CRYSTAL MTN OPENING DAY: Worth the drive
Crystal Mountain Opens to Four Feet of Fresh
Friday November 4th started innocently enough. I arrived at the office, made some calls, answered some emails, and talked with coworkers about their plans for the weekend. With a few inches of snow overnight here in Sun Valley, ID, the season was close, even if it still seemed so far away. As the day wore on, reports of huge snowfall totals from Washington State began to trickle into the office, making our Friday afternoon all the more difficult to finish. Crystal Mountain, Washington was experiencing their best opening day ever, and other resorts in the region were opening soon as well. I placed a call to Wayne Grevey—a legend at Crystal—to ask him about the first day. He replied nonchalantly, “thigh deep and it’s dumping right now.” At that very instant, computers were shut down, and work was put on hold. Within a matter of minutes I rallied two of my coworkers, Cory and Ben, grabbed the keys to the company car, and hit the road—destination Crystal Mountain.
A quick 11-hour drive later and we pulled up to Crystal Mountain at 3:00am, greeted by a landscape we had not seen in months. Huge piles of powder lined the parking lot and the towering evergreens caked in snow told us that we would be skiing deep pow in just a few hours.
The early morning lineup for first chair was brimming with energy. Even though the reality of skiing powder was inevitable, we could not believe where we were or what we were about to experience. Twenty minutes later we were nuking down untracked lines—face shots galore, laughing at our good fortune and first run of the season. Usually, opening day consists of dodging gapers on a man made groomer. At Crystal, it meant dodging tree branches burdened by the weight of four feet of snow, while ripping filled in lines through steep tree shots.
After some deep top to bottom runs down Exterminator, including a few warm up cliff drops, we headed over to the High Campbell chair that was just about to open. Our timing was perfect and Campbell Basin offered up some really smooth, fast, and deep powder runs. Was it really November 5? This was big-time skiing, regardless of the month. We felt that if we drove back to Sun Valley right then, the trip would have been worth it. But we also knew that the Snorting Elk Cellar would be hopping at the end of the day. So we celebrated our return to winter by plunging headfirst into our first après session. After many cold beers, we walked back to our hotel room in a full-on blizzard and knew that tomorrow was going to be even better.
We awoke early the next morning to assume our place in the lineup. After our first day on snow, the legs were barkin,’ but we knew rest could wait. On our first run, Wayne took us to one of his secret stashes just as the low rising sun came out to greet us with a golden carpet of deep, untracked snow. This surreal scene was almost too much to handle, as we sped down the hill spraying huge plumes of cold, gold, smoke high into the air. We could have been heliskiing anywhere in the lower 48. Instead, we were skiing directly off a chairlift, on November 6. All we could do was laugh.
The next morning we called into the office ill. Our health was fine but the conditions were sick, so we made a few more runs, and then called it good. Heading back to Sun Valley, we replayed our favorite lines and airs and recounted the best opening weekend we’d ever seen. No matter the month, shredding fresh snow on killer terrain is always worth the journey (even if it’s a 24-hour drive). With a bomber base already set up at Crystal Mountain, we know that we’ll be making the long drive again soon. What are you waiting for?