As the Northwest is on track for a record snowfall season, resorts all over the area are ringing in 2007 with plenty of powder. From Mt. Hood to Mt. Baker and everywhere in between, the snow is piling up and snowboarders couldn’t be happier. One of the often overlooked “in betweens” is Crystal Mountain in central Washington. Crystal is tucked away on Hwy 410, just Southeast of Tacoma, and can be a snow magnet during some of these bigger systems. After a 43-inch, 48-hour storm total last week—it was time to pay Crystal another visit. I hooked up with Olympia loc Matt Collins early Friday morning, and we made the trek out there to see how good it really was

Crystal is the original home mountain to one of Washington’s best riders, Temple Cummins, and it has the terrain to keep a strong rider like Temple coming back for more. There are numerous out of bounds gates and hike-able zones to find the freshies and even get into the steep and deep—when the conditions allow. Conditions on Friday were variable, with lots of new snow on top of older layers and another storm planned for the afternoon, but they eventually opened the North Back late in the day after a long closure. For us, that meant untracked turns in bottomless powder…which is exactly what we were looking for.

The morning was spent on the High Campbell and Green Valley Chairs, searching out the stashes that hadn’t been tapped yet.

It wasn’t that hard really…just look for the signs that say “danger, cliffs ahead” and head straight down.

Stay high on the ridge and then drop into the Bear Pit. That's where it's at.

I found a chute with a little rock drop at the end and Matty snapped a pic.

This is an animated GIF of the powder slash pictured up top you can check out, if you got some time to kill waiting for it to load. I was straight buried on that one...chest deep Waimea Bay status.

Matty found some good turns too. Crystal has no shortage of snow right now, that's for sure. We had a few "Baker-esque" moments in the North Back that left us laughing all the way to the bar.

The bar, of course, is the world famous Snorting Elk Celler in the Alpine Inn. The traditional Bavarian hangout has a delicious deli, plenty of beer on tap and a toasty fireplace to sit around and defrost. The best part: you can ride right to the back door. Gotta love that classic Snow Cat out front too.

We watched Victoria Jealouse and Jeremy Jones rip big AK lines in TGR's Tangerine that was playing on the big screen.

Mmmm, pitchers. Manny's Pale Ale was the choice of the day.

The fire treated us right.

After Matt and I got back to Olympia, it was time for me to keep heading North towards the border. Since the massive dumping on New Year's Day, Whistler's been on my mind. But not as much as Mt. Baker, where I knew it was really going off. Jeff Baker knew too, and I crawled through the wet Seattle traffic and made my way to his house. A good night's sleep was in store, as we planned to head out the early the next day to The Legendary Mt. Baker. For now I'll just say it was well worth it; look for the Baker update coming soon.