Mountain Blog

 

 Flats of flowers covered the base of Totem Park last week as over 7500 annuals were  delivered to our door. Now the work begins, to splash floral color across Crystal’s outdoor canvas and make the place bright with summer colors. It takes a crew of eight, under the masterful eye of grounds manager Kathy Maginity, nearly two weeks to plant all this color – plus position the hefty monster planters throughout the premises, hang the baskets, tend to the perennials coming up through the soil,  and conduct/maintain general plant health checks throughout the warm weather months into fall. 

Watching it all from afar are the deer – those notorious plant eaters who view every day as a breakfast buffet. Kathy says that deer are the biggest pests on premise, chewing up hostas and yews, among other things. They’re particularly fond of tulips – which is why we don’t plant them anymore.   Good thing they haven’t gone after Kathy’s favorite, the non-stop bonfire begonias, which in her view are the prettiest annual flower we display.                                   
   Begonias   Persicaria polymorpha

Besides all the new annuals, our perennials have emerged in all their reliable glory. Kathy’s vote for prettiest perennial flower is the persicaria polymorpha. You’ll be able to pick out the persicaria by its rock. Perched among perennials along the walkway areas between Kinlochen, the Bungalows, and the Peak/Spa building,  are rocks labeled with the names of the perennial plant they’re parked next to.  By reading the rocks, guests can become familiar with the plants and flowers that adorn our landscape each summer. (Too bad the deer can't read. Rocks could identify plants as NOT ON THE MENU).

 

 

 

 

 Guiding the learning curve for Crystal’s Monday Learning League is PGA Golf Professional Ed Laprade. A seasoned veteran of the links, Ed has been teaching players of every level for over 20 years and has been at Crystal Mountain since 1999.  Named one of the Best Teachers in State (#5) by Golf Digest, Ed will be instructing Learning League golfers on how to get in the game.  Here’s what Ed has to say:

Crystal Mountain’s Monday Learning League is a great way for new golfers, as well as those getting back into the game, to learn golf’s fundamentals and make some new friends in the process. Beginning Monday, June 10^th, the League will meet each Monday from 6-7:30pm for five weeks.  Offered in a fun, unintimidating environment, this all-encompassing, five-week program provides instruction in the full swing, short game (putting, chipping, pitching and bunkers) and all the necessary skills to begin playing golf.  It starts with the very basics – like, how do you check in for your round?  What do the terms “chipping”, “pitching” or “bunkers” refer to?  With our Learning League, you won’t be clueless for long. 

After working on golf swing basics, we’ll head out on the course in week three, where players will apply their new skills to the course with supervised play. After five weeks, players receive a Membership Card stating that they are members of Crystal’s Learning League.  This card has a greens fee rate available for three holes, six holes and nine holes on the Betsie Valley course, and can be used for playing the rest of the season.  It provides new golfers with an opportunity for improving new skills while increasing play a few holes at a time.  So – whether you have some golfing experience already or are brand new to the game, come and join the Monday Learning League! 

Here’s the schedule:

Week 1: June 10- Instruction at the Learning Center

Week 2:  June 17- Instruction at the Learning Center

Week 3:  June 24- Instruction on the course

 Week 4:  July 1-Instruction on the course/ Play scramble/ alternate shot, family tees

 Week 5:  July 8-Instruction on the course/ Play scramble/ alternate shot, family tees

 

"I'm NOT cursed!"

These were the first words out of my mouth when waking up to another foot of fresh snow on a February morning this past winter. Let me explain the source of my defunct despair.

I started working at Crystal Mountain in the fall of 2011 and the winter of 2011/12 was my first winter at the resort. As you may remember, that winter was SNOW-STARVED. Benzie County, Michigan officially recorded 69 inches of snow in 2011/12, the lowest recorded snowfall since the winter of 1973/74 when we saw a meager 33.5 inches.*

Needless to say, that first winter I developed a case of new-guy-with-no-snow syndrome. People would joke that I shouldn't worry about the weather; that it's really not my fault. But every now and then I would catch a colleague throwing a low glare my way. I imagined they were about to suddenly point at me and shout out, "He brought this plague upon us!"

