Also most of their jobs advertise paid housing but when you get there they make you sign a contract saying you will pay $660 for a bed. And they don't like to give rides to or from work even though they are supposed to.
Also 2023 no work for October or November because of lack of snow and they still want rent money from the workers who weren't working because they were closed.
Sanitation device in dish room of Cascade at Crystal Mountain, not working properly, and when I told management they had a technician come and try to fix it. Because it continued to work improperly, they fired me, instead of fixing it... So no sanitary dishes... How illegal...
Sounds like a lot of what is going on now. Unqualified people in positions of power. And the people in high positions are getting under aged girls drunk so they can have sex with them especially the J-1's. So do NOT send your children here. All you get is runaround with this company.
I'm so sad I took the time to listen to this long podcast. There is no love of skiing here. Capacity issues came to Crystal when Alterra bought it and put it on the IKON pass. To address the overcrowding they decided to bus everyone in (during a pandemic). Now they plan to offer premium parking to those who can afford it, a 100 room hotel with meeting and conference spaces, new retail and "exceptional" dining options. And in order to fund it all they'll be charging local skiers $1700 for a pass in 2022/2023! Up $700 from last year, and up around $1000 from when they first put Crystal on the IKON pass. They are ruining the ski culture. Good development serves the community while making a profit. This prioritizes money over skiers.
All I hear is learning learning learning. How about actually hiring people who know the problems and know the mountain from the start. The crystal experience has DRASTICALLY dropped since Ikon bought it. We shouldn't need to wait 3 years for an east coast person to learn our area. Prices have more than trippled from $79 around 4-5 years ago to $200 with the 25% buddy pass. No lift expansions or improvements. Will believe the hotel additions when I see it. Being bought by a giant corporation is the death of your ski resort. At least we still have Mount Baker. *CRY*
The hotel has already started being built in the outskirts of Enumclaw. Prices will hopefully mitigate overcrowding. With all the ski resorts in Washington, Alterra never knew how bad it was going to get and I think they have done a great job trying to get in front of it.
I love how people here seem to think that Washington is somehow "undiscovered". It's always been known, it's just not a skier's destination high on anyone's lists. There are two reasons skier's don't flock here: 1) There is very little to no convenient lodging near any of the resorts and 2) the snow quality is consistently mediocre to garbage—argue this all you want, but when people spend thousands of dollars to take their family on a ski vacation, they want consistently good snow conditions. Sure, we get a ton of snow, but it's still wet and heavy on a good day, mediocre to crap on an average day, and miserable on a rain day. Queue the inevitable butthurt response.
As a major fan of Pacific Northwest skiing, those are definitely valid comments regarding the ski resorts not just in Washington, but also Oregon. But if you're skiing on the eastern flanks of the Cascades, or skiing in the Rockies or Blue Mountains, you can definitely get much more favorable conditions with sunny days and fluffy powder compared to wet heavy powder and fog. It's interesting actually.
I think the lack of overnight lodging at the PNW ski resorts mostly has to do with the Forest Service. Most ski resorts in Oregon and Washington have proposed them, yet most only have day lodges, which those themselves are incredibly difficult for ski resorts out here to get approval to expand. So you get these big ski resorts with high end skiing experiences (weather aside as you've mentioned) with only a small day lodge and the closest lodging option being some Best Western a car drive away.
Mt. Bachelor is the absolute giant of the Pacific Northwest, and as such they've proposed five additional base areas, but instead today they're still stuck with two base areas only with day lodging, and one parking lot with no services other than a vault toilet, at the Skyline Express. But Mt. Bachelor wanted a base area near the current day Cloudchaser Express, one at Tumalo Mountain which they planned to develop into skiable terrain, more facilities at the Skyline Express parking lot, a base area at the Outback Express, and a base area at the Northwest Express (which was originally planned to be a gondola). Or a tramway to the summit and a lodge on the summit. All these plans have been nixed by the Forest Service over the decades.
Indeed. Mission Ridge is currently in a private land/public land battle with the USFS to expand their operations to allow for, among other things, a high-end housing development at the resort that will benefit no one but the owner. Locals are against the development, but we'll see how this plays out after the right hands get greased.
Misson Ridge is unique in that it's still privately owned, but there are something like 120 ski resorts across the country that operate on public lands, most of them in the west—including: Vail, Aspen, Alta, Sun Valley, Mammoth, etc. It's only been the mega corporations and their bottomless pocketbooks that have allowed them to expand their leases. I'm one of the people who strongly believe that despite the benefits to national forest system that expansion should be heavily regulated.
Side note: I love Bend. I've been to Bachelor a few times and have never had a good snow experience. Luck of the draw, I guess. Last time I was there, happened to hit the mountain on a heavy inversion day—70 degrees at the summit—made for some really sketchy conditions.
Yeah. Bachelor in my experience gets great snow, I have many memories of turning and cutting effortlessly through powder both on and off the trails, even though other resorts in the Cascades can have heavy powder like Mt. Hood resorts. White Pass is similar, it's in the Cascades but its snow is easy to turn in and the powder doesn't fight you, since it's only an hour from Yakima, which is in the desert.
