Crystal Mountain Becomes Alterra

[Bandit Man]

Newish leadership for Crystal. He's been there last year but stepping into a bigger role.

https://www.alterramtnco.com/news/ne...ystal-mountain

Looked at his LinkedIn profile. At least he’s been with T-Mo prior to Alterra since 2018 and perhaps visited Crystal as a customer. No previous ski industry experience. Corporate real estate and business operations background.

Good luck, Crystal!

[phatty]

Looked at his LinkedIn profile. At least he’s been with T-Mo prior to Alterra since 2018 and perhaps visited Crystal as a customer. No previous ski industry experience. Corporate real estate and business operations background.

Good luck, Crystal!

In the press release he says he grew up skiing Crystal. That should be a positive and hopefully he can keep some of the vestiges of the past in Alterra's focus on profits and mountain "experiences".

[altasnob]

Why did Frank quit?

The entitled Bellevue pass holders are going to eat new guy alive. As a former T Mobile corporate stooge, at least he's one of their own.

[Crippity]

Flying into seattle friday night, staying at airport. Driving to crystal saturday morning. can someone please recommend a place to rent snowboard besides mtn?

[PNWbrit]

Try https://skiandbicycle.com/ in Enumclaw.

[skaredshtles]

Try https://skiandbicycle.com/ in Enumclaw.

That's a nice little shop...

[Crippity]

thank you. They open at 730 saturday so that is the plan

[Crippity]

Another random question. appreciate any ideas. Will leave crystal end of day and start my journey toward bellingham, dont need any particular distance/area just want to get down from mtn. Any cool towns areas not far off route to stay for night? If i go full apres party mode will just crash at crystal and make my way sunday AM. If nothing comes to mind, what part of seattle should i stay? TY in advance

[PNWbrit]

Another random question. appreciate any ideas. Will leave crystal end of day and start my journey toward bellingham, dont need any particular distance/area just want to get down from mtn. Any cool towns areas not far off route to stay for night? If i go full apres party mode will just crash at crystal and make my way sunday AM. If nothing comes to mind, what part of seattle should i stay? TY in advance

Unless you want to stay in/visit Seattle then I would just go straight to Bellingham 3hrs 15min or so from Crystal.

Put Issaquah as mid point in your directions so that you don't get directed back out to Auburn, I5 and thru Seattle but via Eastside & 405 instead.

[timeo]

Massive slide of Powder Bowl yesterday: https://www.facebook.com/CrystalMoun...6269137050679/

[altasnob]

It slid all the way to the bottom of bear pits. Same slide as last year, but that one was even bigger as it came into lucky shot as well. Becoming an annual thing. It's great because it wipes out all the little trees in bear pits and opens it up.

[RichV]

Crystal management is talking about adding/upgrading lifts and improving parking lot shuttles. I don't know how much of this will actually happen, but it is at least a step in the right direction.

[Fishskisurf]

Crystal management is talking about adding/upgrading lifts and improving parking lot shuttles. I don't know how much of this will actually happen, but it is at least a step in the right direction.

not sure if the lack of crowds this past winter can be attributed to the lack of a lodge and the bad parking hangover + shuttle mess, but it sure was a nicer winter up there.
Do any of the proposed lifts, save for Bullion basin, add any terrain, or just added uphill capacity? If I recall it's: base > Campbell lodge gondy, B lot to Kellys Gap, unless something above quicksilver into South is in the mix?
next question of course is how do you get the extra terrain and parking full when the blvd/410 feels like it's at it's max already?
LCC/BCC come to mind, whenever I'm stuck en route up to Xtal, I realize how much worse those in SLC have it...quarter the distance, but same 2 hour commute.

[CnRzG]

It slid all the way to the bottom of bear pits. Same slide as last year, but that one was even bigger as it came into lucky shot as well. Becoming an annual thing. It's great because it wipes out all the little trees in bear pits and opens it up.

Yeah... Bear Pits looks totally different than 15 years ago.

[GoldMember]

Well, since I started this thread about five years ago and was smuggly happy that it was Crystal and not Schweitzer, Schweitzer decides to also sell to Alterra.... great.... Overall, now that some time has passed and adjustments presumably made, how do you all feel about Crystal now versus the 'good old days' pre-Alterra? Better? Worse? Same? I know there were serious parking problems (we've had some, too since the Ikon pass partnership but are working to fix it) but I don't really follow this thread enough to get a sense of overall adaptation to the new overlords. Comments?

[Toadman]

Well, since I started this thread about five years ago and was smuggly happy that it was Crystal and not Schweitzer, Schweitzer decides to also sell to Alterra.... great.... Overall, now that some time has passed and adjustments presumably made, how do you all feel about Crystal now versus the 'good old days' pre-Alterra? Better? Worse? Same? I know there were serious parking problems (we've had some, too since the Ikon pass partnership but are working to fix it) but I don't really follow this thread enough to get a sense of overall adaptation to the new overlords. Comments?

