Crystal Mt. WooHoo!

[Galen]

We been ah waiting for this!

http://www.skicrystal.com/1733.html

[www.oldsnowboards.com]

KILLER!!!!!!!!!!!!

Been meaning to make it up there for a year or so. Now I have ample reason!

SWEET!!!

Thanks for the update Galen!

[P06781]

Crystal is great , had an awesome day there last year on the way up to Bc . Where is this lift going in?

Jim

[www.oldsnowboards.com]

Crystal is great , had an awesome day there last year on the way up to Bc . Where is this lift going in?

Jim

Fixed Grip!

The name for the new chairlift is “Northway.” It will deposit skiers at the top of <?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = ST1 /><ST1:PLACE w:st="on"><ST1:PLACENAME w:st="on">Northway</ST1:PLACENAME> <ST1:PLACETYPE w:st="on">Peak</ST1:PLACETYPE></ST1:PLACE> after a ride of just under 10 minutes. From there, skiers face an amazing choice of skiing Snorting Elk Bowl, Northway Bowl, Paradise Bowl and Bruce’s Bowl, following Right Angle Ridge to a variety of expert glades and chutes or heading farther north to drop into places like Morning Glory Bowl and Brand X. Several new trails are to be constructed that will feed into the bottom of the new lift.<?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O /><O:P></O:P>

Tree cutting began on Monday, June 18<SUP>th</SUP> in the <ST1:PLACE w:st="on">North Country</ST1:PLACE> area.

The lift equipment itself is unusual in these days of high capacity, high speed detachable lifts. Northway is a double chairlift that will move along at a faster-than-standard rate of 550 feet per minute but will limit skier capacity in the new terrain to 1,200 people per hour. This will increase the existing 19,110 people per hour lift capacity to 20,310. “It’s about the skiing.” said Crystal Mountain General Manager John Kircher. “I’m sure people appreciate the big high capacity lifts that we have on the front side of <ST1:CITY w:st="on"><ST1:PLACE w:st="on">Crystal</ST1:PLACE></ST1:CITY>. We have a job to do handling the crowds here but we all see how fast the snow gets tracked out. The new lift in the <ST1:PLACE w:st="on">North Country</ST1:PLACE> is designed to provide access but keep the snow quality higher.” The new lift service will also serve to spread skier traffic out and keep skiers from funneling back through the base area.<O:P></O:P>

[7stg]

This lift will provide easy access to a lot of great terrain.

However, if you read the MDP for Crystal Mountain, they got shafted. Alternative 6 had this lift as a high speed quad with 2,400 PPH serving 48.55 acres of trails 36% Intermediate 3% Adv. Intermediate 61% Expert. This high speed quad would have more adequately served the area. See the chart below of the current lifts and the acreage served.

The decision to go with a two seater has nothing to due with snow quality, that is just putting a positive spin on the decisions made by the powers that be. To me it looks like they wanted the morning glory route but were granted the northway route and the two seater may be a way of biding their time till they can get what they wanted while still opening up new lift serviced terrain in the mean time. The lines on the weekends will be fun. :(

There are many further examples of proposals that were downsized or shot down in the MDP here: http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/mbs/projects/crystal_eis/download.shtml

<table border="1"><tbody><tr><td>Map Reference Lift Name</td><td>Lift Type</td><td>Vert. Rise (feet)</td><td>Horiz. Lengt h (feet)</td><td>Slope Lengt h (feet)</td><td>Hourly Capacity (pph)</td><td>Acres

</td></tr><tr><td>C-1, Miner’s Basin</td><td>Double</td><td> 990</td><td> 3,572</td><td>3,707</td><td>1,200</td><td> 50.7</td></tr><tr><td>C-3, Green Valley Exp.</td><td> Det. Quad</td><td> 918</td><td> 2,645</td><td>2,800</td><td>2,400</td><td> 69.92</td></tr><tr><td>C-4, Quicksilver Exp.</td><td>Double</td><td> 916</td><td> 4,448</td><td>4,541</td><td>1,070</td><td> 35.97</td></tr><tr><td>C-6, High Campbell</td><td>Double</td><td> 912</td><td> 2,258</td><td>2,435</td><td> 978</td><td> 67.61</td></tr><tr><td>C-7, Gold Hills</td><td> Triple</td><td> 588</td><td> 1,878</td><td>1,968</td><td> 1,800</td><td> 26.09</td></tr><tr><td>C-8, Discovery</td><td> Triple</td><td>162</td><td>1,445</td><td> 1,454</td><td>1,800</td><td>12.47</td></tr><tr><td>C-9, Forest Queen Exp.</td><td>Det. 6-pac</td><td>1,137</td><td>4,443</td><td>4,586</td><td> 3,600</td><td>76.44</td></tr><tr><td>C-10, Rainier Exp.</td><td> Det. Quad</td><td>1,584</td><td>3,700</td><td>4,025</td><td> 2,400</td><td> 114.74</td></tr><tr><td>C-11, Chinook Exp.</td><td>Det. 6-pac</td><td> 850</td><td> 3,863</td><td>3,955</td><td> 3,000</td><td>3.52</td></tr></tbody></table>

[7stg]

Crystal has a new promo video:

lots of steeps blanketed in fresh powder.

Is it winter yet???

[dhrracer]

The new chair will ruin the northback and push more people out of bounds into the Valley of the Cliffs.Even on a snowboard the northback was not hard to get to.Yes if you wanted to go all the way to Lower North it meant ridding the bus back to the base,but that is what kept the fresshies there for more than one run.