Ride up to
Rainier Across the Valley
On a clear day the summit gives you Rainier so close it fills a third of the sky.
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This 360° panorama was captured at the summit of Crystal Mountain in the Washington Cascades, with Mount Rainier across the valley to the west.
The camera stands on the packed snow at the top of the mountain, beside the summit building. The view that matters is to one side: Mount Rainier, close enough from here to read as a single enormous object rather than as part of a range, its glaciers picked out in the light. Everything else on the horizon is Cascade ridge line, blue-grey and layered. Nearer to hand the ground falls away in groomed pistes on one side and untracked snow on the other, with a scatter of people standing about at the top of the lift. At this height the treeline is below you, which is why the whole horizon is visible at once.
Crystal Mountain resort is a winter sports paradise located in Washington’s Cascade Mountains in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. It’s the largest ski resort in the state and home to Washington’s only gondola, and it’s one of the most popular outdoor sports destinations year-round—the many trails draw skiers and snowboarders in the winter, and hikers and backpackers come to see the wildflower meadows and stunning views in the summer.
Located on the northeast corner of Mount Rainier National Park, Crystal Mountain resort officially opened in the early 1960s, but its history dates back about a dozen years beyond that. In 1949, a group of ski enthusiasts from all around the Puget Sound began to search for the best place to develop a dedicated ski area in the Cascade Mountains. After considerable research, they chose Crystal Mountain because of its reliable snowfall and the variety of terrain the mountain offered. After sending a proposal to the Forest Service in 1955, the Crystal Mountain Winter Sports Area was officially created in 1958 and officially opened for business in December 1962 with two double chairlifts and a limited number of trails—the area has grown immensely in the years since.
Since the late 1990s, Crystal Mountain has flourished under the ownership of Boyne USA’s John Kircher, who began implementing a Master Development Plan in the summer of 1997. Since then, $30 million of capital improvements have resulted in great new features at the resort, including two high-speed six-passenger chairlifts. The brand new year-round Mount Rainier Gondola opened in January of 2011 and goes straight to the summit of the mountain.
Crystal Mountain’s half a dozen peaks and basins receive an average of 367 inches of snowfall annually. Between the months of November and April, the park’s 2,600 acres, including 300 in-bounds backcountry acres, boast 57 named ski trails, ranging in skill level from Beginner to Expert. Its longest run, Northway, is 2.5 miles long and offers glade skiing. The parks eleven lifts have the capacity to carry 20,910 passengers per hour.