Familiar Place, Unfamiliar Season

Crystal Mountain is one of my go-to spots for backcountry skiing, with consistent snow quality and moderate terrain. Outside of ski season, I generally try to stay away from my common ski spots, preferring to explore more remote and rugged locations. However, a unique set of constraints – clouds on the west side, fire closures on the east side, and an afternoon event I had to get home for – led me and Chris to check out the trails at Crystal Mountain one late summer day.

Crystal Mountain is situated in a classic north facing glacial valley, with 6000-7000 ft ridges encircling it on three sides. There are nice trails and ridges along the rim of the valley, making for an obvious “orbit”. Our plan was to start at Norse Peak, run the PCT down to Sourdough Gap, then follow the ridges back over the ski area.

For the first time in many months, we started out legitimately cold; it was about 40 degrees at the car. The Norse Peak trail is very gentle and runnable, although we mostly did a run walk mix because I didn’t want to burn myself out like I did on the Mt. Daniel Circumnavigation with Chris.

Like so many days I have experienced at Crystal, we were in a hole in the clouds, protected by the giant shadow of Mt. Rainier. Clouds floated by to our north and south, but we had lovely sunshine.

The PCT in this section is absolutely buttery. We had a blast running past so many familiar ski lines. Without snow, it becomes clear why Crystal is such a good place for early season backcountry skiing – many areas need hardly a foot or two of snow to be skiable.

Onwards we went, past East Peak, the Bullion Face, the Tube of Tastiness, the Union Trees, the south face of Crown Point. We’ve skied almost every nook and cranny out here, so it was fun to reminisce about all the good times.

Even though it was the last weekend of August, a few blueberry bushes were already transitioning to a bright red. The cool temps and fall colors really get me excited for the next month and a half, one of my favorite periods all year!

We ran into a bunch of hikers above the Crystal Lakes, but other than that and the Crystal Mountain Gondola, we saw very few other hikers.

We left the trail a little bit after Sourdough Gap, but found elk trails to follow up “The King”! The elk had beaten down a nice path, making places to put your feet in the steep terrain and paths through the trees when needed. It was a simple walk to the summit.

I wasn’t sure how the ridge line travel would be, but people regularly traverse it in the winter from the ski resort, so I figured it would be pretty easy. Indeed, it was mostly quick and easy, sometimes on the ridge, and sometimes ducking into the trees on elk paths. Certain spots stank like elk. The only steeper section was descending off Silver Queen, but we once again found elk trails to make the sidehilling easier. Once we entered the resort, we huffed it up some roads to the Summit House and Gondola.

From the ski area, we took the gentle Northway Trail back down. This descent spreads the nearly 3000 ft vertical over 6 miles. It is straight, smooth, and super fun! Chris always pushes me to be more of an actual runner, so we ran the whole descent non stop. I even clocked a sub 8 minute mile, which I believe is a first for me on a real mountain run!

I had always written off Crystal Mountain as a relatively uninteresting summer destination. While it does not have the grandeur of areas further north, this route definitely exceeded my expectations. The reward to effort ratio is fantastic, the off trail travel is fun and easy, and the trails are super good for running! I would recommend this to anyone who is comfortable on trails and looking to do an easier “high route”.

Notes:

• The route was 21 miles, nearly 6k gain, and took us about 5.5 hours at a decently quick pace.
• There were no water sources on this route until the Summit House. I wouldn’t recommend this on a hot summer day, but it’d be nice easier earlier in the summer where there is snowmelt for water or later in the summer, like this day.
• Crystal Mountain sits in the rain shadow of Rainier, so it is often nice weather even when other areas on the west side are socked in!
• The off trail travel was mostly walking, with nothing really I’d even consider scrambling. There was a small amount of steep heather descending from Silver King, but you can skip Silver King and traverse the west side of it on elk trails.