To buy a season pass or not - straw poll

I moved out here from the flatlands not too long ago and am wrapping up my second season of some inbounds, some BC here in the cascades. With Crystal offering springtime benefits for next season's passes I'm strongly considering taking buying a pass this year.

I've skied about enough days to break even both of the past two winters, but it's been spread around following the snow (mostly Crystal, some Baker and Stevens, a couple of Whistler trips). Weekdays usually aren't an option and I haven't been a night skier but that's partly the mentality of needing to get value out of full price tickets. I'm embarrassed to say I've never skied at Alpental but have spent quite a few days at Crystal and have kind of fallen in love with it. But there's no night skiing there and the drive from North Seattle isn't ideal.

I suppose I'm trading flexibility to choose the best weather/terrain of the day, for the ability to ski more days (especially consecutive and marginal-weather weekend days).

1) Do you have a pass? If so, why there and not the alternative mountains?
2) Is the spring/summer skiing at Crystal actually worthwhile?

Snoqualmie is $629 [edit: $519] at the moment - Crystal is at $800.

Thanks!

Skii BC here and buy a cheap Colorado pass and commute for good area skiing...

Snoqualmie has various levels of pass. If you'll be doing a lot of backcountry skiing on weekends then their weekday pass can pay off well if it gets you out night skiing often. Especially in la Nina years...

That price for Snoqualmie was the price for 2015-16 after all early season deals had ended. The price usually comes down a couple hundred when you buy it pre season.

I like Snoqualmie because it's super convenient, has night skiing, lots of options for backcountry and the season pass price is cheaper than all the rest.

Get the cheap Snoco pass at early prices, and then decide what other pass you want. For me Crystal is such a hassle to get to that I no longer even buy a pass. Snoco has great skiing, although they could definitely stay open later in the spring.

Depending on your location/ability to travel you should also consider the VERY cheap spring passes in the Washington State Southern Recreational Region (aka Oregon). Timberline is offering theirs now for $109 and Bachelor's is/was $159, IIRC. Both mountains are assured through May 31 and Timberline of course runs all summer (on a different, expensive pass).

2) Is the spring/summer skiing at Crystal actually worthwhile?

Spring skiing is only GV unless you poach into Northway.
Hamster runs down GV are extremely boring after a while, most of the time in fact.. I find GV runs too short and boring even on a powder day.
I do it because I live only 20 mins away, if I had to drive 2 hrs I would only do it very occasionally.
As I am lapping GV I keep telling myself...." come late August I'd kill to ski anything.... it helps but its still really boring.
It can get sticky in the PM.
If you are the social type and like to dress up in Hawaiian shirts and then have a few beers at the Summit House patio it's  Ok I guess.
I try and take the seasonal hint and go BC touring or Mountain biking instead.
WA spring= Touring season....not skiing sticky snow with hamsters.

Scotsman is forgetting that Crystal axed a good chunk of their spring skiing this year and won't be open from 4/18-5/27 and then I believe weekends- and GV-only until they decide enough is enough some time in July. 47 days my foot...

I moved here in 2006 and didn't buy a pass my first winter ("focusing on school", "transitioning to city life", and other such terrible excuses). Rode 25+ days, mostly at Stevens, but a few at Baker and Whistler - in hindsight, I should've bought a pass. Picked one up the following spring for Stevens (college passes were $299 + tax and you could use next year's for the remainder of the current season once they went on sale) and have been renewing my pass there ever since (albeit, at non-college rates for the last 4 years). I got a taste of Alpental and Crystal my sophomore year in college but couldn't afford multiple passes until after I'd done a summer internship before my last year in college. I bought the LTD pass for the 2010-2011 season, back when lines at Alpental on the weekends were out of control, upgraded to an Unlimited the next year and have been holding both an Everyday pass to Stevens and Unlimited pass to Snoqualmie for the past 4 seasons.

