Weekend stay “Crystallizes” perspective, future vacation plans

"Will take our own chair, thank you very much."

It’s early February and families all over Washington are gearing up for mid-winter break, aka “ski week,” when we pile into the car and drive off for a week of skiing bliss, as sacred a tradition as the summer sojourn to the grandparents. Unfortunately, many of the state’s school systems plan to abolish midwinter break in 2013, in an effort to match national testing schedules.  But don’t panic, I just spent a long weekend at Crystal Mountain with my two boys plus another family and couldn’t have been happier. Suddenly, those back-to-back three-day weekends aren’t looking so bad.

Crystal looks different when you stay over for the weekend. We linger longer at the Bullwheel, make time for the Snorting Elk and don’t worry when the sun descends behind High Campbell, our journey home requiring no more than careful steps across the snow to our hotel room. But staying on mountain really shines when you have the kids in tow. Gone is the early “wakeup, out the door” drill, the bane of every ‘tween or teen.

Kids also ski harder with more sleep, the back-to-back days also engender a certain ownership. Kids bond swiftly when sharing the ski hill for a few days, exemplified by our gaggle, four kids ages 7 to 11, who announced they were going to scoot up Gold Hills for a few more runs, as we parents settled into sunny après on the deck.

Decktop view in Crystal Mountain sunshine

So if you still consider a weekend spent at Crystal a glorified  “staycation,” book some rooms this season and see how the mountain changes. Your kids will thank you for it, if you can ever get them off the hill!

I’m Dreaming of a White Season

Gondola Dreams (Crai S Bower)

As the holidaze comes to an end, I’m still dreaming. December 25^th may have passed, but I resolve in 2012 to dream big, so how ‘bout (queue the orchestra) dreaming of a white six months. Six months, you say? Wasn’t that you skiing seven months ago under the rockets red glare on July 4^th?! So why not dream big again this year. But let’s ignore fresh tracks in June for a moment, and concentrate on January, because the weather forecast looks very sweet indeed for Crystal Mountain.

As you can see from the photograph, Crystal remains front and center in my house throughout the holiday, when my growing boys invariably unwrap new ski boots, the texts, tweets and Facebook messages invariably ask who’s heading to the hill and when, and I wonder if my absence during the frenzied wrapping/baking days would be noticed by anyone or, to be honest, my wife, should I chose to practice carving the turkey or ham by carving a few turns in the Green Valley. I would have been crazy not to trade blade for ski edge this Thanksgiving, when another early snow dump had people buzzing about “Wicked Crazy Snow Year – The Sequel.”

But now it’s January, the snow is flying and the texts and posts are already screaming about the great skiing and snowboarding at Crystal. Our toy Crystal gondola may be stowed in newspaper awaiting its cable over the village come next December but no problem, because I’m planning to make the real Mt. Rainier Gondola my second home for a few months.

So stay tuned. I’m psyched to use this blog as a forum to profile some of the characters who devote their lives to making Crystal our Cascades playground, share some tales from the slopes, and pass along insights and highlights celebrating why Crystal Mountain is a dream of a ski area.

- Crai S Bower http://www.FlowingStreamWriting.net  Twitter: @craisbower

Opening weekend 2011

The day everyone (or me, at least) waits for all summer long, has finally come and gone. Crystal Mountain opened November 19 and winter officially began!

It was a banger weekend with light, fluffy snow on top of a thin base layer. Sure, I have a few deep scratches on the bottom of my board, but those knee deep pow turns were well worth it.

~ Justus

Grill your skis this Memorial Day *archival post*

This post was originally published on May 27, 2011

Memorial Day Weekend 2011 approaches. Time to schedule that barbecue, perhaps a trip to the Folklife Festival or a few days in the garden. But 2011 is no ordinary year, so why not throw a wrinkle into the routine…and go skiing. That’s right, Crystal Mountain will welcome skiers and snowboarders all weekend long. And this isn’t just a late spring novelty run, Crystal has four chairs operating to service the new snow that has fallen almost every night this month.

The mountain plans to stay open on weekends as long as there is snow to shred, though this is the last weekend that Rainier Express will be open. Think of the bragging rights at next weekend’s brunch (when Western Washington weather is supposed to improve dramatically) when you state you skied on Crystal’s 600th inch of snow in 2011. That’s right, Crystal has received 50 feet of snow this winter, crazy especially when we consider most of it only started falling in February.

And this isn’t slushy spring skiing either. Washington’s cool temps means that mountain temperatures remain in the low to mid 30’s, perfect for skiing in late May. Did I just write “skiing in late May?” Man, that’s fun to say. So save the steaks for the real summer, the snow and slopes are calling.

~Crai Bower

Spring fling- why March madness rules in the mountains *archival post*

This post was originally published March 16, 2011 on crystalmountainresort.com

In the Northwest, we treat March like the middle child of the seasons, not quite strong enough to claim winter status, yet rarely handled with the gentleness of spring. I asked several friends about ski plans this week and they responded flatly, “I’m so finished with winter.”

And these are religious skiers, season pass holders who hit Crystal every Sunday from early December until the last day of February. In their minds, mid-March means brushing off the grill, admiring the daffodils and stowing the (still much needed) parka as an act of defiance against Mother Nature. Middle child indeed.

Their loss – our gain. In a non-scientific review of my journal, I often find that winter is just getting started in March, when obstinate storms blow in dispatching sweet inches of fresh snow. Those who view March as more lamb-like than leonine may get the edge on their golf swings, but they leave the rest of us with all the more terrain of untracked snow to explore. Consider that by Wednesday of this week alone, Crystal’s received two more feet of snow on top of almost 400 inches this season!

