Trip Report 12/2/2023

The season opening day for Crystal was Friday December 1st. I have would gone, but was too busy at work. The following Saturday though my son was meeting with his ski team at 8:20 am. The forecast called for over 10 inches of snow Friday night with low temps. Unfortunately, an “atmospheric river” was forecasted to arrive Sunday, with over 14 inches of rain and snow levels rising to over 8k feet. We had to get into the backcountry while we could before most of the snow got washed away. Chatting with ski buddies Friday, I could only take one person other than my son because I didn’t have my roof box back on the car yet after a hit and run had forced me to take my car into the shop back in November. I picked up Antoine at 6:05 am at the Westlake Marina, and then down I-5 we drove through pouring rain.

It had been raining so hard the night before that I had not been able to sleep after around 3 am. I couldn’t wait to see how much snow Crystal had received. But avalanche conditions weighed heavy on my mind. Antoine and I discussed route options while listening to the latest Gear 30 podcast in the background. When we pulled up to the parking lot at Crystal it was a complete blizzard. There was a steady stream of wind gusting up the valley from the northwest. Even trees lower in the valley held no snow. Looking up at Bullion Basin it was out of the question, as was Pickhandle Point.

Antoine needed to head to guest services to get his Ikon pass as it hadn’t been shipped to him for some unknown reason. We picked that up, and also signed uphill waivers since we both had lost our old yellow Crystal uphill waiver cards from last season. By the time we got back to the car my son already had most of his gear on but needed help getting one of his boots on. I helped him push his ankle into his boot, and then he was soon off to the shacks to meetup with his ski team. Our lunch plans weren’t totally figured out, so my son and I agreed on a 12:30 meetup. We would wait to see if Campbell Basin Lodge was open or not before deciding on location. Antoine and I made quick work of getting our boots and other gear on, and soon we were off to the bottom of Quicksilver.

We checked if there was coffee in the hut as a last-ditch effort to avoid facing the wind that was gusting around the base of the mountain. No luck, both no coffee and the cash register was not working anyways. So up the slope we went. As we approached the top of Quicksilver the trees started to hold more snow. The wind had started to die down. The clouds began to part, exposing a bit of blue sky. The weather in the mountains is always a little crazy. We decided to try Chicken Head, an area mostly in the trees right before Dave’s Badass Shoulder. We figured it would be a good place to scope out the conditions.

Near the top of the cat track we ran into a guy standing by himself. I asked him if he needed a partner and he seemed content to head back down. He also didn’t have a beacon. We chatted with him for a few minutes and learned that the price for season-long RV reservations had risen to $8k. We chatted about how crazy that was, and Antoine who had been dreaming of becoming and RV’r at B lot said something like “well, that makes it now out of the question.”

As we worked our way uphill we got a look up at Gunbarrel chute. It seemed to be holding good snow from what we could tell from below. With the strong winds and fresh snow it did seem a little risky, and we both agreed it was probably too risky given the conditions. We continued uphill towards FF Forest. We had been following skin tracks until the peel-off spot for Chicken Head, and then realized we would be breaking trail the rest of the way. That wasn't too surprising as Chicken Head seemed a little on the edge of the risk register for the day, but we had discussed and agreed that it had a relatively safe ridge for the upper section and also had a few good spots to better assess what type of snowpack we were really dealing with. I offered to break trail and began to head up, trying to do a good job in case anyone followed or in case we wanted to reuse our track later in the day.

About a third of the way up Antoine and I switched, and he took the lead on a little steeper section with more tree branches poking through the roughly 4 foot snow base. The snow was deep, and a little uncharacteristically unconsolidated for the maritime snowpack of the area. We were able to generate fractures in snow layers on convex slopes. Though not consistently, and with fracture lines never extending more than a meter at most. A little Sketchy for sure, but not so bad we ever felt like we shouldn’t keep going.

We swapped the lead one last time about two thirds the way up and I finished laying a track to the local high point. From the top we could see into Sourdough Bowl and the Morse Lake drainage. We also had a good view of Silver King and Silver Basin which held no ski tracks and looked like something out of a ski movie. The area was vast with exposed rocky points and ridgelines given the early season snowpack.

We agreed to ski downhill close to our uphill tracks, taking turns and the first guy stopping within line of sight at a safe spot on a knoll about halfway down. Antoine took the lead, and I followed soon as he got to the knoll. These were my first turns on my new skis (RMU North Shore 114) and I immediately clicked with them. I kept skiing down past Antoine, felt so good to ski untouched powder and to be able to ski powder so early in the season. I made it down first and Antoine soon met up. We both remarked about how stable the snow felt, never once giving us a reason to be concerned.

We then discussed Gunbarrel and agreed to head over to the top of the chute to take a look. Back up our original tracks and soon with much less effort this time we were standing on our earlier high point. We then followed the ridge towards Gunbarrel, getting to the top of the chute in another 5 minutes. We peered down the chute and both of us smiled. It looked lovely, untouched by anyone and really anything. There were no obviously concerning indications in the snowpack. The snow was wind blown at the top, a little hard but not punchy and stomping around we couldn’t cause any fractures or breakaways. Lower down we couldn't see any wind effect and the snow seemed unconsolidated. The wind had been coming from the north, depositing some snow in the chute but mostly wind loading the leeward side into the Sourdough area behind us.

We joked about playing rock paper scissors for first tracks. Antoine mentioned how the first one down should take it with some speed but also not go all the way down in case there were any issues with the follower. I mentioned how I preferred to not feel required to ski fast since this would be literally my second set of turns on my new skis and I was still getting used to them, so Antoine said he would take the lead. We quickly transitioned and then off Antoine went. He shot down the chute without issue, making medium sized quick turns and maintaining speed in the deep snow. I soon followed, and after the first 3-4 turns I felt really confident on my skis and let them run. Nearing Antoine, I was skiing about as well as I ever have in the backcountry. The snow was deep and soft but had some texture to it enough that it made initiating turns and keeping speed on throughout carves a blast. We finished the run together, and then I headed down to the Alpine Inn to eat lunch with my son while Antoine did laps on Forest Queen and Rex.

After lunch I met up with Antoine at the base of Forest Queen. I found Antoine starring at his ski bases. He said, “you have a knife?” Nope, I said. Antoine had skied over a rock so bad that he had a chunk of his ski base hanging down like a rudder in the middle of his ski. Antoine asked the lifty standing there for a knife, who went on to explain to us that whether he had a knife or not he couldn’t give it to us because of liability concerns. Antoine proceeded over to the girl at the shack who was more than happy to lend him her axe. 😆

Super fun early season day! We wrapped the day up with a terrible excursion into TLC down the north side of Silver King. Won't be making that mistake again!