Crystal Mountain: New chairlift will open former backcountry

Sometime before the turn of the year -- the snow gods willing -- skiers and snowboarders will have a new lift to ride at Crystal Mountain and 1,000 acres of new inbounds terrain to carve.

The ski area east of Enumclaw near Mount Rainier was scheduled to have the towers for its new $2 million Doppelmayr lift, Northway, dropped into place on Friday by huge Chinook helicopters.

"Once those puppies go in, it will be smooth sailing," said Tiana Enger, Crystal marketing director. "The rest we can do in snow, sleet or ran."

It will be a standard-speed, double-seat lift, taking just under 10 minutes to climb from its lower terminal almost a mile down, with an elevation gain of 1,870 feet, to the top of Northway Peak in the ski area's former North Backcountry.

With the new lift, it no longer will be backcountry, of course, and some Crystal partisans are none too happy about that. But it will access a huge amount of territory, increasing Crystal's inbounds acreage to 2,300.

Tree-cutting for new runs began in June, and sliders will have the option from the top of Snorting Elk Bowl, Northway Bowl, Paradise Bowl, Bruce's Bowl and others, all rated black diamond runs for experts. One of the new runs will be called "Otto Bahn" in honor of the late Northwest ski legend, Otto Lang.

Enger said Northway may not be open as soon as the ski area opens, which all depends on snowfall, but that Crystal managers hope to have it humming by early December.

The notion for the new infrastructure is to provide lift service to an area that will be managed for quality, backcountrylike skiing. Most of the runs will not be groomed, and with the relatively low capacity of 1,200 people per hour, area managers hope the snow will not get tracked out rapidly.

The new lift will be a little tough to reach. Skiers will have to take other lifts and then hike to the top of Northway to drop in, or traverse to lower points via other runs. To leave the North Country, skiers will be able to drop into Green Valley and its lift from Northway peak.