This view of Atlantic, Pacific, and Crystal Peaks from Quandary summit shows several good intermediate ski lines: the couloirs on the east side of Atlantic (leftmost peak), the nice run from the summit of Pacific to the lake on the east shoulder—the highest lake in the United States—and then down to McCullough Gulch, and, at far right, the upper portion of the long south face of Crystal down into the Mohawk Lakes valley. Atlantic is now the official name of the peak, thanks to the action of the U.S. Board of Geographic Names in 2002. This peaks are all very high, with Pacific the highest at 13950 feet.
On June 10, 2011, Elke Dratch, Dave Blakeslee, and I climbed Crystal the usual way and then headed down the south face, but went hard right halfway down. This provides access to several chutes: We had our pick, but were a little blind as to what was below. But they all would have been good. We can call this area the Crystal Ball since we had a fine time dancing our way down this up-valley area. Elke high on the face.Elke checking out the Crystal Ball. Perfect corn this day: Best of the season.Dave high on the face.A nice view of Crystal’s East Face taken from near the summit of Baldy on June 7, 2008. Pacific Peak is prominent to the left and Peak 10, with Fourth of July Bowl on its northeast side, prominent on the right.Here is a shot of Crystal’s south face taken on May 27, 2006, while on a trip to the Hawaii Couloirs. This provides a continuous descent of about 1300 feet in a lovely setting. An efficient itinerary would be to climb the peak from the Crystal Lakes drainage, ski this run, then climb and ski a Hawaii Couloir on Pacific. I’ve skied this one several times, including May 17, 2007, with Elke Dratch. We had planned for the N Chutes, but weather was moving in, so this was the consolation prize. The steepest part of the run is just at the bottom.
