Crystal Peak

Route: Up Southwest Ridge, Down Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 7/30/2021, By: PikaSteve
Info: Summer conditions. Largest creek has several logs hidden for easy crossing on bypass trail in the willows. Other water crossings have plenty of stepping stones. Nice loop hike with fine weather until mid-afternoon: parked on Spruce Creek 4WD Road at intersection with Aqueduct Road; up Pacific Peak via Mohawk Lakes; down to saddle and up to Crystal Peak; down Northeast Ridge to Crystal Lakes; and return to truck via Wheeler Trail. Glad I did Crystal Peak second to finish the day with easier conditions: both ascent of Southwest Ridge from Pacific saddle and descent of Northeast Ridge to Peak 10 saddle were less steep and less loose than Pacific Peak's East Slopes and North Ridge. Route from Peak 10 saddle at 13,260' back to lower Crystal Lake entirely on Class 1 trail. Flowers (and mosquitos) plentiful below 12,500'. 

Route: Father Dyer/ Crystal
Posted On: 6/13/2021, By: ktfoote628
Info: Way more snow on Crystal than Father Dyer... basically all avoidable for the most part. I thought the descent from Crystal would be easy so I didn't study it too much prior to the hike but I definitely got lost on the way down and I think that's because the snow covered part of the trail and there weren't any recent footprints. Eventually I found the Crystal Trail and it was mostly dry but still 4 large snowfields. I brought spikes but didn't put them on for these short sections but the snow was so slippery, I kind of wish I had. Postholed in maybe one of the snowfields but the other ones were so supportive that it was slightly sketchy. Only saw 1 person on a beautiful Sunday and she was only heading to the lakes. 

Route: Combo Helen/Father Dyer/Crystal
Posted On: 6/12/2021, By: gluckhikes
Info: Summer conditions from trailhead to summit. We were able to get in a couple glissades off of Crystal, and later realized we could have gone even further. We crossed a couple short but steep snowfields while descending the Crystal Trail. A few substantial sections of the trail/road below the lake are flooded with flowing snowmelt, so expect to get your feet wet or else try your luck with the willows. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 5/8/2021, By: k_fergie
Info: Rode Crystal from Spruce Creek TH this morning. The road/trail in is skinable with 2 sections of billygoating, although its going fast. East face had great coverage and rode phenomenally, especially the lower down headwall. Dropped around 9am, first party of the day, and it was a little firm up high, but the middle section had great corn and we were able to get back to the car before the whole lower part was completely mashed potatoes. There were several parties (I think part of a CMC group) still going up when we came down, unless the incoming storm cools the snow, they are going to have a hell of time getting out. Even as a knuckle-dragger, I was able to ride continuously from the summit to the car (minus the 2 billygoating sections on the road out, big win and may warrant a repeat 

Route: NE Ridge via Peak 10
Posted On: 4/10/2021, By: durkan
Info: We went up and over Peak 10 from Spruce Creek Trailhead to tag Crystal A. The day was a mixed bag of conditions. Traction, ice axe, and snowshoes all came in handy at some point. Packed road and paths to and above Francie's Cabin. Snowshoes could be used, but not required in the morning. We had to take out the ice axes to ascend the ridge below Briar Rose Mine. After that, just stayed south of the slight cornice to tag Peak 10. From Peak 10 to Crystal A: only traction and an axe was used. To descend Crystal, we descended the drainage and stayed north of all the Crystal Lakes. We glissaded some, but use your best judgement and scout ahead of time. After the lakes, I wore snowshoes back to the trailhead with slushy and mashed tater snow, but the rest of team did not. 

Route: Mayflower
Posted On: 1/12/2021, By: Yikes
Info: Trenched from Mayflower cabin ruins. Mixture of supportive crust and knee-deep. Route passed Pacific ridge start and up Pacific/Crystal saddle. Some collapsing snow on large flat areas, didn't see instability in steeper slopes I crossed. Beautiful weather, no wind. 

Route: Bah humbug
Posted On: 1/10/2021, By: blazintoes
Info: Out n back via Humbug creek. Retreated d/t nil visibility and cornices. Surface tension cracks caused an avalanche on Pacifics northwest ridge. Very scary early season conditions. At least I got to see the Star of Bethlehem. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 11/8/2020, By: jscully205
Info: Mostly dry walking the entire way up. 4wd road was and could see using some micro spikes for that section. Traversed PK 10>Crystal>Father Dyer>Helen and all of ridge was basically in summer conditions. Summit registers could use pens. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 11/2/2020, By: wintersage
Info: The regular trailhead is accessible, but the 4WD is not. Lots of ice cover the step narrow road, and microspikes were helpful in this section. The rest of the route in general has snow, but can be done without traction. No need for snowshoes as the dusting of snow is patchy and light. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 10/13/2020, By: jtallerday
Info: Fresh snow in the morning that was partially melted by early afternoon -- not more than a couple of inches. Extremely windy -- had to stay on the south side of the ridge crest 

Route: Mohawk to Dyer saddle
Posted On: 9/27/2020, By: Unknown
Info: Somehow took the trail to upper Mohawk before I realized I missed my turnoff (probably still faded from the night prior) ended up back-tracking to upper Mohawk lake, and route finding up the Helen/Dyer saddle. I had my dog so I tried to keep everything below class 3, there are some solid direct variations, but grabbing pacific first would be easiest from Mohawk. Trail ran from crystals trail to the 2WD TH, nice day with not many people out early. (Father Dyer + Crystal) 11mi 3,600'~ 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 9/25/2020, By: berko89
Info: Summer conditions on the Crystal Peak's Northeast Ridge route. We ascended via Father Dyer's East Ridge route (also summer conditions), hiked over to Crystal Peak, and descended via the Northeast Ridge route. 

Route: Combo Helen/Father Dyer/Crystal
Posted On: 9/15/2020, By: Jorgito
Info: Did the full traverse and never touched snow. There's still plenty of snow on the North side of the ridge, but basically none on the ridge and to the South of it. 

Route: via Father Dyer
Posted On: 8/9/2020, By: tcphoto87
Info: Hiked Crystal via Father Dyer from the lake (didn't hike Helen) It was a super easy walk for the most part over to Crystal still a little worn out from the ridge up to FD. I hung out on Crystal for awhile since it was such a perfect clear day. The views of Pacific are amazinggg. Total from the trailhead/parking lot it was 4.53 miles according to my watch's tracker and in about 3 hours. Around 35 minutes from FD and .8ish of a mile from that summit. There's a tiny bit of snow along Crystal but nothing on the trail. The route back down towards the upper lake was all dry too for those coming up the standard route 

Route: Combo Helen/Father Dyer/Crystal
Posted On: 8/1/2020, By: nickle
Info: Started from the Lower Spruce Creek TH and ran the route Helen-->Father Dyer-->Crystal-->Father Dyer E Ridge. Zero snow anywhere on the route. Rock was generally pretty solid on the Helen-->Father Dyer traverse, a few loose blocks though so keep your guard up. Father Dyer-->Crystal and Father Dyer E Ridge (descent route) are a bit more loose, watch your step. Beautiful day out, TH was absolutely slammed when we got back down, be sure to arrive early for this one.