Crystal Southback avy control?

I was surprised to learn something new when I read the sad news of the Silver basin avy fatality.  Apparently Crystal does control terrain outside of their southback gate, all the way to Three way peak. Wow.

I have always treated terrain outside gates as backcountry. Lately, the term “side country” has been diminished to combat the familiarity and easy access trap we find just outside of resort bc gates.

In terms of operations, it is clear from examining terrain and potential runouts that Crystal must do some level of southback control to protect inbounds terrain. Same holds true of Baker’s management of Hemispheres wrt Gunner’s and the Canyon. Even the Arm gets blasted on severe occasions.

I know for sure that Baker does not promise avy control for terrain outside of their gates. I guess I’ve always assumed the same is true at Crystal but the recent reporting and quotes from Crystal representatives seems to indicate otherwise. What​​​​​’s the real deal?

Probably because its still in the permitted ski area

Yes, they control/patrol out to three way and allow ski area skier access via gates.

From what I remember Crystal only does avy control to 3 Way Peak to the old run called Two Easy Turns.  Any runs NE of this is not controlled such as Speed Control, Gun Barrel all the way to Dog Leg chute

Cool. Thanks for the info

At Whistler I have been told by patrol that they avy control Flute/Lesser Flute/Encore Ridge to the same standards of the resort. They also do have gates they close if they cannot meet those standards.

i don’t know about Crystal, but “same standards as the rest of the resort” is key here. Unless they say that, they could just be doing occasional bombing to bring down big stuff. I think we know that is not always effective…