Crystal Peak

Route: Southwest Ridge to N Face Ski
Posted On: 6/1/2025, By: slawrence2011
Info: Started from Mayflower Gulch around 5:30, following the route Roach describes as SW ridge. I took his option to cross to the N side of the Mayflower creek on the 4WD road, which was a good call since the snow bridge looked out, but bushwhacking on the N side took a while, even for a mile. Still tricky going up the Pacific drainage, with intermittent snow. Finally, at 11,7, I gained the very steep drainage right below Mayflower hill, and it was continuous snow, so I started skinning. Very deep, somewhat steep trapdoory postholing prior to that. From then on, the route went a lot better, I could skin all the way up to 13,1 right below the ridge (taking skis off once on the crossing to the N side of the Pacific W Ridge. Switched back to hiking boots for the ridge, as Crystal's S bowl was discontinuous for skinning, a lot of snowfields to cross on the upper part of the ridge (above 13,4), that would have been skinnable. Line was great, very wide and low angle, only issue is it was not continuous, and I had to traverse 100 ft of low angle alpine scree/talus to connect to the exit gully. From my picture, nothing really looked continuous, except one chute looker's right of me that looked like a nasty exit and not as continuous of a line. Was able to ski down to 10,9 in the trees, but it was very trapdoory below 12K, even in skis, with 11 AM drop. Bushwhack out to 91 was surprisingly doable, but snow went quite low around the creek, to at least 10,5. Had to hike S on the tenmile bike trail for a mile to get to the bridge to cross tenmile creek. Thanks to Nick for the hitch back to Mayflower! 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 5/23/2025, By: BillMiddlebrook
Info: Skied Crystal today after climbing the NE ridge. A lot of snow on the upper slopes and we were able to ski all the way down to the road below Francie's Cabin. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 4/27/2025, By: Wildernessjane
Info: Skied the east face in perfect conditions. We were able to skin up the final ridge using ski crampons. Dropped in around noon with a good hard freeze the night before and full sun all morning. Skied from the summit to trailhead. We booted up the headwall lower down but you could also skin up this. If you are on skis, I would say it’s better to stay in the basin than to try to hit the forest service road/trail. We saw another party doing this and it looked like a lot of shenanigans. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 3/24/2025, By: aksean22
Info: Skied the East Face of Crystal yesterday in great conditions. Road to the Spruce Creek Trailhead is plowed and easily 2WD accessible. There is a well used trail up to Francie's Cabin and minimal trailbreaking beyond that. We were able to skin the whole way to the summit. The route was protected from the wind for most of the day except for the last few hundred feet where we just got totally hammered. Really good skiing all the way down. It took us 3:15 from car to summit and only 17 minutes from the summit back to the car - I wish more peaks were like that! Great way to kick off the spring ski season. 

Route: Combo Helen/Father Dyer/Crystal
Posted On: 9/1/2024, By: tcphoto87
Info: Hiked this loop yesterday from Helen to Crystal. Drove up to the upper Mohawk lake trailhead to cut some time off. Hiked up the road/Wheeler trail and luckily found the spot to turn left and head up Helen. There was a tiny cairn (like 3 rocks) otherwise we would've never seen it at 5am. Headed up the gully and up to Helen and made it just below the summit by the time the sun started to rise. The first part over the ridge to Father Dyer is pretty easy, and I started to think that the ridge wouldn't be that difficult (lol). Pretty soon the spicy sections started popping up. A lot more downclimbing/reascending than I thought there would be. There was one section that seemed more like a cliff/jump to stay on the ridge so we decided to downclimb and reascend around that section. A few sections that had some narrow foot holds and a lot of exposure that even psyched me out a bit. Overall it was a fun ridge! A couple years ago I hiked Father Dyer's class 3 east ridge and this one was definitely more difficult and not for beginners. Once past the difficulties it was more just being exhausted that made the final climb up Father Dyer exhausting. Looking back at Helen and the ridgeline looks like it should be it's own mountain lol. The trail over to Crystal and back down was an easy breeze. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/30/2024, By: slawrence2011
Info: I approached from the dirt roads in Breckenridge ski area, I was able to drive my Civic to 11,4 just below the top of Mercury. From there, the road was almost totally dry to the ridge, though the fourth of July bowl on Pk 10 is holding decent snow. Where the road hits the ridge near the Pk 10 weather station at 13,4, I elected to sidehill on the talus to avoid gaining/losing excess elevation, totally dry but a bit laborious. From the Pk 10 Crystal saddle, dry to the summit, though the easy trail is covered with soft snow sometimes. I skied the E aspect from close to the summit to about 13,1 just below the pass at 13,2. I could have gone down to the upper lake by linking a snowfield, but I just went to the pass since I had 4th of July Bowl to ski as well. Totally dry up to Pk 10, 4th of July bowl is in about 100 ft below the summit, one minor choke to ski through due to snowpack getting thin. Could ski to 12,6, and the ski on 4th of July Bowl was longer (1K) and steeper/sustained than the Crystal ski. Then slogged out. I started at 6, summited Crystal at 11:45, Pk 10 around 1:30, and car at 3 but I was moving slow. I also noted that the North aspect of Crystal didn't look very in for skiing, from the summit, even with linking snowfields, you could only go around 600 feet to 13,2, and still about 600 feet of dry steep face and apron. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/24/2024, By: jordanthebuff
Info: Great day on the mountain. Started around 5:45, summited 8:45, then back to the car at 11:30. Mostly early summer conditions at this point. Nearly all of the trail is dry. The road up from the main Spruce Creek road is closed to cars, so that was nice -- no jeeps. Trail was easy to follow except for the turn to go up towards the saddle was easy to miss. There is a big cairn where you'll turn, but I had my head down and went right past it, so I ended up backtracking 5 minutes or so. The couple creek crossings are HIGH. I had to search up and down stream a bit to find a good place to cross. There's a snow bridge that is still intact over the stream crossing near the lake, but I didn't trust it. Opted to go for the log crossing with willow whacking. There are four snow patches to cross as the trail crosses the Peak 10 slope. The slope is very steep, but the trail cuts across them, so there's not really any elevation gained in those sections. I brought spikes and used them for each patch of snow. I was glad I had them, especially on the way down once it started softening up. You can probably get away without them, but I felt much more confident with them on. No post holing, but it was warm up there, so that could change in the next couple days. Ridge was nice. I basically just followed the ridge proper or stayed right at the edge of the snow drifts. It is never above straightforward class 2. I didn't ski, but someone else up there today boarded down basically from the peak to the lower lake. Saw what appeared to be fairly fresh moose scat on the road portion on the trail through the trees, fwiw. 

