Crystal Mountain Uphill Travel

Hi All,

We have been trying to work with Crystal to build some better map products, which you can view here below. We have also been talking to the resort to try and work out some solutions for the backcountry community, with the goal of the resort seeing the importance of skinning folk to their community overall and the value that uphill travelers bring to the resort. While there many logistical hurdles, we are still pushing for reasonable access to the Crystal Lakes basin, as we understand the value of that terrain for folks.

That said, much of the patrol at Crystal are avid backcountry skiers and Crystal wants to welcome these folks as much as possible. They have put forth a lot of good-faith efforts to keep accommodating our needs in the face of some pretty blatant and stupid behavior (people skinning up under control work, people skinning up to ride the upper lifts for free... the list goes on). We appreciate it and continue to reap the benefits of relatively reasonable access from the end of the boulevard.

To echo some of the above sentiments: There is a vast amount of terrain near Crystal with great skiing that you can skin to without interacting with the resort scene beyond the parking lot. Arguing about the theoretical legal rights you have to go get a bomb tossed on your head is irrelevant and antithetical to what everyone wants to go do, which is go have a nice time skiing in a quiet place away from a lift line. If you do want to head up towards Pickhandle or 3-way peak, go check in with patrol and make sure you know where you can and can't go. If you just want to get some exercise or test out new gear, the mine-to-market road up Gold hills is always open. Whatever you do, please be cognizant that you represent a community. Crystal as a community may be a commercial entity, but it is made up of people who recognize the value of backcountry skiing and are doing what they can to reach out to us. Let's take ownership of our part of that interaction.

Click on the map to go to the functional version on google maps- forum software won't let me embed the actual map.

go ski.

you shouldn't have to use your brain this much to do it.

concussions from avy control? waiver analysis? uphill within crystal sidecountry while operating on a weekend? you have to be kidding me.

bunch of girly-men bitching on the internet from their condo or cubicle about front country/legal drama. your skis don't care- they just want to go ski. be more like your skis.

How can we tell if our skis are girly or manly? Can you suggest a brand?

FWIW:

Mission ridge's uphill policy excludes uphill travel completely within the permit boundary from 7:00AM to 5:00PM on dats when the lifts will spin.   

Snoqualmie (non-Alpental)  areas have a fairly liberal uphill policy -- but then they should,  in the '80s Kittitas county tried to assess  an "admissions tax" on lift ticket sales.  Ski Lifts Inc successfully contested the tax by claiming it was a "lift ticket" only and a lift ticket was not required for admission to the permit area. 

Alpental is in King County bans skinning in the permit area, they use bombs and ski cuts to intentionally kick off avalanches. The kind of stuff Crystal does in Southback..

RE Alpental uphill policy, not strictly true randy. Per the summits website which has been posted here several times:

Rules of Uphill Travel: Specific to Alpental

At Alpental during the operating season uphill use is allowed ONLY WHEN THE AREA IS OPEN TO CUSTOMERS. When Alpental is closed to customers, it is closed to uphill travelers. This means that if no Alpental chair lift is open to guests, you may not travel uphill; including periods when lifts are delayed or on standby, Mondays, at night or any other period of closure during the operating season.
-Before heading uphill, you must first make contact with patrol staff to determine whether a route can be approved for that day and time.
-This policy applies to all terrain, including the Back Bowls area.
-When traveling to areas beyond the boundary such as Chair Peak or Snow Lake, always stay climbers right and off of any path or resort return trail. Uphill travel is not allowed for any terrain on the South side of the Alpental Valley until you reach Source Lake.
-From Source Lake the distinct drainage known as Great Scott trends south and up to the Tooth and Pineapple Pass. These areas are outside the resort boundary and open to ski touring and other forest users, but please do not travel east into the Alpental ski area permitted terrain.

FWIW:

Mission ridge's uphill policy excludes uphill travel completely within the permit boundary from 7:00AM to 5:00PM on dats when the lifts will spin.   

Snoqualmie (non-Alpental)  areas have a fairly liberal uphill policy -- but then they should,  in the '80s Kittitas county tried to assess  an "admissions tax" on lift ticket sales.  Ski Lifts Inc successfully contested the tax by claiming it was a "lift ticket" only and a lift ticket was not required for admission to the permit area. 

Alpental is in King County bans skinning in the permit area,  they use bombs and ski cuts to intentionally kick off avalanches.  The kind of stuff Crystal does in Southback..

Thanks for the clarification.

Umm, people spend much more time as obstacles to downhill skiers when skinning uphill than when resting on runs. And often they spend time in spots where few skiers would stop unless they'd fallen yard-sale style.

I agree with these statements in cases where the uphill skier isn't using good route judgement. Totally true.

I think uphill skiers have the responsibility to travel in places where they are either out of the way of downhill skiers or easily visible from a distance. This is generally not hard to do if the uphill skier uses reasonable judgement.

There are some places (e.g. beneath knolls and through chokes) where uphill skiing is never a good idea. In these cases uphill skiers should either get off the run (into the woods) or choose a different path altogether. This is just common sense and good citizenship.

Look Jim I get it.   I see who the turns all year ad supporters are.

If Turns all year wants to be a true representation of backcountry skiers, then there's going to be different points of view and expect push back against commercial expansion, and the ideal of commercialism.

Or maybe just change the name to 'commercials all year'.

Honestly, this is hilarious. You're smearing TAY for being too commercial? It's the least commercial site I visit on any regular basis. Your axe must be getting pretty small with all the grinding you've done on it.