"Robust sales"
28,000 Crystal Ikon passes.
...apparently.
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"Robust sales"
28,000 Crystal Ikon passes.
...apparently.
More reading: get those day passes early!
https://www.seattletimes.com/life/ou...-local-slopes/
A TOUGH BUT NECESSARY DECISION
Effective Saturday, January 18th, we have taken a decision to preserve the aspect of what we all love about this mountain – a community resort, with an uncommercial and pristine environment and amazing skiing and riding. It was a tough call – we are skiers at heart and turning away those who love the mountain is not in our nature. But something needs to change for the community good.
We will discontinue selling walk-up full day tickets at the ticket booths on weekends and holidays in order to hold skier visits to what our roads and parking infrastructure is designed to handle. will monitor this closely and make adjustments as we continue to learn how this will impact our guests and the mountain.
On weekends and holidays, we will continue to honor all Ikon Pass holders, purchasers of any advanced ticket product such as 5-pack vouchers, advance single days tickets, and other such products.
We will offer a finite amount of advance tickets online for weekends and holidays. But we will limit the available quantities of these day tickets based on a consideration of variables such as the snow forecast, mountain conditions, traffic, road conditions, and any other factors that contribute to people making their decision to ski on that day.
Our belief is that this will have the effect of capping total numbers of skiers to a level that our roads and parking infrastructure can accommodate while still providing a premium experience.
In the short term, for this season we will continue to reinforce our efforts to give timely and transparent travel and parking information. We will continue investing large sums in providing bus service to Crystal. We will continue incenting our customers to carpool. And in the coming weeks, we will be announcing new and more rewarding incentives to our customers who visit on weekdays.
This initiative is a part of maintaining our untrammeled experience and the rustic nature of why we love Crystal. Like everyone, we need to begin to change our behavior to help sustain our ski experience now and for future generations. Our commitment is to provide our guests with a superior experience - we believe that these steps will move us towards that objective. As a community, we all love Crystal, but right now it’s a mountain that is feeling too much love and we are taking decisive action to preserve what it means to all of us.
With respect and gratitude.
Frank DeBerry
President & COO
and the link if ya want....https://www.crystalmountainresort.co...dAklFYLHZgJTwA
Great fucking idea.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stikki
I've heard they are metering car counts just out of the 'claw already?
Today the lines for gondy and CH were up the hill at 8:30. Crazy. Monday? Never seen that in many years of skiing there. It thinned out quick once spinning and was a crazy good pow day.
Also, I remember skiing at Northstar in the mid '70's. They'd just opened and their marketing pitch was all about how they limited the number of tix sold each day so there would never be lift lines. Them's was the dayz, eh?
Quote:
Originally Posted by PNWbrit
I really (really) appreciate the sentiment, but I don't believe walk-ups are the problem. Rumor has it they sold 3X IKONs vs. the number of crystal passes previously sold. That's the problem.
I wish it didn't feel like lip service.
Hopefully the people with passes will at least figure their shit out and do what they need to do (tires, chains) to be able to get up CMB. I'd wager that day pass people are over-represented in the fuckups. At least I'd like to think so.Quote:
Originally Posted by oftpiste
The real problem is the explosive population growth of the Puget Sound region.
AKA, blame California.
Hey! I represent that statement!Quote:
Originally Posted by Rowen
My brother isn’t going to be happy as a single ticket buying dad with a daughter who’s showing interest
Just buy online the night before. Easy.
This is a no win for Alterra.
To have willingly sold as many season passes as possible, far more than the resources can accommodate and the solution is to effectively bar those families that can't afford $700 per family member?
A clear breach of the Public Trust by conglomerates.
As long as people buy the John Galt myth, it's just going to get worse.
I hate to say it but they need to limit ikon days to 5 on the base pass, just like every other ikonic destination.
Sent from my I3123 using Tapatalk
Apparently the website wasn’t playing well with regard to youth tickets...Quote:
Originally Posted by oftpiste
Presumably that was a temporary issue, but it was part of his frustration with this recent storm & rider surge
It's state property.Quote:
Originally Posted by Buster Highmen
More likely FS, but independent, that didn't stop Boyne and Kircher from plowing, salting and sanding.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rock Knocker
Nice try.
Alta used to do this in the 80s/90s.Quote:
Originally Posted by oftpiste
The official Crystal account said in the facebook thread on this that they're not going to limit youth tickets since the youth obviously didn't drive themselves up. So if you have a pass you're free to bring your kid(s) on the weekend.Quote:
Originally Posted by ::: :::
Pretty insane that Crystal got the Stevens problem but made it worse. I would have thought with a better road, and lack of 2 way traffic they would be able to manage for a little while longer.
I personally think they should start w/ incentivizing visits to other Alterra / Ikonic resorts. Like Snowshoe, WV. Most southern resort passholders would benefit from a long holiday weekend there :fmicon:
https://i.imgur.com/Y4LHnbm.png
I spent a weekend at Snowshoe one night.Quote:
Originally Posted by pipedream
Fun place
Ha. people gonna get turned away at the window for a $100 plus day ticket to please Ikon pass holders. Interesting move. Wish mountains could do something better about the dipshits driving up without snow tires.