But the thing with Bachelor is the weather is so incredibly unpredictable and rather caustic, which can take their huge reserves of powder and turn it into ice or wind blown crust. I've vacationed to Bachelor a number of times over the years and even held a season pass there one season, but I've never been there when the back side was open due to their weather and the resulting snow conditions.
Now living in the Inland Northwest, the difference is night and day. Eastern Washington and Idahoan powder is so light it's crazy to me (I've yet to ski in Utah or Colorado so I can't compare), and I don't personally remember any foggy days, only your typical low light conditions when it snows. The powder can even remain powdery when the temperatures go above freezing out here, whereas in the Cascades it'll immediately become brutal crust. One of my favorite memories from last season was floating through fluffy powder on a 42 degree April day at Silver Mountain, on a virtually empty mountain. If it were the Cascades, that snow would've become impossible to turn in.
Similar to Mission Ridge, 49 Degrees North is planning a large amount of real estate development in the Sunrise Basin. They'll add a legitimate lodge first off (as currently is is just a yurt with a deck and two bathrooms where you lock the door), but then the rest of it will be almost exclusively condos and homes. Thankfully it won't negatively impact the parking situation like other ski village developments can, where they tend to put the day skier parking way back before the village.
Seattle is my home base. If you think Eastern WA snow is light, I'd highly recommend planning a few trips to Colorado and Utah. Spent six years in Salt Lake—Alta was my home and I instructed at Park City for a time. Still love Utah, but I rarely make it back due to the crushing amount of traffic Little and Big Cottonwood Canyons get. Powder Mountain is a hidden gem. When the snow is deep, Utah has no equal. Overall, you can't beat the rockies for consistency—high elevation and consistently frigid temps will keep conditions optimal for weeks at a time, even if new snow is scarce. I've been all over the west, but Idaho/Wyoming is my personal sweet spot. Silver Mountain is on my itinerary for this season.
At least us flatlanders can breathe there. But, yeah, I questioned why I flew all that way over Colorado and Utah to get to fog for four days. Sushi was pretty awesome, though.
Not butthurt at all. I spent the first twenty years of my life up there, six working at the hill, and I agree that despite the copious amount of snow it's quite often thick and heavy. Crystal also has less lodging than Snoqualmie, oddly enough.
Also most of their jobs advertise paid housing but when you get there they make you sign a contract saying you will pay $660 for a bed. And they don't like to give rides to or from work even though they are supposed to.
Also 2023 no work for October or November because of lack of snow and they still want rent money from the workers who weren't working because they were closed.
please do another episode following up on Crystal, would love to hear the rationale behind the huge pass prices increases for the 2022/2023 season
Sanitation device in dish room of Cascade at Crystal Mountain, not working properly, and when I told management they had a technician come and try to fix it. Because it continued to work improperly, they fired me, instead of fixing it... So no sanitary dishes... How illegal...
Sounds like a lot of what is going on now. Unqualified people in positions of power. And the people in high positions are getting under aged girls drunk so they can have sex with them especially the J-1's. So do NOT send your children here. All you get is runaround with this company.
As a local Fuck this guy
I'm so sad I took the time to listen to this long podcast. There is no love of skiing here. Capacity issues came to Crystal when Alterra bought it and put it on the IKON pass. To address the overcrowding they decided to bus everyone in (during a pandemic). Now they plan to offer premium parking to those who can afford it, a 100 room hotel with meeting and conference spaces, new retail and "exceptional" dining options. And in order to fund it all they'll be charging local skiers $1700 for a pass in 2022/2023! Up $700 from last year, and up around $1000 from when they first put Crystal on the IKON pass. They are ruining the ski culture. Good development serves the community while making a profit. This prioritizes money over skiers.
All I hear is learning learning learning. How about actually hiring people who know the problems and know the mountain from the start. The crystal experience has DRASTICALLY dropped since Ikon bought it. We shouldn't need to wait 3 years for an east coast person to learn our area. Prices have more than trippled from $79 around 4-5 years ago to $200 with the 25% buddy pass. No lift expansions or improvements. Will believe the hotel additions when I see it. Being bought by a giant corporation is the death of your ski resort. At least we still have Mount Baker. *CRY*
The hotel has already started being built in the outskirts of Enumclaw. Prices will hopefully mitigate overcrowding. With all the ski resorts in Washington, Alterra never knew how bad it was going to get and I think they have done a great job trying to get in front of it.
Have fun at Baker! Crystal for life!
As a former upstate NYer and current crystal skier this makes me so happy.
Go back to New York
sar·casm
/ˈsärˌkazəm/
noun
the use of irony to mock or convey contempt.
I love how people here seem to think that Washington is somehow "undiscovered". It's always been known, it's just not a skier's destination high on anyone's lists. There are two reasons skier's don't flock here: 1) There is very little to no convenient lodging near any of the resorts and 2) the snow quality is consistently mediocre to garbage—argue this all you want, but when people spend thousands of dollars to take their family on a ski vacation, they want consistently good snow conditions. Sure, we get a ton of snow, but it's still wet and heavy on a good day, mediocre to crap on an average day, and miserable on a rain day. Queue the inevitable butthurt response.
