 410 (?) got bad directions, walked the wrong way? Didn't ask the driver of the car (on a closed road) for help? Driver (on a closed road?) didn't offer to help two obviously lost guys?

WTF?

I'm glad they're all right. I hope they will be able to laugh about it eventually. I can't get too upset. They made mistakes (a whole series of them, apparently) but they tried to help themselves and they made it out safely.

My interpretation of the news stories is that:

1. they somehow crossed from the ski area into Morse Creek and descended to Highway 410

2. they met somebody from the Yakima side who, in response to their questions, told them where they were in relation to Crystal Mountain

3. instead of either retracing their tracks back to Crystal or catching a ride to Yakima, they followed vague directions west along Highway 410, overshot the turnoff to Sheep Lake and Sourdough Gap and skied to Chinook and Cayuse Pass.

4. at Cayuse they made another wrong turn and went south to Ohanapecosh instead of north to the Crystal Mountain road.

Quite a trek!

Hope those dudes aren't at Vertfest tomorrow!

I don't think they went out that way Joe, though I could be wrong. The whole thing doesn't make sense. They ran into a car on 410 (?) got bad directions, walked the wrong way? Didn't ask the driver of the car (on a closed road) for help? Driver (on a closed road?) didn't offer to help two obviously lost guys?

WTF?

While I was typing Lowell beat me to the punch.
Well according to the Ewe, the park acting super. He said they traveled over Chinook and Cayuse passes.
So I assume they went into Morse to get to east side 410 which is open to a gate next to a spur road that accesses Bear Gap/Morse Creek cabins. Due to the lack of snow, That is where they could have run into the guy on 410 in the car and gotten another dose of misinformation.
These guys are not the first guys to mistakenly do this route.

I can only assume that they booted up the highway to Chinook and down to Cayuse and took a left instead of a right.
Just a guess...

or .... coming down the 410 switchbacks they saw 123 and assumed it was another switchback and skied down to it and followed it downhill assuming they were still on 410.

I'm still baffled by how they ran into a car to ask directions?