Anybody Ski Crystal Mountain WA?

OregonDeadmy season is done but I will still try to get up there and drink a beer with you. Think I am on track to be able to drive again in a week or two

If you're able to walk up a snowbank we shoveled our roof off and its been a cool place to drink beers. Also inside is cool or the backyard we have fires sometimes.

Def get a hold if me. I rarely ever leave the mtn and I'm also down for a beer.

I don't have a crystal pass, but i'm in seattle and would be down for some spring time tours

I live in seattle and ski summit glad to hear you like it I never really make it up to crystal but where are the best sections of the mountain you should defintly check out summit some time too

Obama_careI live in seattle and ski summit glad to hear you like it I never really make it up to crystal but where are the best sections of the mountain you should defintly check out summit some time too

I can ride a bunch of the mtns for free. Some i need to reserve just hard both getting the motivation to ride is tough after working sll night. But roommate has almost same days off so might try and do a trip. Been following their stuff on social and 2 of my roommates ride their occasionally.

I hear good things.

Hoping to get crystals park more competitive in the next few seasons.

Just wanted to say thank you, park is better than it's ever been. Just wish there was a better dedicated lift for the medium line... Quicksilver used to be it, but even then, it's a slow lift. The largest jumps at crystal are really nice and floaty :)

n3st34Just wanted to say thank you, park is better than it's ever been. Just wish there was a better dedicated lift for the medium line... Quicksilver used to be it, but even then, it's a slow lift. The largest jumps at crystal are really nice and floaty :)

Thanks dude. Yeah were working on trying to find a good spot. Hoping to use the little bit of hype crom this season to get some more real estate. Obviously crystal doesn't have a ton of mellow terrain so hoping we can still snag something decent with some space, and a lack of weird inflow trails.

Regardless stoked on the place. Also they're super down to have a park till the end of the season even if we have to move up the mtn.

Management is behind the parks so thats a pretty good start.


Hoping we can keep building some flowy shit.

Crystal made it on Park Crew Hates You.

Always wanted to work at a place that ended up on there. Was funny to park my cat at the end of the shift, check the instagrams and see that as the first post. Made me smile.

https://www.seattletimes.com/life/outdoors/3-years-and-a-covid-blighted-ski-season-into-new-ownership-stevens-pass-and-crystal-mountain-chart-divergent-paths/?fbclid=IwAR1y3L94isZpWHJXQpjx1oJRHBw9nvNi67aZNaVd4-JHM8a3jhR8M_9dJsQ

Interesting article from the Seattle Times. General consensus is Crystal Mountain is holding it down

OregonDeadhttps://www.seattletimes.com/life/outdoors/3-years-and-a-covid-blighted-ski-season-into-new-ownership-stevens-pass-and-crystal-mountain-chart-divergent-paths/?fbclid=IwAR1y3L94isZpWHJXQpjx1oJRHBw9nvNi67aZNaVd4-JHM8a3jhR8M_9dJsQ

Interesting article from the Seattle Times. General consensus is Crystal Mountain is holding it down

for sure. especially now that there's a decent park (thanks @theabortionator) they kind of have everything going for them.

stevens on the other hand has gone to shit faster than any other mountain i can think of. place was hopping a few years ago. seemed like all of UW was in that upper lot on weekends, now i don't know anyone who skis there.

could write a whole thread on this but the vail formula of letting longtime employees walk is biting them in the ass. they do this at every single one of their resorts. the article touches on it but stevens is a pretty unique mountain that demands a lot of experience and familiarity. old lifts, complex avi risk, etc.

unfortunately a bunch of people (and hundreds of years of experience) bailed on that place because katz simply can't be bothered to pay them. now they're trying to fix 1960s riblets and do control work on the backside with a bunch of underpaid new guys. and eventually it's going to cost them.

end rant

cyphersfor sure. especially now that there's a decent park (thanks @theabortionator) they kind of have everything going for them.

stevens on the other hand has gone to shit faster than any other mountain i can think of. place was hopping a few years ago. seemed like all of UW was in that upper lot on weekends, now i don't know anyone who skis there.

could write a whole thread on this but the vail formula of letting longtime employees walk is biting them in the ass. they do this at every single one of their resorts. the article touches on it but stevens is a pretty unique mountain that demands a lot of experience and familiarity. old lifts, complex avi risk, etc.

unfortunately a bunch of people (and hundreds of years of experience) bailed on that place because katz simply can't be bothered to pay them. now they're trying to fix 1960s riblets and do control work on the backside with a bunch of underpaid new guys. and eventually it's going to cost them.

end rant

It's pretty bad man. There's something to be said about 10 years at a specific mountain. Something that a person with 10 years from a different mountain may not match,. Sure in some departments or maybe to an extent in general, people get bored, people get stale.

But knowing the people, the systems, the department, the tools. If it's LM knowing the lifts the issues, the fixes, and a ton more. Snowmaking, knowing how the system works, where valves are, how to fix whatever fleet of guns you have there. It's just priceless. Obviously if you're an asshole you're never irreplaceable. There are def a few of those people. I think a lot of the people that get pushed out when Vail comes in, or just burn out from Vail in general aren't those people.

It's fucking stupid to let 10+ years of experience at the mountain walk for a few dollars an hour, sometimes a dollar if we're talking a slight raise to keep them happy. That person Might have done a couple of summer LM, has done early season snowmaking for 6 seasons, has 10 in a cat there, knows the terrain and the contours, which runs get the most sun. Knows which lifts will be an issue and what can be done to keep them running safely.

Then Bobby Katz corp rolls up and sometimes those people bounce or get pushed out over nothing. It's stupid. Vail's model is that everyone is easily replaceable. You lose an orange you buy another orange, it's the same thing. But the ski industry doesn't work like that. There are plenty of good people out there, but even with them it's going to take them years to get to that level of understanding the mountain. And by that time? They might be burnt out and gone as well, and the cycle continues.