Of course March does bring more days (or at least hours) of sunshine than February, but who doesn’t love sunshine?  When you combine extra rays with good snow and cool temps you get, not just spring, but the season’s best skiing conditions.

I suggest you toss those golf clubs, hiking boots and camping materials back in the storage closet, wax your board or skis and head back to Crystal because in the retro-loving twenty-teens, late adaptors rule.

~Crai Bower

Forget La Niña, it’s time to ski! *archival post*

This post was originally published February 17, 2011

Farmers, birdwatchers and skiers share a certain preoccupation with the weather. I write this with rare authority: my mother raises horses, I have a degree in ornithology and I ski now and again. My mother still opens every conversation during haying season with the forecast, even though I live 3,000 miles away. Birders will call in sick, board a plane and fly 3,000 miles if a particular type of high pressure front suggests rare migratory birds might get blown off course and land somewhere unusual. And most of the skiers I know check a series of ski area weather reports each morning with a religious devotion that my Italian great grandmother committed to morning mass.

The weather people (Cliff Mass, UW Professor of Meteorology is my favorite) predicted great things for us this year. The birth of another La Niña year would most likely result in huge dumps of snow due to increased precipitation. Skiers and snowboarders across the Northwest went racing to the hills in November, confident the early snowfall indicated the snow was here to stay. We wanted a return of ’98 so badly, we skipped right on past the fine print from Dr. Mass and others, that little bit at the bottom that read “…may also result in unseasonably warm temperatures.”

Our Friday bus stop conversations sounded an awful lot like a gaggle of farmers stopping at the village store for their coffee during a rain-filled summer. “Weather could be good for Sunday.” “I don’t know, if it pours like last week I won’t be heading out.” “I sense a break in the clouds this weekend.”

Even deep into January, we refused to believe that this year might fail to produce the snow of the century. But if we had received the crazy snow we’ve all been dreaming about since October, we may well have greeted this week’s accumulation with a ho-hum attitude, blasé about the back-to-back-back fresh snow days.
Instead, we’re thrilled to call this week awesome. Each day the Crystal Powder Alert greets me with good news. How good? http://www.Skiinfo.com ranks Crystal’s seven day accumulation of 67 cm (26 in)  5th among U.S. ski resorts and 13th most in the world! So I suggest we take this opportunity to live in the moment and stop fretting about the winter that could have been.

However, if you have any insight into next week’s weather? Well then I’m all ears.

~Crai Bower

Groomers are for everyone: from newbies to Olympic champions *archival post*

This post was originally published on January 25, 2011 on crystalmountainresort.com

These days, most people talk about powder as if it’s powder or nothing, a day spent skiing on groomed snow is a day wasted. And it’s true, tearing down a hill in fresh, light snow provides an adrenaline rush worth hooting and hollering about for sure. (Teaching moment – always hoot and holler on a powder day when skiing in the trees. This way, friends can keep track of where you’re going in case you discover a treewell or worse. And if it isn’t obvious, always, ski with a companion.) But I, or the parent in me, digress.

Agreed, powder is magical, but it’s not for everyone. Our unique brand of western Cascade powder can easily intimidate an experienced skier. Even more importantly, it’s not a prerequisite for enjoying a great day on the hill. The much-maligned groomer provides excellent terrain for any serious skier.
And groomers aren’t just good runs for kids, beginning skiers and warm ups. They’re excellent habitat all the time. Here’s how I learned to appreciate the groomers.

Ever ski with Nancy Greene? You know Nancy, 1968 Canadian Gold Medalist, Canadian Female Athlete of the 20th Century, Canadian Senator for Life and – Yes, that Nancy.

One thing you quickly learn from skiing with Nancy is that she never stops working on her technique, regardless of the conditions. The Rossland, B.C. native can still ski like the wind on any terrain, but I’ve had the privilege to ski with her several times over the years and can testify she treats a groomer the exact same way she treats off the piste cottony fluff. Not only does she never cease concentrating, Ms. Greene never forgets (or lets you forget) that just the fact we’re skiing makes us the luckiest folks in the world.

Hey, we all love big snow, but a “no pow” day doesn’t equal a blown day. So next time you find the best conditions on the groomed runs, let your skiing do the talking, and the white stuff will take care of itself.

~Crai Bower

Singing a bluebird melody *archival post*

This post was originally published December 31, 2010 on crystalmountainresort.com

What exactly is a Bluebird Day? Is it open to interpretation, like “packed powder,” a marketing term perhaps or an enticing way to communicate to jealous friends sequestered back home that clear skies radiate a blissful experience? At Crystal, there’s a simple methodology for determining the bluest of days, a 14,410-foot divining rod that, when visible, buzzes skiers, riders and, soon, gondola-accessed Summit House diners that yes, today is a bluebird day.

I couldn’t wait to get up Rainier Express on December 30th to see if the mountain was out, specifically to show my family what I meant when during a KUOW Present segment I gushed: “on a clear day at Crystal you can reach out and scratch the snow off Mt. Rainier.” So, after a birthday lunch at Cambbell Basin Lodge for a 41-year friend who was off to celebrate in Silver Basin– ??his?? bluebird day turned purple and gold when his beloved Huskies stormed Nebraska in the Holiday Bowl that night, we jumped on the Rainier Express chair to the summit.

Admittedly, the 7-year olds were less than awed by the sight, quickly commanding “let’s go” with the youthful insouciance but my partner, seeing the mountain from this perspective for her first time, remained still as a snow ghost until the cool temperatures, part of the ridge of high pressure that brought these clear skies, mandated a return to movement.

No words were spoken between us expressing the splendor of ??Tahoma,?? though I thought I heard a mountain bluebird singing somewhere off in the distance.

~ Crai S. Bower