There were two dozen 4wd cars that slid into the snow bank in a 1 mile stretch when I left hood over the weekend when traffic stopped and they could hold with their all seasons. Just grinding into the snow bank with all 4s spinning. Caused one of many shitshows already this season down south, but sound like you have it way worse. I've skied Crystal quite a bit over the years but have thankfully missed the epicness described this year.
I’ve been thinking the same thing. Stevens got super busy a few years back when the Summit had that crappy season and lifts only spun for a couple weeks. That light winter gave people who wandered over from the Summit the false impression that Hwy 2 is easy winter driving. The follow on parking challenges at Stevens affected some behavior and you either head up early, wait for the night session, or just go back to the Summit.Quote:
Originally Posted by wordbird
I have always thought the “Crystal has nearly unlimited parking and no real mountain driving” pitch was going to backfire at some point. It’s mind blowing had bad it has gotten.
It was bad when I went to school('10-'14), I think i had a season pass for '11-'12 or '12-'13 and the lots filled up just before or after the lifts spun @ Stevens on big weekend pow days. That was the reason I had a pass there for only one season, and only had alpy for other seasons. The more amazing thing for me was when we had a one liquid inch (nwac) and 2 new of snow (marketing) a couple winters back and filled up at 9. Obviously the 90% Seattleite population driving up had no idea about that the snow would be mostly shit with half an inch thick crust, breakable in treed places but bulletproof in others. I really enjoyed the 3 hr drive with my friend who was too hungover to help me drive from EWA to meet up some Seattleites. Fortunately I didn't have to pay for tickets for that shitshow since i had a free day from lookout pass.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bandit Man
Insane the effect IKON is having on the business model of the ski industry.Quote:
Originally Posted by klauss
Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums
You mean like keeping ikon on the weekends and loosing the local walk up traffic?! How long until only ikon passes will pass the loading gate?
I work at a ski shop in an Epic town in Vermont. The amount of day traffic in town during the week has fallen way off. Ghost town. Not sure this is sustainable. Shops and restaurants are taking a beating.
EPIC doesn’t want $100 walk ups the once a year slot players of skiing, they want to sell to the whales.Quote:
Originally Posted by Harry
crazy thread how busy crystal is.
Just this year or last as well? I mean the conditions in VT have hardly been great so traffic would likely be slower now...Just wondering if this is EPIC/IKON effect or just weather?Quote:
Originally Posted by buttahflake
Granted the weather has been shit this season. But this is definitely slower than I’ve ever seen it. Maybe a combination of both the weather and day ticket prices. I’d be curious what it’s like at Stowe and Stratton this year.Quote:
Originally Posted by Skidog
Interesting. I would have though that being on the IKON would lead to more "destination vacationers" and an increase in weekday visitors. But i guess the super pass is just selling to the 3 times a year folks, and making them go 10 times "to get their money's worth".Quote:
Originally Posted by buttahflake
Crazy how the business model has shifted from $1600 season pass and $40 day tickets when i was growing up in the 90's to now $500 season pass and $160 day tickets.
Wish we had more data and metrics vs anecdotes on skier visits this year. Definitely seems like Ikon is a major factor (I've talked to so many random folks who are casual skiers or just flat out suck and purchased an Ikon), but could this also be a side-effect of ski corporations dialing in their social media marketing strategies? I was talking to a dude on the chairlift at my hill recently (not an Ikon ski area) who said he only comes up to ski when the resort's FB page or mailing list reports that conditions are "good".
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rock Knocker
I looked this up years ago, and I was sure it was WashDOT property, but you are correct.Quote:
Originally Posted by Buster Highmen
http://www.tacomadailyindex.com/blog...oject/2426952/
In any case, I don't remember Crystal ever actually plowing the road themselves. In fact, at a Crystal Founder Club, John Kircher brought up this very fact, that it was a state highway that only the state could maintain. He also brought up the fact that it was illegal for Crystal to enforce state laws (chains) on a state (or any public road) , ie: the turnoff.
Crystal runs its own snow removal equipment on the blvd.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rock Knocker
There was a law suit following an accident with a plow some years ago in which Crystal was the defendant.
Runs or ran? And the length of the blvd., or just inside their use area?Quote:
Originally Posted by PNWbrit
Clearly not running as much.
The entire blvd.
I have hitched a ride from a 410 lap with a crystal plow driver at the bottom of blvd.
FifyQuote:
Originally Posted by Harry
Hmmmm....could be the fact that it's rained four times since Thanksgiving and was 65 degrees this last Saturday night. Maybe. Or maybe now somebody can fly and stay in SLC where it actually snows for almost the same price with points airfare. Possibly . Or maybe they just love that wonderful service they get from hungover Vermont lifers in the shops and restaraunts, and can't wait to get back. Yeah, might be.Quote:
Originally Posted by buttahflake
The Catskills died for good reasons. You're next.
have fun driving up them canyons. i hear it’s lovely this time of year..