CMFC Hall of Fame Honorees
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David W.
"Dave" Gossard
"Father Crystal" - Helped to Shape Crystal Mountain ~ Past, Prsent and Future
Dave first skied in 1936 at Cayuse Pass, and occasionally thereafter until World War II started in 1941. He resumed skiing in 1948, while at University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, and started racing in 1950 in PNSA sponsored events. He went from Class C to Class B by 1952, and that year he won the 1952 University of Washington Intramural Slalom Championship. Also in 1952, Dave was awarded the Sun Valley Gold Sun. While stationed at Fort Ord,
California in 1953, Dave organized the Fort Ord Ski Team, which competed against Stead Air Force Base located in Reno, Nevada.
In the summer of 1951, while working for White River Lumber Company, Dave accompanied Mrs. Chauncey Griggs up to Corral Pass with a couple of White River Timber Company engineers. Mr. Griggs was the visionary for a new ski area on the western slope of the Cascades which ultimately resulted in the development of Crystal Mountain. She
thought Corral Pass would be a suitable site. Dave was discharged from the army in 1954 and that fall went to San Anton, Austria and spent the winter skiing everyday. He attended the University of Washington law school from 1955 to 1958; and taught skiing at Snoqualmie Summit in 1958. After passing the bar exam in 1958, Dave left for Aspen, Colorado, and taught skiing on a part time basis for the winter. In 1959, he instructed at White Pass. Dave
also taught at Ski Acres and Hyak and became a fully certified PNSA ski instructor in 1962, the year Crystal opened. He was an instructor at Crystal for two years, until Jack Nagel was awarded an exclusive contract for the Crystal Ski School.
Dave was able to purchase his first block of Crystal Mountain stock in 1963 on a new stock issue designed primarily to fund a new chair lift to serve Green Valley. In 1971 he purchased membership in Crystal Mountain Skiers, Inc. Ski
Club, and his family spent nearly every winter weekend there for 34 years. In 1986 Wally Staatz, as President, appointed Dave to serve on the Crystal Capital Committee. The goal was to obtain new financing and sell more stock to greatly expand the base facilities, put Silver Springs Creek in a culvert, and build
several new chair lifts.
In the early 1990's Dave played an active role in getting the Crystal Board in
serious discussions with Intrawest executives, who had expressed an interest in buying Crystal Mountain Resort. Dave was elected to the Crystal Board of Directors in 1995 and was on the Executive Committee which continued to negotiate with Intrawest. These negotiations were eventually abandoned by Intrawest and the Board immediately contacted Boyne USA at Big Sky, Montana. The sale to Boyne USA was concluded in 1997, and provided the
option for Crystal Mountain Founders Club stockholders to retain their lift privilege in perpetuity. Dave served on the Board of Directors of the Crystal Mountain Founders Club for 11 years until 2009. At present he is representing the Board in supervising and assisting in the Crystal Mountain Founders Club History Project, which is currently a work in progress with
anticipated completion in late 2010 or early 2011.
Crystal Mountain Founders' Club
P.O. Box 1131
Bellevue WA
98009-1131