Snow is a precious commodity at a ski resort. Needless to say, my timing was not good.

But the winter of 2012/13 turned the short trend on edge. More than 150 inches of snow blanketed our mountain! Skiers and riders celebrated with waist-deep powder turns. Cross-country skinny-skiers shared tales of "perfect" trail conditions. Dog sleds careened through overgrown jungles of white. Kids cooped up in their parents mini-vans for the drive north, sprinted from their seats to race up the seemingly sky-high piles built by our road plows while battling blizzards. Snow lovers of all sizes rejoiced.

While looking at our snowfall totals for the last 20 years, it was only an average winter. Regardless, 12+ feet of natural snow is the kind of winter that puts perma-smiles on the lips of Midwestern powder hounds.

Part of my occupation here at Crystal is to take photos of what's happening at the resort. With the following photos, which were all posted to our Crystal Mountain Facebook page this past winter, I intend to put an end to the Curse of the New Guy.

December 10, 2012 - Great snow making temps for a solid week.

December 21 - Winter Storm Draco dumps 14 inches. 

January 3, 2013 - Snowmobiling on excellent trail conditions with our partner Crystal Adventures.

January 10 - Skiing with 102-year-old Lou Batori, the oldest NASTAR racer ever, was the experience of a lifetime. Lou is my hero and a true inspiration.

January 24 - 9+ inches of lake effect powder.

February 1 - Snow circles are unbreakable.

February 19 - Whiteout.

February 20 - Falling for another foot of freshies.

February 27 - Night skiing after a week of constant snowfall.

March 1 - Snow was piled as high as our trail map near the lift ticket windows.

March 13 - Snow madness marches on.

March 19 - 18+ inches of cold smoke. This Tuesday in March dropped on us the greatest conditions of the entire winter and the first face shots I've ever experienced in Michigan. What a day!

April 5 - Even the fishermen couldn't resist the slopes this winter.

April 7 - Closing day. The best part is, winter will be here again before we know it!

*Source: Benzie County Road Commission

 

In her 30 years as a Golf Professional, Crystal Mountain's Ina Davis has taught lessons and camps for both adults and juniors, besides working with several area golf teams. Recently, she was named by Golf Digest Magazine as one of Michigan’s Top Teachers In The State, #12. As a Crystal Mountain golf professional, Davis developed and continues to teach Mini-Camps for juniors ages 7-12. Davis also implemented the PGA’s Play Golf America Program, Get Golf Ready. This program teaches beginning to intermediate golfers the fundamentals of swing, golf course etiquette and rules, plus supervised playing experiences. By implementing and hosting Play Golf America programs, Davis became a member of the PGA President’s Council on Growing the Game.  In 2006 and again in 2011, Davis was awarded the Michigan Section PGA President’s Plaque in recognition of her impact on golf instruction and extraordinary commitment to grow the game. Here's a tip from Ina:

Do you wish your approach shot to the green was just a bit easier? Would you rather hit an iron into the green vs. a fairway wood or hybrid? If you want to play faster and have more fun, go ahead and move up a set of tees - meaning, TEE IT FORWARD.

When you TEE IT FORWARD, you hit more lofted irons into greens, putt for birdies and pars more often, play faster and score better. TEE IT FORWARD is a national initiative by the PGA to make golf more fun by playing the tees that best suit your game. It’s dependent on how far you hit your drive. The TEE IT FORWARD chart below suggests what tees to play. Crystal Mountain is behind this initiative 100 percent. We want you to have fun!

LENGTH OF DRIVE	YARDAGE TO PLAY
275	6,700-6,900
250	6,200-6,400
225	5,800-6,000
200	5,200-5,400
175	4,400-4,600
150	3,500-3,700
125	2,800-3,000
100	2,100-2,300

 

If you currently play from the forward-most tees, are new to the game and feel a full length course is too long and intimidating, try our family tees, also known as the short tees on the Betsie Valley.  It’s even okay to start at the 150 or 200 yard marker.

