Crystal Mountain Becomes Alterra

[nickwm21]

Two birds.

Pay off duty highway patrol to do an overly aggressive tire/chain check at the turn. Help space out cars and send the unprepared home.


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[timeo]

A pause in our regularly scheduled endless parking complaints to kvetch about the food.

Obviously pocket meats are the way to go and all ski area food is overpriced, but the quality seems to have taken an unprecedentedly rapid nose dive this year.

Campbell Basin isn't doing hot food at all mid-week and, when they are, the hot food is all grab-and-go heat lamp stuff. Menu size is greatly reduced and, while the shape changed back to slices, the new pizza slices are still the vaguely pizza-flavored cardboard introduced last season.

Their burger, no fries included now, had a patty thinner than a couple stacked quarters and was so overcooked that you couldn't say well-done anymore and had to say congratulations instead.

Not to mention the glorified hallway at the base is running the same menu.

Haven't tried the sausages from the place that replaced the Cantina but they're still doing the breakfast burrito and even that's suffered. It has this oddly consistent grainy texture like all the ingredients were minced to the same size. Suspiciously quick too, so I assume they went to heat-and-serve.

I know the easy-button answer is corporate greed but the food is so aggressively terrible now that I wonder if there isn't some other reason for this.

To add insult to injury they also have a guy walking around Campbell lodge wearing a puff coat with a large "Alcohol Enforcement" sign on the back and he is reading the riot act to anyone who BYOBs in the lodge. Made me order a set of these

as I refuse to give the Alterra asswipes $10 for a beer. Link for anyone interested: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...0?ie=UTF8&th=1

[ptavv]

I didn't BYOB in Campbell the other day and found that the bar price for a beer is up to $11 (before tip)

I did see the alcohol enforcement guy but he wasn't looking very carefully as the table next to me had some BYOBers he missed. Easiest is prob to just go grab a bring a transparent plastic cup and pour your beer in that.

[ptavv]

Apparently Crystal has figured out a way to septuple its parking capacity for the New Year:

[TBS]

A pause in our regularly scheduled endless parking complaints to kvetch about the food.

Obviously pocket meats are the way to go and all ski area food is overpriced, but the quality seems to have taken an unprecedentedly rapid nose dive this year.

Campbell Basin isn't doing hot food at all mid-week and, when they are, the hot food is all grab-and-go heat lamp stuff. Menu size is greatly reduced and, while the shape changed back to slices, the new pizza slices are still the vaguely pizza-flavored cardboard introduced last season.

Their burger, no fries included now, had a patty thinner than a couple stacked quarters and was so overcooked that you couldn't say well-done anymore and had to say congratulations instead.

Not to mention the glorified hallway at the base is running the same menu.

Haven't tried the sausages from the place that replaced the Cantina but they're still doing the breakfast burrito and even that's suffered. It has this oddly consistent grainy texture like all the ingredients were minced to the same size. Suspiciously quick too, so I assume they went to heat-and-serve.

I know the easy-button answer is corporate greed but the food is so aggressively terrible now that I wonder if there isn't some other reason for this.

I didn't BYOB in Campbell the other day and found that the bar price for a beer is up to $11 (before tip).

Hmmm, sounds like Powdr Corp is on the same page as Alterra.

Ski bud’s kid works food service at the nicest of the dining establishments at Mt Brokenchair. They’ve outsourced their food prep to Sysco, so just heat, assemble and serve at the mountain. Its so bad, when people get the food they tell the servers “sorry, I’m not paying for this”, or at best they leave no tip. Employees are not happy

But at least the price of a beer here is still $10.

[ianpnw]

It takes true genius to make the shitter situation at Crystal even worse than in the past. The old shitters were closed yesterday for some reason, so everyone was funneled across to the Commons, where they have just 3 stalls, one of which wasn’t working. To add insult to injury you have to pass through the large and lavish retail shop to get to the bathrooms. My son said that next time he’d just take a shit in one of the beanies, put it back on the shelf and call it feedback!
On the upside, skiing was great, lifelines were short to non-existent, despite the parking lots being full - maybe everyone was in the retail store….

[Norseman]

Porta-john at Silver Springs snowpark became my preferred morning pitstop, after a few years of the enduring the dungeon.

[ptavv]

Porta-john at Silver Springs snowpark became my preferred morning pitstop, after a few years of the enduring the dungeon.

i used to stop at safeway in enumclaw, but that's now wildly oversubscribed

now i use the qfc, they have better donuts anyway

[goolick]

Having read over the last page of this thread, it seems like everyone just likes bitching. I found the fish and chips from the food truck outside of the Campbell Basin (top of Forest Queen) to be pretty excellent. And reasonably priced. I was given an Ikon Pass discount, which I wasn't even aware was a thing. A drink at the bar is ~10 bucks. What else do you expect?

The bathrooms at the base in the gift shop (first building on the left) are really clean and not crowded. Two thumbs up from me.

[bfree]

Having read over the last page of this thread, it seems like everyone just likes bitching.

The other 81 pages aren't much different.

[Huskier]

Having read over the last page of this thread, it seems like everyone just likes bitching. I found the fish and chips from the food truck outside of the Campbell Basin (top of Forest Queen) to be pretty excellent. And reasonably priced. I was given an Ikon Pass discount, which I wasn't even aware was a thing. A drink at the bar is ~10 bucks. What else do you expect?

The bathrooms at the base in the gift shop (first building on the left) are really clean and not crowded. Two thumbs up from me.

Welp, pack it up boys I think we're done here

Is the "goo" that you lick on the bottom of the corporate boot, by chance?


