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Crystal open letter addressing heavy crowds

Hawk

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That is too bad. I skied Crystal a bunch 10 years ago when my wife worked for Microsoft and had to travel to Seattle once a month. Really nice mountain. It used to be the best kept secret out there. Tons of back country and woods to play in. Now it is a total Sh*t show I hear and this letter confirms it. I have friends that are still out there and have changed their home mountain to Stevens pass or Baker because they can't put up with the crowds.
 

Hawk

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I have had some really good powder days at Alpental. You go from the summit and follow the boundary line on the left side of the mountain. There are gates there. You go across the traverse and drop in. There are many chutes and lines out there that are 2000'vert and you end up on a ski mobile trail back to the bottom in 5 minutes. Really good skiing.
 

KustyTheKlown

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alpental rules. packs a lot of punch for a little area.

crystal also rules, but this is pretty predictable. ikon is certainly a thing, but so is seattle bursting at the seems with growth. add a piss poor early season and then sudden huge powder and its a recipe for the shitshow of the past few weeks

the infrastructure of crystal is inherently unsuitable for crowds. they are in a national (state?) park. they are at the end of a long remote road with one lane in each direction, in an area with no cell service. even if you stay in enumclaw, there are limited hotels/beds and its still a 45 minute drive up 410 to get to crystal. there are maybe 3 small hotels and a handful of rental chalets at the mountain itself. they have a big RV/car camping scene. the parking lots are generally pretty small.

ultimately, crystal is built for a day trip, but the mountain has the size and terrain of a destination resort.

solution? build a big parking structure in enumclaw and run a lot of buses, and somehow get those buses into an express lane. a multi level parking structure at the base would help too, but im not sure they can get approval to do that.
 

KustyTheKlown

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The future of Sugarbush

sugarbush doesnt share the inherent limitations of crystal that i listed above. you can access sugarbush from multiple directions and there are plenty of local beds. it also isnt ~2 hours from a massive city.

everyone who skis crystal drives up the same tiny road and very few of them have the option of sleeping at the hill
 
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jaytrem

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sugarbush doesnt share the inherent limitations of crystal that i listed above. you can access sugarbush from multiple directions and there are plenty of local beds. it also isnt ~2 hours from a massive city.

everyone who skis crystal drives up the same tiny road and very few of them have the option of sleeping at the hill

Not to mention there are boat loads of other ski areas around when compared to the Seattle area.
 

machski

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The future of Sugarbush
Not even close to the same. SB has two access points, separated by a bit with multiple routes in from the North/South and East.

Crystal is a dead end road with no base resort infrastructure. It is a day area that can't handle the traffic of weekend masses even though it's terrain and lifts can. It will take some creative thinking to solve this and Ikon alone is not a driving factor in the crowding.

From what I have read, Stevens isn't much better this year (full Epic) in terms of crowds but it's roadway situation isn't quite a severe as Crystal's.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using AlpineZone mobile app
 

NYDB

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Not to mention there are boat loads of other ski areas around when compared to the Seattle area.

When Ikon is unlimited next year at the Bush, it will be the premier unlimited terrain on the east coast for Ikon passholders. It will be absolutely mobbed on snowy weekends. Much more than it is now.

That's what the future holds.

Yes, there are other options, but there aren't better options as far as skiing when the snow is good and you have an IKON pass
 

KustyTheKlown

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When Ikon is unlimited next year at the Bush, it will be the premier unlimited terrain on the east coast for Ikon passholders. It will be absolutely mobbed on snowy weekends. Much more than it is now.

That's what the future holds.

Yes, there are other options, but there aren't better options as far as skiing when the snow is good and you have an IKON pass

no one is debating that. we are taking issue with you saying that what is happening at crystal is the future of sugarbush. it just simply isnt for all the reasons we listed here. if anything, it will be more similar to the current situation at stowe. crystal is very uniquely situated and that compounds any ikon related crowding problems.

i also would not be at all surprised if alterra makes a move on jay and that is also unlimited next year. spreading the unlimited crowds some.
 

KustyTheKlown

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its not official or confirmed but its highly likely. they bought sugarbush. they need to compete with epic which currently offers three unlimited options in different regions of vermont. i'd be unsurprised to see jay bought and added as unlimited. also maybe stratton will go unlimited on the base pass. that way they answer snow/okemo/stowe with stratton/sugarbush/jay
 

cdskier

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Did I miss something important?

Just assumptions...

Of course with Alterra buying SB it makes definite sense that SB will somehow be unlimited next year on Ikon (presumably only the full Ikon). Nothing official has been decided or announced though.
 

KustyTheKlown

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i have nothing to base this upon whatsoever, but i kind of think sugarbush will be unlimited w holiday blackout at the base level, no blackouts at the full. time will tell.
 

abc

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i have nothing to base this upon whatsoever
Actually you do.

All the Ikon owned mountains are unlimited. Some with holiday blackout.

Unlike Vail Corp, which have day limits even on mountain it owns.

But that's not saying they can't change it and put some of their best mountain "on diet" with only limited days. Somehow I doubt it would be Sugarbush though. It's just not as "iconic" a mountain.
 

KustyTheKlown

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Do they own Stratton? It’s only unlimited on the full pass

edit - they do. tho maybe that happened too late for this year to be unlimited.
 
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