When my Dad and his buddies started playing from the forward red tee, they loved it.  They were having more fun using shorter clubs into the green, not fairway woods and hybrids. 

So let’s have some FUN playing golf!  Join your friends and enjoy a new, positive experience on the golf course - move up a set of tees and TEE IT FORWARD!

If that doesn’t work, take a golf lesson from me.

 

 

 

 Golf season is here, at least in conversation as we curse its absence. Most of the slopes still wear white (apparently not getting the memo that white is not to be worn before Memorial Day). Wait a minute. This is April. This is supposed to be the end of it all. The ski lockers are all cleaned out. The cafeteria has been dismantled. Lost and found litter has been picked up and packed away. Golfers circle Kinlochen’s Pro Shop hungrily, eyeing bare strips of green and watching for signs of warmth. A mid-April golf course opening date was set back in November, when the Crystal Ball department missed the forecast of a cold and snowy April. Who was to know we’d need golf carts with four-wheel drive to clamber up snow-covered cart paths?  Who’d have thought our golf pros would need to strap crampons on their shoes just to check out the glacial Mountain Ridge fairways? Perhaps all this snow was why cross country skier numbers this winter were up 88 per cent from last season. Go figure. We hope to have holes open by Friday, April 26th - but call ahead to the Pro Shop, ext. 4000, for a snow...er, golf report.

Looking ahead, the Crystal calendar is full of fun fairway stuff. Surely it will be green all around with May arrives with these golf tournaments scheduled; check out the details online:

 May 23: Paul Oliver Memorial Hospital Auxiliary Golf Outing

May 24-26: Crystal Cup

May 25: Free Golf Demo Day

May 28: Mountain Ridge 20^th Anniversary Celebration Day

If you’re feeling rusty with the clubs, but want to get into the swing of things, or if you don’t golf, but want to become a swinger, our golf schools are the answer. The golf Learning and Practice Center is open to get your season started.  We host over 100 golf schools clinics and programs for all levels of play.  Call our Pros at the Pro Shop for details and reservations….unless they’re out shoveling snow off those higher altitude fairways. 

 

 
 

As the curtain goes down on a ski season that lasted 114 days, John Garcia has strapped on his skis for 93 of those days.

The 67 year old retired industrial controls electrician from Interlochen has put on plenty of slope mileage this winter.  He’d like to have passed the 100-day mark, but a late start to the season (we opened our slopes on Dec. 14^th), plus a few rainy days scotched that attempt. “I don’t ski when it’s raining,” he said.

By his own admission, John doesn’t like to ski powder much, although Crystal’s had a plethora of powder days this season. Each month featured at least one day of powderhound heaven with dumps of 10 inches or more, while an epic 18 inches fell between Mar. 19-21.  “Those days gave me plenty of chances to practice powder skiing, but it’s not my favorite,” he grinned. “I love it best when it’s freshly groomed”.  John’s not a big fan of moguls or jumps, either.  “I only ski Wipe Out at the first of the season, before the moguls are formed,. “I don’t like the moguls or do jumps, he said. “It’s not a good idea for my skis to leave the snow.” John’s a big believer in helmets – in all his years of skiing, he’s only had one accident. “I went too fast off a run and hit a tree.”

So what draws him to our midwestern mountain day after day? “ I like the thrill of it- the wind blowing in my face, and the face that it’s all up to me.  To me, it’s the same feeling as riding a motorcycle”  (which he used to do, but doesn’t ride anymore).  The beauty of skiing, he points out, is that you can do it by yourself and set your own pace, yet there’s still a big social factor. “I always talk with people while riding up the lifts,” he noted. “I’ve met people from all over the world who are taking a ski vacation here.  And they all say the same thing: Crystal Mountain is a well-run place with good grooming”.

