The Crystal Mountain Southback is usually referred to as the end of the resort boundaries. Most people consider this to be the anywhere from the Silver King to 3 Way Peak. I know for many years I had the same though as I made it out up Chair 6 to do the dreaded traverse. But as the years went on I started to look beyond the rope at the surrounding peaks. This trip was one of those early day trips Heading up to the King and dropping into what at the time was the unknown.

Leaving Crystal Mountain Ski Resort Beyond the Southback

John Cocci and I spontaneously decided to do a Crystal Mountain Southback tour. I had looked at some sweet stashes that would guarantee some north-facing pow. Taking advantage of lift access, we took the High Campbell Chair up to the Southback gate. From up on the Silver King, we studied our route for a few minutes before dropping to the west.

We followed the slopes fall line until we arrived in Crystal Lakes Basin. Above us was now 2 snowboard tracks in the wide-open glades. It had been a phenomenal run and a great way to exit the normal Southback area. From Crystal Lakes we skinned up the basin, around a cliff band before making it up to a col separating Crystal Lakes Basin and Morse Creek Basin.

In front of us was Sourdough Gap in the far distance and the area we intended to head for. While it was a cloudy day it just adding to atmosphere as it caste an eerie glow on the snowy landscape. Not wanting to loose vert we made a long side hill traverse for our destination.

Dropping into Powder on Our Second Lap

From Sourdough Gap we took a long traverse down and around to the east. There was a north-facing bowl that offered numerous different options for potential runs down to Morse Creek. With the area being wide open alpine both of us could choose our own line dropping in. John stuck to the main bowl while I made my way to the edge of the trees.

After the bowl the terrain benched out for a little bit before the final descent. While it would only be 1000 feet it was possibly the best snow of the trip. After John had made it a small distance lower I followed his tracks and before long we were arriving at the shores of Placer Lake.

The visibility at Placer Lake was minimal, so we navigated through heavily-treed areas on our way to our final destination. Making our way thought the dense forest it finally started opening up the higher we climbed. Soon we were making our final switchback on the steep south face of Dogleg Peak

Returning to the Crystal Mountain Southback and Silver Basin.

We emerged from the clouds near the summit of Dogleg Peak, and once on the summit itself. Looking in front of us we had a cloudy but scenic view of the Crystal Mountain Southback. We noted that the Dogleg Bowl was quite tracked out, but that Dogleg Chute only had 2 tracks in it. Fortunately the line was wide enough to warrant us dropping in. After a quick transition we were ready to ride down the steepest run of the day.

Dropping in we milked the sidewalls as the previous crew had hit the main gut. Turn after turn we kicked up snow until arriving at Henskin Lake below. Though it was the only run with other peoples tracks we were easily able to find our own turns from top to bottom.

With a few hours of daylight still remaining, we headed right back up to Dogleg Peak. With the conditions so good it warranted another lap and there was already a skin track in. This time we loosely followed the other tracks and rode the main drainage and soon we were at the base of the resort. It was an amazing day and a great loop I would follow for years. Both John and I were happy with the ground we had covered and the lines we had rode.

Thank you for reading the Southback Tour. If you want to see more ski tours within Crystal Mountain Backcountry check out this link.