CRYSTAL MOUNTAIN Destination for Parents with Kids in Tow DEPENDING ON WHERE YOU LIVE, you know Crystal Mountain as being in Washington or in Michigan. There are two ski resorts by that name. Since establishing a web site on the Internet, the Michigan Crystal Mountain has begun to get email messages--and even calls to its 800 number--from skiers in the Pacific Northwest. One recent call to the voice mail of Nancy Story in marketing came from a Seattle TV reporter planning to do a feature on skiing and seeking directions. "I left a message for her to take I-90 east until she reached Lake Michigan, than turn left," says Story. "The reporter never called back. She may have been too embarrassed." Most Midwest skiers know how to reach their Crystal Mountain. Drive north from Chicago, and you arrive in five hours; it takes about four hours from Detroit. Crystal has established itself as an important Midwest ski destination resort, especially for parents with children who stay and ski free mid-week when room prices also are low. That's our strategy when skiing with grandchildren, specifically the three who live near our home in Long Beach, Indiana. Our family rule is that as soon as a grandchild turns five, we put them on skis. Kyle is eight and into his fourth year of skiing. Wesley is six, starting his second. Holly, only three, needs to wait two more years. Four other grandchildren (scattered in Minnesota and Oregon) await their turns.

Don't Miss the Fun

On a snowy Wednesday, we picked up Kyle and Wesley after school and headed north. (They would miss two days schooling, but both kids get very good grades.) Their father, Kevin, works for a hospital in Elkhart and couldn't take time off from work. Their mother, Camille, doesn't ski, but decided she wasn't going to stay home and miss the fun--particularly when we informed her the resort had a "Mountain Midgets" day-care program for Holly.

I enjoy skiing at all the Northern Michigan resorts, but Crystal is one of my favorites because of its friendly family atmosphere. Arriving mid-evening, we threw our bags in a condo overlooking the cross-country ski trails and headed to the Wildflower restaurant in the main lodge for pizza. Being experienced grandparents, we know how to keep little ones happy.

Another way to keep them--and us--happy is ski lessons. How does the expression go: A person who acts as his own lawyer has a fool for a client. That works with ski instruction too. I know that in teaching kids to control themselves on skis, you first show them how to "make a pie," what adult beginners know as a "snowplow." For more advanced instruction, I'm happy to bow to trained instructors--and Crystal has plenty of those. One advantage of mid-week lessons is that with a better teacher/pupil ratio, you get what amounts almost to private lessons.

Kyle and Wesley practiced making pies. Holly seemed happy in her role as Mountain Midget. (If she were younger, she would have gone to the Piglet's Place Nursery.) Camille had skied only once before in high school and would have been happy to hang around the lodge watching her kids through the window. Rose and I would have none of that and insisted she try cross country skiing. "This is a con job, isn't it?" said Camille. "The next thing, you'll be pushing me onto a chairlift." Despite her protests, we rented equipment for her. Heading onto the Otter Trail, a flat and friendly trail for beginners, I told Camille to slide one ski forward, then slide her other ski in front of the first. "What do I do next?" she worried.

"That's all the instruction you get," I said. "I don't want to confuse you by teaching too much too soon."

"Grandpa Fell!"

Toward the end of the day, we picked the two boys up at Ski School. "Kyle turns well and can ski the green, blue and black trails," the instructor told us. "Wesley's progressing. His only problem is that he's fearless. He'll point his skis downhill and just fly." Sounds like a second child, I thought.

The three of us skied together for a half hour, then I deposited Wesley with his grandmother and headed back to the chairlift with Kyle. Soon Grandpa and Grandson were standing atop the Loki trail, a black-diamond slope. I worried: Could Kyle handle a headwall this steep? More to the point: Could I handle it? We headed down, and it was clear that one of us was over his head. At the bottom, Kyle was triumphant, "Grandpa fell! Grandpa fell!" No more pizza for him.

We had brought a video of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to entertain the three children in the evening, but after a swim, dinner and another lap on the lit cross-country trail, everybody fell into bed without much prompting.

Most of the rooms at Crystal offer kitchen facilities. That's another cost-saving feature that families appreciate. The three kids decided to accept Grandma's offer of hot cereal our second morning at the resort. I opted for their Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

Good Behavior

We took time Friday for a half-day more of ski instruction. Yellow buses from a nearby school district, meanwhile, were pulling into the parking lot. It was "Good Behavior Day" for Arcade Elementary School. Mind your manners on the school buses, and you get a day off from school to go skiing. That limits a lot of mischief. Afternoons, local ski teams come to Crystal to train. "We do a brisk mid-week business," says Story.