John’s part of a burgeoning crowd of skiing regulars ranging in age from somewhere over 50 to the mid-80s (and who all aspire to be like Lou Batori, our 102 year old season passholder who was on the slopes several times this season. Every skier wants to be like Lou).  These are active elders who, like John, revel in the outdoors and stirve to remain fit in every season. When he puts his skis away today, John will be tuning up his mountain bike and getting ready to put on the 2000 miles he cycles annually.

But what a ski season it’s been. See you next year, John – and everyone else who embraced the thrill and chill of the hill this winter.

 

  Late March is wearing a January face on our cross country trails. You have to ski it to believe it. It’s as if the calendar is eyeing the temperature and thinking, “I’ll fool ‘em and hold onto this. It’s too pretty to melt.”  

Here in the outback on the other side of the mountain, where our 40 kilometer Nordic trail network winds through woods, drops down hills and climbs up ridges, it’s eerily quiet as I set out on a late afternoon ski.  Once past the first stretch of Stag Hollow, I have first diagonal glide on freshly groomed tracks. The smooth skating lanes of powertilled corduroy are unmarked. A few brittle leaves skitter on the trail surface, some drifting down on the track and startling my glide as I move along. (“Those damn leaves!” I can hear John Capper’s voice in my head. John, now deceased, was the original designer of Crystal’s trails and inveterate curser of  dead leaves on tracks.)

I cut up the corduroy with herringbone chops as I attack the cardiac climbs of Eagle’s Revenge. Someone’s been ahead of me; there are other tracks gripping the steeps on my ascent.  I stop and whistle and call – friends have said they would be out here on this late afternoon. But the whistle just echoes off the cold walls of the hills, and it feels a little silly to punctuate the outdoor peace.  Cresting the very top of Eagle’s, the forested silence is broken by the holler and chatter of Alpine skiers nearby, the clatter of lifts and general gravity slave noise as skiers and riders, separated from the Nordic trail by a thicket of trees, head  over to the North Face. I fly down Eagle’s Revenge, the steepest thrill on premise bar none, and am swept back into the quiet. Nary another Nordic soul in sight. It’s just another afternoon alone in the outback, in the solitudinal silence of cross country.

So often, cross country skiers hang up the cross country skis by mid-March. This year, we may be on the tracks long after Alpine has gone down for a nap.  Deep snows,  meticulous grooming by the best groomer on the planet (Kathy Maginity), and layers of crust underneath the surface snow bode well for striding into the depths of spring.  Keep your Nordic skis on!

 

 

Snowsports School open race clinic director Chris Fisher is an experienced coach and racer who offers these observations on the value of race training for young skiers.

As a professional ski coach, instructor, and father, I have had the opportunity to teach skiing to a broad spectrum of age groups and talent levels.  One of my favorite activities is working with kids.  Children are like blank canvases and are full of energy and free of fear, especially fear of failure.  Due to their eagerness and joy, children typically learn faster than adults.  Their learning curves are steeper.  Typically, a natural progression in a young skier’s life would be for him or her to consider racing.  I strongly encourage any young skiers who are passionate about the sport to try race training.  Even if the child never enters a race, the skills the young skier garners will help him or her become a better skier and athlete in general.

In my younger race groups, I often coach kids who have never raced or trained in gates before.  The best thing about this scenario is that because of their “newness,” they have no bad habits.  New movements and ideas are assimilated quickly and become second-nature.
               I have been asked by adults if it is a good idea to get children into racing at ages as young as five or six.  My response is always, “Absolutely.”  No matter the amount of experience or ability, race training can always be beneficial.  My philosophy is that children need a wide variety of athletic experiences.  I think that in this day and age, too many children are forced into specialization and given labels far too soon.
               I have two sons, five and eight, and they wanted to play hockey starting at three years old.  My wife and I supported their wishes, knowing that any athletic pursuits at that age would help them develop in a wide variety of ways.  It was not until this winter that they both started to develop passions for skiing.  My oldest son has started training with my race club, and he loves it.  He is having a tough time deciding if he wants to ski race or play hockey next year.
               What is important about this anecdote is that my son is no different than most of the other kids his age whom I coach.  He enjoys the training because he gets to make new friends, be outside, go fast, and spend more time with me.  It is almost an afterthought that he is improving his skiing by leaps and bounds.  This is how it should be.
               Race training for children, especially those who love to ski in general, can be the perfect way to quickly improve the child’s skiing ability while giving him or her a venue in which to socialize, enjoy the outdoors, and have fun.  Give it a try!

