Cascades Backcountry Skiing and Snowboarding with International Mountain Guides

New this year! International Mountain Guides and Crystal Mountain have teamed up to offer guided backcountry ski and snowboard tours. Crystal Mountain offers some of the best and most easily accessed backcountry skiing in the Northwest. This is your opportunity to experience this phenomenal terrain with the added security and safety of an AMGA accredited guide service.

One Day Tours

Forget lift lines and crowds and join IMG for a spectacular day of powder skiing in the backcountry of Crystal Mountain. The Crystal Mountain backcountry offers something for everyone: wide open bowls, steep chutes, and amazing glades. From Three Way to Bullion Basin, an experienced guide will help you optimize your vertical and find the best snow.

A typical day will begin at 7:30am with breakfast at the Alpine Inn. Here, you will meet your guide and discuss the day's tour plan. After a review of basic transceiver skills and backcountry travel, you will either hop on the lifts and begin your tour from the bottom of Silver Basin or head out into the amazing wilderness of the Bullion Basin area. From here, your local guides will help you find the best powder stashes in the area. The amazingly diverse and varied terrain of the Crystal backcountry ensures that there will be something for everyone; from the strong intermediate to the eager expert.

Over the course of the day, we will review the following skills:

• Use of skins and touring ski/board set-ups; AT, telemark, or splitboard
• Transceiver function and use
• Route finding and terrain assessment
• Skiing variable snow conditions
• Intro to avalanche safety
• Environmental awareness and LNT principles

Prerequisites: Ability to comfortably ski intermediate runs in a variety of conditions and motivation to "earn your turns."

Client/Guide Ratio: Maximum 6:1

Meeting place: Alpine Inn Restaurant

Overnight Backcountry Tours

For those looking to venture a little deeper into the backcountry, our overnight backcountry tours are the perfect option. This two day course will allow us to drop over the Pacific Crest Trail and into the Morse Creek Basin. This program will provide more solitude and more skiing! With so much terrain to offer, an overnight trip is the ideal way to experience the Crystal Mountain backcountry.

In addition to all of the skills covered in the one day tour, participants will also learn winter camping techniques and more in depth avalanche hazard assessment.

Client/Guide Ratio: Maximum 4:1 (minimum two guides)