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[S_jenks]

i used to stop at safeway in enumclaw, but that's now wildly oversubscribed

now i use the qfc, they have better donuts anyway

Eating grocery store donuts should be a criminal offense in most counties.

And the convenience of that Safeway is just too good to replace on my route. The McDee’s next door is also a good place to drop one before heading up valley.

[counterfeitfake]

Porta-john at Silver Springs snowpark became my preferred morning pitstop, after a few years of the enduring the dungeon.

Is it there this year? Wasn't there when I swung by a few weeks ago.

There's a portable bathroom outside the Elk, not sure when it'll come in handy but it might.

[BaseFloopy]

Having read over the last page of this thread, it seems like everyone just likes bitching. I found the fish and chips from the food truck outside of the Campbell Basin (top of Forest Queen) to be pretty excellent. And reasonably priced. I was given an Ikon Pass discount, which I wasn't even aware was a thing. A drink at the bar is ~10 bucks. What else do you expect?

The bathrooms at the base in the gift shop (first building on the left) are really clean and not crowded. Two thumbs up from me.

Well this is the appointed bitch thread, genius.
But congrats on your gift shop and culinary experiences.

[f=ma]

Well this is the appointed bitch thread, genius.
But congrats on your gift shop and culinary experiences.

I enjoy the fish shack

[eSock]

I enjoy the fish shack

Do you like fish sticks?

[f=ma]

Do you like fish sticks?

Yes, I enjoy putting fishsticks in my mouth

[ptavv]

Man, there has *got* to be a better way than Crystal's parking reservation shit.

Left my house in Tacoma 6:55, parked in D lot at 10:10. I knew I wasn't going to be at the front of B lot or anything but wanted to take the kiddo and my new skis for a day up there.

They had a Crystal F350 blocking the downhill lane about 1/2 or 2/3 of the way up the Blvd scanning plates (I'm 99% sure, bc he was parked in one of the only spots on the Blvd with cell reception) and blocking/pulsing downhill traffic around himself.

Then at the entrance to F lot they had cones set up and another Crystal employee with a STOP/SLOW sign and she was stopping people who didn't have parking reservations and directing them into F lot (and I assume, back down the Blvd?).

On the one hand, it's an impressive degree of enforcement of the reservation parking mandate, but on the other it slows transit to the checkpoint to an absolute crawl as the people who get turned around whine and argue and don't move promptly and then do a 7 point turn to get out of the uphill Blvd lane. They're literally levying a time-tax on every single person coming up the mountain whether they have reservations or not.

Ditch the F-lot turnaround and put a squad of Crystal employees in the lots who can tell the people without reservations to turn around or get towed -- they certainly have half a dozen security numptys wandering around the base area scolding anyone who carries their beer 2 feet outside the laughable patio at the new lodge.

Ohwell, it was a fun day skiing with the kiddo and she made up for the late start by closing the place down. It also kept us out of the worst of the rain in the morning.

[Dromond]

I have to agree. On Saturday I was on the blvd at about 7:40 and hit a 20 minute backup 3.5 miles from the parking lots due to the slow scanning system.

[XavierD]

Agreed, all the parking/traffic control measures they have adopted are making things worse. The F-Lot checkpoint makes no sense, amongst others. Artificially starts slowing traffic on the blvd to single digits before 7:30am. Plenty of parking employees in each lot who could be checking reservations instead.

Also not sure what they are doing with directing traffic into different lots throughout the morning. Around 8:15 on Saturday they stopped parking people in mostly empty B lot and sent them all to upper C for no apparent reason. Directing people to upper-C doesn’t make sense IMO, it’s less convenient for resort access than B, and doesn’t have shuttle service, while clearly being preferable for BC skiers. Just let people self direct up there, leave an attendant up there to check parking reservations.

The fancy new lodge without enough seating is still mostly closed in the mornings so no indoor seating for anyone buying a cup of coffee. No idea what room temperature IQ person they have up there making various decisions.

[3pin]

It’s also leading to an unfortunate arms race of earlier and earlier departure times. Left N Seattle at quarter to six Sat morning, and I’ve rarely seen such a consistent line of traffic from Enumclaw, even on pow days. Like Dromond, last three miles were stop and go up the boulevard.


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[BaseFloopy]

People can email gservice@skicrystal.com
The more, the merrier.

They do respond but most likely you will get the brush-off, if not outright gaslighting. For example they told my wife they've been stopping cars at the bottom of the Blvd for years. I'm not sure how to reason with that behavior. Maybe they meant other Alterra-owned hinterlands?

[rpearce1475]

Does anyone know Crystal's actual policy for uphilling inbounds prior to the resort opening in the morning? Timing isn't mentioned at all on their uphill status page and every person I've spoken to in CS has been clueless. I'm pretty sick of the traffic standstills (waited an hour in traffic prior to and on the Blvd yesterday for a not so busy mountain) and want to get out there early to do some uphill laps prior to the resort opening but don't want to take the risk if I get flagged off by Patrol.

[californiagrown]

It’s also leading to an unfortunate arms race of earlier and earlier departure times. Left N Seattle at quarter to six Sat morning,

This kind of schedule to go resort skiing is what made me leave the bay area more than a decade ago. 3+ hour drives one-way, leaving home 2+ hours before sunrise, committing to 12+hour days each time. Makes a man start redfinning the northport area even harder.

[counterfeitfake]

Does anyone know Crystal's actual policy for uphilling inbounds prior to the resort opening in the morning?

They have a light on their signs for "uphill travel", maybe a signal on the website too. I think it's probably red early in the morning and turns green when they're ready, I haven't been up there early enough to see this firsthand.