As a major fan of Pacific Northwest skiing, those are definitely valid comments regarding the ski resorts not just in Washington, but also Oregon. But if you're skiing on the eastern flanks of the Cascades, or skiing in the Rockies or Blue Mountains, you can definitely get much more favorable conditions with sunny days and fluffy powder compared to wet heavy powder and fog. It's interesting actually.
I think the lack of overnight lodging at the PNW ski resorts mostly has to do with the Forest Service. Most ski resorts in Oregon and Washington have proposed them, yet most only have day lodges, which those themselves are incredibly difficult for ski resorts out here to get approval to expand. So you get these big ski resorts with high end skiing experiences (weather aside as you've mentioned) with only a small day lodge and the closest lodging option being some Best Western a car drive away.
Mt. Bachelor is the absolute giant of the Pacific Northwest, and as such they've proposed five additional base areas, but instead today they're still stuck with two base areas only with day lodging, and one parking lot with no services other than a vault toilet, at the Skyline Express. But Mt. Bachelor wanted a base area near the current day Cloudchaser Express, one at Tumalo Mountain which they planned to develop into skiable terrain, more facilities at the Skyline Express parking lot, a base area at the Outback Express, and a base area at the Northwest Express (which was originally planned to be a gondola). Or a tramway to the summit and a lodge on the summit. All these plans have been nixed by the Forest Service over the decades.
Indeed. Mission Ridge is currently in a private land/public land battle with the USFS to expand their operations to allow for, among other things, a high-end housing development at the resort that will benefit no one but the owner. Locals are against the development, but we'll see how this plays out after the right hands get greased.
Misson Ridge is unique in that it's still privately owned, but there are something like 120 ski resorts across the country that operate on public lands, most of them in the west—including: Vail, Aspen, Alta, Sun Valley, Mammoth, etc. It's only been the mega corporations and their bottomless pocketbooks that have allowed them to expand their leases. I'm one of the people who strongly believe that despite the benefits to national forest system that expansion should be heavily regulated.
Side note: I love Bend. I've been to Bachelor a few times and have never had a good snow experience. Luck of the draw, I guess. Last time I was there, happened to hit the mountain on a heavy inversion day—70 degrees at the summit—made for some really sketchy conditions.
Yeah. Bachelor in my experience gets great snow, I have many memories of turning and cutting effortlessly through powder both on and off the trails, even though other resorts in the Cascades can have heavy powder like Mt. Hood resorts. White Pass is similar, it's in the Cascades but its snow is easy to turn in and the powder doesn't fight you, since it's only an hour from Yakima, which is in the desert.
But the thing with Bachelor is the weather is so incredibly unpredictable and rather caustic, which can take their huge reserves of powder and turn it into ice or wind blown crust. I've vacationed to Bachelor a number of times over the years and even held a season pass there one season, but I've never been there when the back side was open due to their weather and the resulting snow conditions.
Now living in the Inland Northwest, the difference is night and day. Eastern Washington and Idahoan powder is so light it's crazy to me (I've yet to ski in Utah or Colorado so I can't compare), and I don't personally remember any foggy days, only your typical low light conditions when it snows. The powder can even remain powdery when the temperatures go above freezing out here, whereas in the Cascades it'll immediately become brutal crust. One of my favorite memories from last season was floating through fluffy powder on a 42 degree April day at Silver Mountain, on a virtually empty mountain. If it were the Cascades, that snow would've become impossible to turn in.
Similar to Mission Ridge, 49 Degrees North is planning a large amount of real estate development in the Sunrise Basin. They'll add a legitimate lodge first off (as currently is is just a yurt with a deck and two bathrooms where you lock the door), but then the rest of it will be almost exclusively condos and homes. Thankfully it won't negatively impact the parking situation like other ski village developments can, where they tend to put the day skier parking way back before the village.
Seattle is my home base. If you think Eastern WA snow is light, I'd highly recommend planning a few trips to Colorado and Utah. Spent six years in Salt Lake—Alta was my home and I instructed at Park City for a time. Still love Utah, but I rarely make it back due to the crushing amount of traffic Little and Big Cottonwood Canyons get. Powder Mountain is a hidden gem. When the snow is deep, Utah has no equal. Overall, you can't beat the rockies for consistency—high elevation and consistently frigid temps will keep conditions optimal for weeks at a time, even if new snow is scarce. I've been all over the west, but Idaho/Wyoming is my personal sweet spot. Silver Mountain is on my itinerary for this season.
Yeah, crappy snow. Same reason nobody goes to Whistler.
That didn't take long ...
• Whistler is awesome.
• Whistler is well known for wet snow, fog, and rain events.
You realize that both of these statements are 100% true, right?
At least us flatlanders can breathe there. But, yeah, I questioned why I flew all that way over Colorado and Utah to get to fog for four days. Sushi was pretty awesome, though.
Not butthurt at all. I spent the first twenty years of my life up there, six working at the hill, and I agree that despite the copious amount of snow it's quite often thick and heavy. Crystal also has less lodging than Snoqualmie, oddly enough.
shhh we like Washington to stay unknown pls delete this
shhh delete this