Powder turns high on Crystal Peak’s east face, January 20th, 2020. Click photos to enlarge.
It’s been a good snow year in Colorado so far. On the heels of the most recent January storm cycle, a wave of high pressure moved over the state for a few days and Brian and I decided to take advantage. After mulling over a few options we landed on Crystal Peak’s east face, a classic route on a friendly peak that Brian and I first skied back in 2012 and eventually went on to include as one of the 50 routes in our guidebook.
On the long approach up the Crystal Creek drainage. That’s Bald Mountain in back.
As we approached Crystal we discussed what makes it such a great skier’s mountain. In the middle of a predominantly wind-scoured range, the peak’s east face tends to act as a powder trap and thus almost always has good enough coverage for a ski descent, even in mid-winter. It’s also nearly always a sure ski all the way back to the parking lot, and conditions have never been bad on the face in the 6 combined times the two of us have skied it. Lastly, it’s a generally safe, predictable winter route, and this day was no different.
Switching to booting for a short section on Peak 10’s south face.
We hit the summit and spent a long time up there enjoying the day’s absolutely perfect weather. There was literally not a breath of wind and the sun was out in full force. We probably could’ve been up there in t-shirts, which is a rarity for Colorado at 13,800′ in January.
Peak 10 from Crystal’s summit. The south face could use a little more snow but is technically skiable.
Off the top we found stable powder snow with only a few minor sections of variability here and there. In general the ski conditions were great, as demonstrated below.
Good snow off the top.
Further down in the exit chute, more of the same. Photo by Brian.
Our tracks on the face and exit chute.
After the nostalgic descent, we skied down past Francie’s Cabin and took the aqueduct road back to the parking lot for a summit-to-car time of around 30 minutes. A pair of brews were promptly served in typical fashion.
Here’s to another fun descent of Crystal Peak’s east face. A holiday Monday well-spent.
Cheers!
No mention of the ’14 Crystal episode? Why isn’t that one in the guidebook? Haha. East Partner and Crystal in the same weekend. I, for one, need to bring weekends like those back this spring. Looks like a perfect winter day out there for this Crystal outing and an OK beer choice! nice work.
Crystal ’14 shall remain unmentioned 🙂 What a day though that’s for sure. Not a big fan of Mountain Standard?
Brave.
Eh, yes and no. We felt pretty good about the situation.
David – All you can eat Indian Buffet’s are brave. Casa Bonita is dumb. This was fun. I think you’d like this one.
I guess I need to rethink my adjectives. Still, I think you know what I meant. 😉
We do know buddy, or at least I think we do? Thanks for the input. Let’s ski…
P.s. If you ever want to know what our thought process was on an outing you can always just ask 😉
That was a complement on the beer choice! Guess it doesn’t sound like it written down. ?
It ain’t bad! Neither is Ska’s new hazy.