Weekends might get busier. At least Schweitzer isn't w/i 90 minutes of about 2 million people. So, you have that going for you.

[altasnob]

It's like Walmart just took over your local regional grocery store chain.

Alterra has the money to go forward with master plan projects, but don't expect any of those projects to improve your skiing experience. They have armies of MBA analytics crunching the numbers, and they have discovered they don't make shit off day trippin ski bums. It's all about getting the occasional skiing tech bro to drop mad coin on overnight accommodations. So expect the money to focus on base area hotel development, and ways to bring new customers to the mountain.

At Crystal, Alterra has added high priced glamping mid mountain targeting corporate retreats. They have a ropes adventure course at the base. There's always been snow shoe routes around Bullion Basin but Alterra has put up slick signs all over trying to keep the masses from getting lost. Horseback rides in the summer. While they lease the Forest Service land, and have nonexclusive use, they act like they own the place as if it was private property.

They are constantly changing the parking rules. Some have to pay, some have to make reservations at precisely 7 pm on a Tuesday, but don't expect any of the rules to last for long. They set up paid parking kiosks all over the lot, a major eye sore, but then figured out it is easier for people to pay using their smartphone. They listened to their worry wort attorneys and got rid of the open air shuttle truck/trailers and now have airport vans that suck getting in/out and don't hold as many people. They sell $7,000 parking spots to park your RV.

The crowds last season were light, due to the fact that season passes were $1,800 and a week day pass $700. If you have the luxury of skiing weekdays and can afford the pass prices, it is nice. But I wouldn't count on crowds staying light. Those MBA data crunchers will figure out a way to keep the place packed to capacity on a rainy Tuesday.

They moved employee housing down the road 30 minutes in order to add more parking. This kills the employee hang out scene and makes working there generally a more shitty experience. Their former CEO, Frank, bragged about having the best job in the business. But after a year of taking the abuse of Seattle area elites, who like to bitch about everything, he abruptly quit. They replaced Frank with some T mobile corporate stooge, with no experience in the ski business.

At Schweitzer, with Idaho's general laisez faire attitude to environmental laws and development, you should expect the worst.

[ptavv]

The chief difference between Schweitzer and Crystal is that Schweitzer is on and surrounded by privately owned land. I'd expect Alterra's deep pockets to fund a lift expansion out towards Blue Mountain since they can't really keep expanding into the low elevation trees and making glades that are just going to get rained on more and more often. If they want to keep the private land development play going they'll need to expand terrain a bit to justify it, especially since they've replaced all the parking lots with condos.

It's Idaho though, so they can probably just level a whole hillside over by the FD and 3-4x the size of that parking lot.

The condo building to continue apace until it has completely eaten the flats to the west of whatever they replaced Chair 1 with. The parking situation will get worse (until Alterra greases the right BoCo palm to authorize a giant parking lot build) because condos are a better value proposition than parking spots. Wouldn't surprise me if they build some roads and start developing the area to the east of Musical Chairs over by Sunny Side. That area is ripe for building out, the skiing over there is meh and the lift has been neglected for decades -- would make more sense as a lift just for accessing condos/housing over there.

[BaseFloopy]

I do love Crustal but it's such a slap in the face when today's email from Snowbird (to renew season passes) reminds me that my family of 4 would cost half as much there, as it does here. I guess Alterra needs money to knock down buildings at Crustal, and build new lifts and expand terrain in other locations.

[PNWbrit]

In the press release he says he grew up skiing Crystal. That should be a positive and hopefully he can keep some of the vestiges of the past in Alterra's focus on profits and mountain "experiences".

I have it on good authority that the guy is a behaving like a raging corporate asshole - everything is $$$ and "I don't care about how it has been done, it's done my way now"

Fuck...

[timeo]

I have heard from an Xtal employee that Xtal will be back to unlimited days on the Ikon pass for the 2024-2025 season.

[phatty]

Fuck...

Ugh

[Ørion]

https://www.alterramtn.co/news/ikon-...or-winter-2324

Crystal Mountain will begin offering direct to lift access with new RFID technology at all major lifts.

Crystal Mountain will open a new Midway Yurt, featuring grab and go snacks, drinks, and retail.

[Huskier]

Crystal Mountain will begin offering direct to lift access with new RFID technology at all major lifts.

Halle-fucking-lujah

[BaseFloopy]

I was actually happy when RFID went away several years ago. I'd rather tease a teenager who is a little slow with the hand gun than wait for Ikon idiots to figure out why they are an idiot.