The resort was beginning to fill for the even busier weekend (when prices for everything rise in response to demand). We checked out of our condo at noon, but paused before hitting the road. Camille had promised to let the boys go ice skating at the pond before the main lodge if they behaved. No problem. There had been no time for them to misbehave. After an hour of their skidding on the ice, we headed home. Time to switch sports: The boys had basketball games Saturday.

One of these days, maybe we'll plan a family ski vacation at the other Crystal Mountain. The resort by that name in Enumclaw, Washington offers 3,100 feet of vertical drop vs. 375 for the Crystal near Thompsonville, Michigan. Seemingly that's a big edge, but can West Coast Crystal match Midwest Crystal's friendly family atmosphere? Maybe some day, we'll find out. All we need do is drive west on I-90 and turn right at the Pacific Ocean.

Travel: If you're coming from Seattle or other far-off ports, you can fly into Traverse City, Michigan, served by American, Northwest and United Airlines. Most visitors to the Midwest resort, however, arrive by car. From our home at the bottom of Lake Michigan, we usually take I-94 and I-96 to Grand Rapids, then north on US 131 (also four-lane) to Cadillac, then across M-115 (two-lane, but with some passing lanes) to Thompsonville. Another variation is to turn off I-96 at Holland and follow US 31 along the lake to intersect M-115 above Crystal. Skiers coming from Detroit take I-75 to Route 10 to M-115.

Housing: During our visit in January, workers were constructing a new 29-room "Inn at the Mountain," scheduled for occupation in the fall of 1997. When the resort offered the rooms for share-ownership, demand was so high, a lottery was needed to determine investors. The Inn will raise the capacity of Crystal Mountain to 212 rooms, capable of accommodating 1,000 guests. Rates vary from $83 a night for a double room midweek to $472 a night for a three-bedroom condo (six adults) on the weekend. Family ski packages begin at $49 per adult midweek with children eighteen and under sleeping and skiing free. Area motels offer many more beds with additional housing available in Traverse City, 28 miles to the northeast. For reservations, call: (616) 378-2000, or (800) 968-7686. Further information is available on Crystal Mountain's web site: www.crystalmtn.com.

Dining: The Wildflower restaurant in the main lodge offers pleasant dining, but make sure you reserve a table early if you come on the weekend. The cafeteria and night club upstairs are like most ski resort cafeterias and night clubs. If you're on a limited budget, you may prefer bringing your own groceries and choosing lodging with kitchen facilities. Among the better restaurants nearby are the Sail Inn in Benzonia and Glenwood in Onekama. Traverse City has numerous restaurants. It's a long drive, but one of our favorites north of that city is The Boathouse (616) 223-4030, a former deli beside a marina on Grand Traverse Bay. For more eating tips, you might want to purchase a copy of The Connoisseur Up North (A Food-Lover's Guide to Northern Michigan) by Sherri and Graydon DeCamp. In addition to reviewing 60 restaurants, the book includes 150 recipes. (Bayshore Books, P.O. Box 549, Elk Rapids, MI 49629; Fax: 616-264-6193; email: baypartner@aol.com.)

Skiing: While Michigan's Crystal can't match Washington's Crystal in vertical drop, the resort offers twenty-five trails evenly divided in degree of difficulty: 33 percent green, 33 percent blue and 33 percent black. The slopes are lighted and remain open until 9:00 in the evening, 10:00 weekends. Snowboarding is permitted everywhere with a halfpipe for the most Radical Dudes. The resort's thirty kilometers of groomed cross-country trails are not merely among the best in the Midwest, but among the best in North America. Lift tickets for adults are $27 per day during the week, $36 on the weekends. Trail passes are $8 a day. Lessons and rentals are available at varying prices, including $5 for two hours on ice skates.

Day-Care: If you like to ski, the best form of day-care is all-day lessons for your children, which cost $34 (including lunch) for Crystal Kids, aged seven through twelve. Prices are about the same for Crystal Critters, Pooh's Mountain Midgets and for infants and toddlers in Piglet's Nursery. Phone ahead for a reservation if you want to place your children in one of these programs, particularly if you're coming on a weekend.

Screaming Eagle | Crystal Nordic

Copyright © 1997 by Hal Higdon. All rights reserved. Requests to reprint will be considered.

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