The ski industry relying way too hard on employee loyalty and paying shit wages needs to change in general though. I doubt it will ever be comparable to what other similar jobs would pay outside of skiing, but it could use some work. At least the constant rotations of managers and managers managers at Vail are always doing alright.

Also for crystal, rail build seems like a go for late summer. Nothing is certain until it happens imo but looking really good.

Trying to build a bunch of beginner ish features, and get a nice stacked park with that stuff going. Also a few more intermediate rails, 1 or 2 advanced once probably(I really want a ztube. And probably a wallride or two. Maybe one that's a normal one and a smaller one with a tube on top to go up and over.

Getting a sick beginner park dialed would help here a bunch I think. Would be dope to get more weird flow features next year. Make the jump line a little bigger and more crisp. Get a nice intermediate advance rail like going again.

We just need more space. Still getting the usual issues of getting a trail. We'll give you this but you can't have that, actually you can't have this you can have that, but only this side to that side. Etc

Hopefully we come out with something good. The mountain is already sick, but there's enough people riding park, especially if we could build a good program. Management is really on board and it's been a good enough year for feedback and stuff.

We'll see.

Hopefully can find a good spot for a rotating mini plaza, Get some events happening again etc. Everywhere had a weird season this year but our parks came out decent enough.

theabortionatorIt's fucking stupid to let 10+ years of experience at the mountain walk for a few dollars an hour, sometimes a dollar if we're talking a slight raise to keep them happy. That person Might have done a couple of summer LM, has done early season snowmaking for 6 seasons, has 10 in a cat there, knows the terrain and the contours, which runs get the most sun. Knows which lifts will be an issue and what can be done to keep them running safely.

Yeah this exactly. I did a summer of lift maintenance at Vail a while ago and saw several electricians with 20+ years of experience split because they hadn't seen a raise in forever. I distinctly remember not being able to do tower maintenance on chair 5 for WEEKS because the spacing system broke. Vail ended up paying out the ass in overtime labor all because the guys who could have fixed it in a day committed the cardinal sin of asking Katz for some spare change.

Giving raises is always going to be cheaper than spending years training up new mechs who can't work as quickly. Simple math. Also consider the effect on employee morale and retention when management openly gives veteran employees the finger in front of trainees (read: me) who are deciding whether or not it's a viable career (it's not). I'll never work maintenance at VR again and I'm not at all surprised to see that lifts are now constantly shitting the bed at Stevens.

cyphersYeah this exactly. I did a summer of lift maintenance at Vail a while ago and saw several electricians with 20+ years of experience split because they hadn't seen a raise in forever. I distinctly remember not being able to do tower maintenance on chair 5 for WEEKS because the spacing system broke. Vail ended up paying out the ass in overtime labor all because the guys who could have fixed it in a day committed the cardinal sin of asking Katz for some spare change.

Giving raises is always going to be cheaper than spending years training up new mechs who can't work as quickly. Simple math. Also consider the effect on employee morale and retention when management openly gives veteran employees the finger in front of trainees (read: me) who are deciding whether or not it's a viable career (it's not). I'll never work maintenance at VR again and I'm not at all surprised to see that lifts are now constantly shitting the bed at Stevens.

For sure. I might go down to Northstar for some summer snowmaking. Said I'd never work for VR again, and still feel that way, but it's a crew of all people that I've worked with and am friends with hitting me up about it. And there's not much at Crystal for me till August or September.

Would be cool to hang in Tahoe again, skate with my buddy that's on the crew, catch up with other friends down there and stuff.

I'm stoked that Crystal/Altera is treating me pretty well. Even the day staff guys start with no experience get almost a buck more than I got AFTER a raise at Northstar. I could have worked at Northstar for another 3 years and gotten maybe 2 bucks more an hour if I was lucky. Also the mountain likes me here so I might get a little more next year which would be awesome, but honestly the mellow environment has been the real thing. Obviously some of the usual issues and bullshit, but I like and work well with most of the guys, it's relaxed, and I should have more creative freedom next season.

That kinda killed me at the start, we had a small park, I could groom it out pretty fast, and then I'd just do trails with the other guys. I was like yooooo, can I switch out this stuff and keep it fresh? NOOOOOOOOO. Word sweet, seems fun. I prolly should have gone rogue and done it but I was new here and not trying to rustle feathers.

Although the quick park was going fully rogue and that went decent. Idk, not everything you build will hit, somethings just don't work out the way you planned, but you gotta try some new shit once in a while or at least swap out some of your rails on the regular to keep things fresh.

Also on that note, I'm welding fork sleeves onto all the existing features that are wide enough since I end up setting a lot of stuff by myself late night. It'll make things even faster/efficient and hopefully even if our staff size is still small we'll be able to keep things fresh.

/rant thing about stuff and other stuff idk

CaseyCan’t tell if serious...

the whole scene in the area is shot. scooter kids sitting on rails at every park. might still be hope at the woodinville skatepark but im so sad skatebarn closed down years ago.

b0ssthe whole scene in the area is shot. scooter kids sitting on rails at every park. might still be hope at the woodinville skatepark but im so sad skatebarn closed down years ago.

Yeah skatebarn was crazy. Did you ever go to the emerald city skatepark across from safeco? Only chance I ever got to ride a legit 12 foot very ramp

b0ssthe whole scene in the area is shot. scooter kids sitting on rails at every park. might still be hope at the woodinville skatepark but im so sad skatebarn closed down years ago.

One of the groomers at crystal used to work there apparently. He was telling me a bit about it.


Maybe enumclaw will get some concrete love. Would be dope if they'd even let somebody diy the crete side. Those features are interesting at best.