The King is the high point of the Crystal Mountain area summiting out at 7010 feet. During normal operations, it’s the main attraction of the South Backcountry. There are two separate faces of the King, first the mellow-angled south facing slopes with both gladed and alpine runs and the North side filled with aggressive chutes, cliffs and steeps. Our intentions was to track out both sides merely days before Crystal ski patrol started preparing the slopes for the opening of the Southback. With the South Back still not open for the season Drew Tabke and I felt it was the perfect time to get some early Season turns on the King.
Skinning up Silver Basin
The forecast promised to be wild as one front left and another front entered the Cascades. At first I had no intentions of riding in the middle of a storm, but after receiving a particularly persuasive call from my friend Drew (Tabke), it was official that we were heading out to the Silver Basin with the intent of skiing/riding the King.
We were super excited as we broke trail up Silver basin knowing that the snow under our feet would make for an awesome descent and that we had the area to ourselves for the time being.
A Lap on the Southside of the King
As soon as we reached the ridge line we were bombarded with 40 mph winds, and we traversed over cornices and deep wind-drifted snow on our way up to the King. Once arriving at the summit, we took shelter in a batch of trees, as we switched our gear to downhill mode. For our first run, we dropped the Southern face and were surprised to find deep conditions.
The Conditions were much better then we had anticipated. We turned down the lower slopes in thigh deep pow with not another track in sight. We were stoked by the pleasant surprise in conditions and we still had another run ahead of us
We skinned up the faint line of our old skin track now covered in wind blown pow as Rainier came into view from the west, finally reaching our destination: Hourglass on the North Face of the King.
Dropping off the Northside of the King
Dropping into the north facing chute the line was wind loaded and looking amazing. From the top we couldn’t see a single rock from top to bottom. Drew dropped in first sticking to the right side as it was looking a bit deeper and confirmed our beliefs.
Once drew was a ways down the line and in a safe spot made my first turns into hourglass. It was bottomless and light as every turn kicked up a rooster tail that would linger around for seconds. Snow this light and cold is rare in the Cascades but being so early in the season it was Cascade Champagne.
Each turn was a face shot, while we ripped down the gut of Hourglass. It was amazing to be putting the first tracks of the season down the King. Before long we were back at the groomers and looked up at our lines happy to see 2 lonely tracks. Heading back to the base we found out that they were going to be opening the Southback the next day as our tracks had confirmed that the lines we ready to open up. It was a great day hanging out with Drew and getting some amazing snow on the King.
Thank you for reading this trip as we lapped the King. If you want to see more ski tours within Crystal Mountain Backcountry check out this link.