Doing Crystal On Opening Day
by Shanti Sosienski
(December 1, 1996)

Anticipation of an opening day always makes the drive seem twice as long and every landmark on the way seemed further than I had remembered from the previous year. Finally by ten we were booted, suited, and heading for the ticket counter.

It was a perfect bluebird day. Crisp and cold with just a touch of fog. We were ready for 10:00 tracks. These aren't quite as epic as first chair tracks, but never the less are still a stoke at the beginning of every season. We took one last look at the base lodge and headed toward the Midway chair.

Dina was trying out a new step-in system this year, I had a new board and boots, and Susanna had a new board and old boots. We were pumped. The one good thing about showing up late on the first day is that the bottom chairlift is often empty. At mountains like Crystal, everyone is already on the top riding all of the perfect powder by ten because they know the weather could change in a minute and turn to nasty Norwester' rain.

We slid right onto the chair. Well, actually we sort of scooted onto the chair Crystal recently installed this thing at the bottom which they call a Magic Carpet. Why they installed this incredibly expensive and useless appearing contraption, is completely beyond me. For those of you who've not had the pleasure of experiencing one, it is like a moving astro turf carpet that you are supposed to slide out onto and it moves you while the chair comes launching in at you. All in all it was just way too many moving objects for us to comprehend in the morning, and I found myself sitting in Susanna's lap as we piled onto the chair.

But finally we were moving up the mountain. It all was going quite well until about halfway up when the lift paused, and then completely stopped. No big deal we thought. Then five minutes later the fog started rolling in and we were still sitting there. Ten minutes later we could no longer see the sky, and even the trails below us were shrouded in a thick, moist fog bank. First day blues had set in.

"This wouldn't be a big deal if I had taken just one run already," commented Dina as we all watched a beginner snowboarder shave away a steep, powdery mountain side below us. We fought the tears off and after about five more minutes the lift was running again.

The first run with new equipment is always a fun one.

Crystal Mountain is located about two hours southeast of Seattle and is next to Mt. Rainier. At 7,002 feet, the mountain offers up a pretty awesome view of the neighboring peaks, as well as, enough space for ten chairs. In spite of the excellent early season snow coverage, only five of the ten lifts were open, but this didn't hinder our ventures off-piste into the trees. One of the best things about Crystal is the extensive tight tree runs and steepness of the mountain. Even the beginner trails don't seem like they could support a So Cal park or pipe, and so instead of even trying, Crystal just leaves the natural terrain alone. This doesn't mean that there aren't hits, because we certainly found our fill of walls and kickers, but like many mountains in the Northwest, Crystal favors keeping the slopes untamed and open for freeriding.

By mid-day I was the only one in my group who had worked the kinks out of my system. Because there are no friends on a powder day, while Susanna and Dina headed for the lodge, I jumped back on the lift. I was fortunate enough to find a couple of buddies from Gnu/Lib Tech to ride with for the next hour, then they had to split. So, once again I was alone. On a fresh day this isn't a bad thing when you know the mountain. However, this was my fifth time at Crystal in six years and it's the kind of mountain that when it gets tracked, takes no mercy. Huge ski moguls and rocky spots started to show in the afternoon giving the bones a nice jarring feeling as I tried to gracefully slide over them.

A few runs later I was saved from ending my day in tracked crud when I found locals Temple and Matt Cummins. I followed them off a lift and up a snowy path on the spine of a ridge. Circe Wallace and Andy Hetzel were with them up visiting from California and within fifteen minutes the five of us were traversing a minimally tracked powder field, shooting for the trees. One more unbuckle and short walk later we were surveying a perfect untouched snow covered chute from the top. I had a few moments of "what the f-k am I doing here," before I was forced to buckle in and follow Circe. There was no going back, only forward. I followed her taking one nice, quick rolling nose dive tumble, before relaxing into some quality turns behind her tight line.

We paused below the chute for a second waiting for the guys. Temple came blasting out of nowhere leaving a Kodak-perfect spray of snow behind him. Andy popped off of a decent twenty or more foot cliff and pulled it off, and Matt appeared from behind the rocks, coming down the powder field just behind Andy.

I couldn't help but holler a bit because I was so stoked, whereupon Temple shot me a death glare and more or less told me to shut up. Apparently we were out of bounds, but not out of reach of the ski patrols hearing range. Being the newcomer to the area, I felt a bit like an idiot to the whole scene, so I promptly shut my mouth and tried to contain my enthusiasm for the rest of the journey out of the run.

For fifteen minutes we slid in and out of the trees on the full leg burning deep pow traverse. A couple of times I lost it holding the group up while I dug myself out of the snow. Regardless of my amateur behavior in this snow valley paradise, no one could really be too annoyed because we were all so stoked. We touched a spot that no one else had been yet. First tracks, early season, it doesn't get much better.

When I found my friends again it was nearly dark. In spite of their morning problems, they had managed to get it all dialed by the afternoon and completed the day with some excellent turns. We pulled away from Crystal with burning leg muscles and smiles on our faces. As far as opening days go, I can't imagine many resorts had better so far this season.