Closed Mountain No Way

by Kym Backland

Title

Closed Mountain No Way

Artist

Kym Backland

Medium

Photograph

Description

We came all the way up to this part of the mountain, then we see the dreaded CLOSED sign! It's beautiful up here, the air is fresh, the day is sunny, our legs are ready and and minds are clear! We are ready to get it done! Powder, but some of us just like to hike! It's another beautiful day in Washington State! The beauty of the Northwest! Here are some stats of the mountain, and the surrounding areas, just in case you want to come up here and ski! The place almost shut down! So, we are happy to still have our state treasure! I love when the clouds look like "pulled cotton"... Cool looking clouds! What a gorgeous day in the Pacific Northwest! Blue skies, and sunshine! Wow, I love the fog, and the snow! On the way to go skiing! Some of us are just going to take pictures of everyone else skiing. This is Washington, a few hours outside Seattle! It's a "Winter Wonderland" of enjoyment and pure fresh air. You've heard the song, " The blue-ist skies you've ever seen are in Seattle" I'm not sure of the names of these mountain tops, I use to have one of those maps with all the mountain ranges and their names. One for all the Olympic mountains and one for the Cascade range. I knew them at one time, but the memory...well I just need to google it again! Here is some information about the area. Nice place to ski! Gorgeous place to be. The air is clean and the skiing is fun..Now for those "stats"
Crystal Mountain Resort opened in December 1962 with two double chairlifts. The first of these lifts, Miner's Basin was decommissioned in the summer of 2011. Its route was close to that of the new gondola and ended by the top of the Exterminator and Deerfly runs. The other original lift (Iceberg Ridge) was removed when the current Rainier Express chair was built.[3] The site, just northeast of Mount Ranier National Park, was chosen after some Tacoma skiers were unable to start a resort within the boundaries of the park.The following summer the Green Valley double chairlift was built, and the Quicksilver lift followed in 1964.In 1965, Crystal hosted the collegiate ski championships in late March and the following week the U.S. Alpine Ski Championships, which included famous racers such as Karl Schranz of Austria, Olympic medalists Jimmie Heuga and Billy Kidd of the U.S., future triple gold medalist Jean-Claude Killy of France, and future gold medalist Nancy Greene of Canada. Crystal hosted the national championships again in 1968, a few weeks after the Winter Olympics Kidd, Heuga, and Greene were again in the field, as well as Spider Sabich. Back from the Olympics and the World Cup tour, local Judy Nagel won the women's slalom and combined titles at age 16Five years earlier, her father Jack Nagel
(1926 -2004) and the racing school at Crystal were featured in Sports Illustrated, with her older sister Cathy, then 14, on the cover.1970s The Campbell Basin chairlift opened in 1970, which opened Campbell Basin to skiing for the first time and traveled from the base area all the way to the site of the current Campbell Basin Lodge.Two weeks after the 1972 Olympics, Crystal hosted the World Cup tour in late February 1972 with two downhills for both men and women, with the start above Campbell Basin.Weather forced a low start; the winning men's times were under 90 seconds. Newly-crowned Olympic downhill champion Bernhard Russi of Switzerland won the Saturday race, and took second on Sunday. A women's slalom scheduled for Sunday was cancelled due to weather.In 1974, Crystal added its first triple chairlift, Bullion Basin. High Campbell, the highest lift at Crystal, was added in 1976. It was pre-owned, purchased from the defunct Yodelin Ski Area near Stevens Pass. High Campbell serves the summit of Silver Queen and provides access to The Throne, Silver King, Campbell Basin, Avalanche Basin, and Silver Basin.1980s In 1984, Bullion Basin was moved to its current location as the Gold Hills lift. That same year, the Rendezvous and Discovery triple chairlifts were installed. Washington’s first high-speed detachable quad chairlift, the Rainier Express was installed in the summer of 1988, replacing the original chair 2. A fixed grip quad, Midway Shuttle, was added to connect the base area with Rainier Express. The Campbell Basin double was shortened because the lower half was no longer necessary. These upgrades were funded with money from investors, who in return would get future discounts on lift tickets and season passes. Today this group of investors in the Crystal Mountain Founder's Club. 1990s In the mid-1990s, Crystal Mountain became deeply in debt and was unable to pay for further important improvements such as new lifts and lodges. The original investors sold the area to Boyne Resorts in March 1997.The deal directed Boyne to spend at least $15 million in capital improvements during the first ten years. In the first two years, Boyne purchased two high speed six passenger chairlifts, the Chinook and Forest Queen Express lifts to replace Midway Shuttle and Rendezvous, respectively. Boyne also made other improvements such as a new rental facility, paved parking lots, and five new Bombardier snowcat grooming machines. 2000sThe Green Valley double chairlift was replaced with a high-speed quad in the summer of 2000. In the summer of 2007, Crystal underwent a major expansion, building the Northway chairlift in the former North Backcountry.This increased developed terrain by 70% to 2,300 acres needed In addition, the Summit House restaurant was remodeled. 2010s During the summer of 2010, a terrain park was construction and the Mt. Rainier Gondola was installed. The gondola travels directly from the base area to the summit house,and its first day of operation was New Year's Day 2011.

Uploaded

January 28th, 2013

Statistics

Viewed 347 Times  -  Last Visitor from New York, NY on 04/10/2024 at 12:19 PM

Colors

Embed

Share

Sales Sheet

Tags