Despite how horrible last winter was, I got 15-16 days in at Stevens, but a meager 2 at Snoqualmie. Stevens worked hard with their limited snow to keep things open and I was impressed, so I renewed there (plus the renewal rate was quite cheap) as well as Snoqualmie ($82 is less than 2 day tickets last season would've costed me). This year Stevens let me down - they were absolutely slammed on the weekends this winter. I think everybody saw the sad state of Snoqualmie last year and decided that Stevens was their place to ski. But I have no interest in getting up at zero dark-thirty to drive 2 hours on US-2 to ski 0" of new, as was required many weekends this year. Once you're on the hill, the crowds aren't all that bad (provided the backside is open), even on days where the summit and satellite lots are completely full. It helps that Stevens has a lot of accessible "sidecountry" terrain that you can get to more or less all the time with a short hike from the ropes. But with the changes they're making to next year's pass system ("Premier" vs. "Select", limited quantities, etc.) I just can't justify renewing there, esp. at the increased price. I've gotten a ton of mileage out of my Big S Unlimited pass this year - dozens of excellent days at Alpental and a handful at Hyak, Acres (when the power was out) and West (Wildside Wednesdays, mostly). Next year I plan to renew my pass to Snoqualmie @ the Gold level, pick-up an advantage card to Stevens and continue to fork over cold, hard ca$h for a handful of days at Baker/Mission/WP/wherever.

It doesn't hurt that the Summit is consistently 50 mins away from my desk at work and about an hour from my doorstep at home (traffic notwithstanding). Plus, they offer plenty of night skiing for those rainy days you feel like shredding pow for a few hours after work instead of crawling with traffic in the rain (or those mornings you feel like getting in some turns before heading back down to pilot the desk for the afternoon).

Most people with a pass just barely find it worthwhile - that, theoretically is the resort strategy I would suppose in determining the pass price.  If you fall in that demographic (as I do..), I find it most reasonable to buy a pass every other year, in March when they are first offerred, as you can ski remainder of current season on next year's pass..  d'oh.. did I just spill the beans..?

Thanks everyone for the thoughtful input! Recon47 is right, not sure which price list I had seen but Snoqualmie Gold is sitting at $519 right now. Scotsman, thanks for the feedback on Crystal summer skiing. Considering both factors I'm going to buy from Snoqualmie. At $519, you get unlimited Snoqualmie/Alpental plus 8 days at Crystal at the discount rate, for the same overall price as the $800 Crystal pass.

Get one of these www.themaxpass.com/ and a Sprinter or camper. Oh and quit your job.

Last time I paid full price on a day lift tickets for the family , I could not stop
thinking of the stupid cost for a day of skiing. I prefer to have passes and just
go up to the hill for a few hrs and not worry about getting my $$$$ out

If you are OK without skiing Alpental on weekends the LTD pass is $339 for adults for next year.
If you buy now you get to use it this year until they close.
They replaced the night skiing pass with the XPass - a mid-week and night skiing pass for $289.

I used to ski Stevens but as others have commented the current weekend parking situation makes it a hard choice. Friends have either driven up and gotten skunked or spent 4 hours in the endless backup driving back to Seattle.

...
They replaced the night skiing pass with the XPass - a mid-week and night skiing pass for $289.
...

The XPASS seems like an excellent deal for people with flexible work schedules -- it's only a few more bucks than the old Night Pass -- but lift-access to Alpental Tues-Fri

The new X-pass does look like a good deal, but it is NOT included in the 100-day snow guarantee, according to Snoqualmie Guest Services. Since the LTD pass is only $50 more, this is a factor to consider.

X-pass seems to be good midweek days all resorts, and any night night skiing is offered at any resort--including weekends. As far as I can tell this includes Alpy also.

And lastly the X-pass is blacked out for the week Christmas-New Year's.

And lastly the X-pass is blacked out for the week Christmas-New Year's.   

I find being blacked-out from Christmas to New Year's is a perfectly acceptable way to spend the holidays... as a bonus you don't even remember how long the lines were and how poor the coverage really was ;D

I've had a pass to Baker for 21 years now but I might not get another one next year. Fortunately I have until October to decide since they don't offer any spring specials.

I find being blacked-out from Christmas to New Year's is a perfectly acceptable way to spend the holidays... as a bonus you don't even remember how long the lines were and how poor the coverage really was ;D

Not this year, that was a fantastic week and I'd hate to have missed it for $50 or whatever the LTD vs unlimited difference is.

If you pay attention to what deals are being done between resorts you can actually make out like a bandit if you work the system.  I buy one pass and can ski 3 different ski resorts, just saying.

Depending on your location/ability to travel you should also consider the VERY cheap spring passes in the Washington State Southern Recreational Region (aka Oregon). 

Hey, we heard that!

P.S. We'll claim Adams and St Helens - they're closer drives from Portland.