Today was our first day in the mountains since moving out to the west coast, and we spent it skiing. We chose to go to Crystal Mountain for the day, which is just under 3 hours from our place on the Kitsap Peninsula.
It was a foggy, and at times rainy, drive to the mountain. When we finally hit 410 (the only road that gets you to the mountain) we joined the caravan of vehicles heading to the mountain. We arrived at the parking lot around 8:30AM, and we were able to park reasonably close to the base lodge. There is a “shuttle” in the form of a trailer that carts people up to the lodge if they don’t want to walk. We like to get ready at the car then just walk up, so that’s what we did today, though if we had gotten there much later, we probably would have been parked a little further away and would have taken the shuttle.
Lifts started turning at 9am, and there were plenty of people out for first chair. After getting lift tickets and a quick bathroom visit, we were on the gondola to the top by 9:15. The morning was mostly overcast and foggy, so we really didn’t have many great views at first, but the fresh 3″ of powder that covered the already prefect packed powder base made for some excellent skiing.
We’re used to skiing back east where we have to contend with ice and thin cover. There was almost no thin cover here, and very little ice. We spent most of our day on the north side of the mountain in an area called the Northway, which is served by one double chair of the same name. There was so much varied terrain over there from wide open bowls, to right chutes through the woods, we stayed on that one lift through lunchtime. I’d recommend not going into the lodge at noon, because that’s when we had the mountain to ourselves.
The afternoon was absolutely gorgeous. The clouds cleared out and we got some magnificent views of Mt. Rainer to the west. We finished our day with two runs from the top of chair 6, which only services expert terrain, so don’t head up there if you’re not comfortable with steeps. It was a bit rocky at the very top, but once we got into the bowls it was easy to find a nice line to cruise on. We hit the parking lot and were on the road in light traffic by 2:45pm.
The Beer:
We found the most excellent post-ski day spot to enjoy some food and beverage… The Mint Restaurant and Alehouse. They’re about 35 minutes away from the mountain in Enumclaw, WA, which you pretty much have to go through to hit 410 to go to the mountain. They’ve got 28 beers and ciders on tap, and they’re focused on Northwest breweries, so mostly Washington and Oregon brews. I especially appreciated the no one under 21 at the bar rope. Not that we have anything against kids, but it’s nice to be able to find a spot at the bar when you’re actually going to be drinking a beer. The food was good too. All the bread they use for their sandwiches is baked in Seattle daily, and they use local ingredients whenever available. We didn’t order anything with the bacon jam, but apparently it’s famous, so we’ll check it out next time. We did get the Brussels sprouts appetizer, which was really good, but be warned… it’s spicy. I’m sure we’ll be back, if only for a beer on the drive back from the mountains.
