Crystal Mountain

Been skiing this hill pretty hard for 3 years, don't think any 2 days have ever been the same.  An amazing number of bowls to to choose from if you want to hike a bit you can double it.  And yes there is snow in them, lots of snow.  The weather and visibility can truly suck sometimes but there are lots of trees to help out with that.  There are so many different major bowls that you ski many require riding 2 lifts but weekdays there are NO LIFT LINES so not much waiting around. 

 Northway chair is the newest big thing here and it tells the story of this MT  Boyne owns this speed-bump,  2 years ago they put in a new 2K vertical double chair and all the terrain is black or double black, and it is all groom it yourself; what a playground. You have a lot of traverses to get to some of the goods and you will ski bumps to get back to the chair, but is worth it.  There are 2 chairs with this type of goods on it, so if you can turn both ways you have a playground.  You are in the Cascades so the snow can be heavy, but it can also be very light (much like the snow @ Alyeska).  Another attitude point there is no terrain park,but there is a racing program. 

Very little village, has the feel of a very large day ski area.  There are still lots blues and greens for friends and family.  There are better ski areas in the world, but not in Washington.  This place is well worth a day.

Crystal resort is now my family's home ski area. As an individual who grew up skiing, and then after moving away from home didn't ski again for almost 20 years, Crystal was a great place to get back in the groove.

My two oldest children (7 & 11) are in their first year of skiing, and thanks to the excellent ski school at Crystal, are about to start tackling blue runs after just 5 weeks of lessons. For beginners, be aware that the "Meadow" run off the basic lift called Discovery is a very gentle slope. The next green run you try after this though (usually Skid Road or Tinkerbell), is significantly steeper-there is not an imbetween slope. For my wife, a non-skiier who just took her first lessons, this was a real challenge.

For me, it's been great getting back into the groove on this beautiful mountain. I started out off Forest Queen, exploring the "Downhill" run (which was actually used for a World Cup DH in 1971), then after feeling comfortable-headed over to the Rainier Express lift down Lucky Shot/Little Shot. After exploring this area, I heading further North to the Green Valley lift, which is great-it has access to a nice bowl, some fast groomed trails, and a couple steep faces under the chair lift. Once I explored this area, I wanted to head out to Northway, but the number of black runs made me leery. Then, I met a former instructor who said she's ski over that way with me. It was great, and really helped me get my confidence back. Northway is a delight. Some very steep cliffs/chutes, several bowls, lots of tree skiing, and a few standard runs. A great area to explore for advanced intermediate skiiers and experts.

Once I've fully explored Northway, I'm going to head over to the Campbell basin lift, which has access to a couple of very steep double black bowls. Past Campbell Basin, there is a backcountry area called Southback which is very popular with expert skiiers. Don't know if I myself will be ready for that area for another year or two.

I have skiied at a number of Washington ski areas, including Stevens Pass and Mission Ridge (where I took ski lessons as a kid), and Crystal by far has the most varied terrain. Having many areas to get a bite or take a break up on the mountain is a nice feature as well.