 

 

It’s late in the season. Temperatures change, conditions change, daylight changes – but one thing remains constant every day of every ski season. Month after month, day after day, hour after hour, the chairs on the lift go ‘round and ‘round, ascending and descending over and over again as the bullwheels turn.  

Do lift operators count chairs in their sleep? What’s a lift op to do to stay alert?

Being a lift operator is the only job where you may well meet everyone on the slopes in a single day. Since a trip down these Midwestern hills is often quicker than the trip up, Crystal’s lift ops can string out a single conversational topic with a skier over the course of a day. When there are no skiers around, the bottom operator can converse with the op in the upper lift shack through an open intercom. The upper lift shack operators are like eagles in their aeries, keeping sharp eyes on unloading skiers.

“We make sure everybody’s getting off safely. We keep the ramp flush and level, we listen to the radio,” says one lift eagle. Time goes by pretty much the same on both ends, whether they’re working the top or bottom. “You always have people to watch out for, or to take care of the ramp area. It’s always fun to talk to the skiers.”

The top and bottom lift ops change places every two hours. Over at Totem Park, the ops switch spots with the Loki quad operators every two hours. Crystal’s band of four lift supervisors and 30 lift operators is primarily a gang of guys, with just two females. Operator Willie Hanson is King of the Shack Pack, with 21 years behind his belt. Most ops tend to stay around for two to three seasons.  

As with every job, there can be challenges – like extreme weather conditions, hectic Saturday afternoons, and skiers not paying attention who load or unload too late or too early, to cite a few. But by arming themselves with grins and cheery greetings, Crystal lift operators have to power to create an atmosphere of good cheer regardless of the weather or occasional loading/unloading mishap. They stay fueled up and fired up by conversations with the customers, against the constant hum of the chairs going around and around…...as the bullwheels turn.

From alpine skis to brewskis, our former Vice-President of Sales and Marketing Rick Schmitt pens this farewell to the Mountain, as he leaves us to embark upon a new career at the helm of Stormcloud Brewing, opening in downtown Frankfort this summer.

As the cliché goes, on February 28^th, I saddled up my horse and packed up the proverbial cardboard box of personal items, riding off in the sunset after 17 extraordinary years working for Crystal Mountain. While the cold winter evening did not deliver the idyllic golden ray expanse that we have grown to covet, the sunset of my memories at the Mountain could not be shaded with the Midwestern grey sky. Indeed, driving away with boxes full of memories in the back seat was truly bittersweet. Not only has Crystal “grown up” over my tenure, I had grown as well.

With admiration and apologies to Travel Michigan and Tim Allen for the comparison, the Pure Michigan commercial 25,000 Mornings came to mind as I departed the resort, in that I was reminiscent of the 6000 plus Evenings I had experienced at Crystal over the years. For those not familiar with the Pure Michigan commercial, I encourage you to view it online. In my opinion, it’s the best in the award winning series. Tim Allen speaks movingly about how many Mornings we get in our lives (turns out about 25,000 on average), and how we spend them in traffic and on treadmills. Allen continues to voice over incredible images of our beautiful state to compliment his words - that if we are lucky, really lucky, we get a few mornings that are Pure Michigan. If true, which I believe it is, I am the luckiest man in the world.

As a transplant from Colorado, I can say without hesitation that living, working and raising a family in Northern Michigan is truly a dream, and one I would not change for anything in the world. It has been a privilege and an honor to have called Crystal Mountain my professional home for so many years. While the sun has set for the last time at the Mountain for me personally, I take away  many Pure Michigan memories which I hope future generations can also share.