Route: Combo Helen/Father Dyer/Crystal
Posted On: 6/24/2024, By: Alexarcher
Info: Ridge between all peaks is dry and good to go. A couple of snow crossings descending Crystal, one with a pretty dangerous runout. One person we saw said he went above them all when he was ascending the Northeast Ridge. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 3/19/2024, By: Archie57
Info: Climbed Peak 10's East ridge from Spruce creek, pretty fantastic conditions. Used snowshoes, which were great on the trail up to the hut and necessary above treeline. Above treeline snow was pretty supportive for the most part with occasional pockets of loose wallowing. Wind slabs were pretty reactive where thin, but along the ridge they were either nonexistent or thick enough to provide secure footing. Traversed over to Crystal, subject to gnarly sun and no clouds or wind. Exited via Mayflower gulch after traversing below Pacific from the Crystal-Pacific saddle. Snow around and below treeline was mushy and almost completely unsupportive after 3 pm even with flotation. Great traverse of the range, snow was more stable than expected but still cause for caution and conservative line choices. 

Route: From Mayflower Gulch (S Ridge)
Posted On: 2/16/2024, By: Veory
Info: Deep snow as soon as I left the skin track, more fresh snow on the way down but unfortunately most of my route was not steep enough to ski in it so I pretty much shuffled most of the way down. Skied from just below the saddle with Pacific. Blizzard today, low vis/ flat light, cold and windy. Was a much harder climb than I anticipated. 

Route: Combo Helen/Father Dyer/Crystal
Posted On: 1/1/2024, By: Will_E
Info: Did Peak 10-Crystal-Father Dyer-Helen loop today. I used snowshoes a short distance around treeline on the way up, and again at the tail end of the loop at the bottom of Helen. Didn't need any traction today, or ice axe. Nice day, warm most of the day, clouds moved in late afternoon and had flurries for a bit between FD and Helen. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 10/18/2023, By: djacobson
Info: Parked at the Upper Spruce lot (right where the road meets the aqueduct - no issue with my Rav4 making it). Started up the aqueduct road and took a left just after the gate to take the Wheeler trail over to the Crystal route. Very pleasant day other than absurd winds on the ridge. Intermittent snow after the lake but 95% avoidable. I would recommend gators on the final ridge push. Post holed (isnt it early for that?!) a couple times but likely could have been avoided with a bit of circuitous route choosing (I was rushing to get out of the wind). Had spikes but never needed them. Beautiful day in the mountains! There are a couple photos showing Father Dyer/Helen from the route. 

Route: Combo Helen/Father Dyer/Crystal
Posted On: 10/7/2023, By: swilson753
Info: The traverse from Helen to Father Dyer and up to Crystal is mostly dry. All snow was avoidable in the class 3 sections. The first unavoidable snow was on the way down to the Crystal-Peak 10 saddle. I brought spikes but didn't use them. Most north aspect slopes in the area are holding snow. 

Route: Described below
Posted On: 7/30/2023, By: backcountrybrodes
Info: See my "Atlantic Peak (13,841')" update 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 7/23/2023, By: benopp
Info: Snow free, summer conditions on descent of Northeast Ridge. Ridge from Father Dyer dry as well. Microspikes not needed anywhere.