changes to Crystal's reserved A lot parking

Crystal has been selling 500 reserved slots in A Lot for years. By opening your wallet, you have been guaranteed a slot in A Lot -- no matter what time you showed up.  Next season will realize at least 3 changes:

- Price increase from $500 to $625
- HOV vehicles will be "selected" to park in A Lot for free after 10:30 a.m.
- Auto-renewal via your credit card on file.

I'm keeping a lid on my true feelings about these changes, other than to say that the new policy (below) appears to be highly discretionary in how it will be implemented.  Of course, there are backstories in play here -- so folks might want to chime in.

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Greetings 2016-17 Parking Pass Holders!

Hope you are having a great summer.  If you did not make it up to Crystal this summer for hiking or riding the gondola, our last day of Summer Operations is Sunday, September 17th, 2017.

It’s time to renew your Seasonal Parking Pass for 2017-18 Winter Season.  The renewal price of parking passes is $625.  The deadline for renewal is August 20, 2017.

New for 2017-18:

Parking on peak days is a concern at all Western Washington ski areas. It's become more and more of a standard procedure across ski country to utilize parking that's located closest to the lifts and base area for high occupancy vehicles, usually 3-4 persons per vehicle. It is sensible to do this because families need the convenience, and it is best to get the highest capacity vehicles up into the closest parking. 

The present system of season parking passes actually does the opposite by reserving all-day spots that may or may not fill, and offers little control over vehicle density.  Parking passes have proven to be used more often by lower occupancy vehicles. Another point to consider is that we get quite a bit of criticism during the season by guests who must walk or get shuttled past a big open parking lot sitting "empty" and do not understand the reserved system. 

While we have no plans to discontinue seasonal parking passes, we feel that we must make some adjustments to our current parking pass policy. 

1.     We will continue to reserve Upper A Lot for parking pass holders in the morning. At 10:30 am, we will begin to allow high occupancy vehicles to use the reserved area. These HOVs will be picked out of arriving traffic by the parking staff and sent up to fill empty A Lot spaces. This change will allow more families and carpooling guests to park closer to the lifts, thereby reducing walkers and shuttle lines. If pass holders arrive after the 10:30 cutoff, we will still try to find parking spots in the reserved area, but this will no longer be a guarantee.  As you can see, this system will apply most directly to peak days. Mid-week and off peak days, we will not actively push HOV traffic to Lot A. Understand also that Crystal is re-introducing night skiing until 8PM on Peak Saturdays and 6PM on Peak Sundays. This program is aimed at tapering the arrival crush on typical busy mornings and encourage later arrivals. As you can surmise, we have no way to provide a way to take late arrivals into account in the parking pass system. So the pass will not be able to accommodate late arrival reserved parking this season (despite the fact that Crystal will market late arrivals vigorously). So you are buying into this program when you buy a pass. Please evaluate carefully if this is for you. If you arrive before 10:30 AM this pass delivers a great benefit.
 
2.     In addition, beginning this year, each hanging parking pass will be accompanied by two decals.  A current decal must be affixed to the front windshield on the driver’s side in the lower left corner. Each pass holder can choose any two vehicles to use with their hanging parking permit but only one vehicle with a decal can use the hanging permit at one time. Both the hanging permit and the numbered decal matching the permit number must be visible when parking in the permit area. By limiting the number of vehicles associated with any given parking pass, we hope to increase the number of available spots for pass holders.

Transfers have been a problem in the past; please follow the matching decal and parking pass procedure.
We hope to continue to offer high quality service to our customers. We thank you for your support of the parking permit system in the past, and we hope you all continue to find it valuable in the future. 

If you wish to discontinue your parking pass, please contact us by e-mail, phone or mail by August 20th, 2017.  If we do not hear otherwise, you agree to the terms and conditions and your credit card on file will be charged for the parking pass.  Please update information below if incorrect.

We look forward to having another great ski season. The biggest project for the mountain is snowmaking which is progressing well. Have a great summer.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
 
Guest Services
Crystal Mountain, Inc.
33914 Crystal Mountain Blvd.
Crystal Mountain, WA  98022
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
(360) 663-3050

We hope to continue to offer high quality service to our customers

Mooaaahaahaa. So called high quality service would need to be started before it could be continued.

This is the Invisible Hand of Gentrification making ski areas safe for big money.  Expect being relegated to rope tows, T bars, and eating in your car in the near future.  Don't attempt to climb anything without proving you are worthy of the opportunity by paying for the privilege.    

It is god's will after all.  All bow to the divine right of money.  Eventually, I am sure we will all be happy living in the camps where our betters will dictate to us how we will live, think, and die.

I'd like to propose a paid parking system for the LoT4 dog park.
If one pays for a pass or lift ticket, they get a pass to park in LoT4.
dog walkers not willing to buy a pass are allowed to park in main LoT.

I'd like to propose a paid parking system for the LoT4 dog park.
If one pays for a pass or lift ticket, they get a pass to park in LoT4.
dog walkers not willing to buy a pass are allowed to park in main LoT.

Dog's cuteness ensures that they will always win any sort of public relations battle.

I mean you don't really think you can compete with this ??



As far as Crustal's new policy -- I wonder when they will start offering a combo season's pass for both the skier and the parking spot in A lot. If Crustal marketing was really smart they would build an additional "premier" covered parking garage adjacent to the Gondola that would spare the people with money to burn the effort of walking uphill even 100 steps from the A lot. They could even include heated boot lockers for an additional fee.

Vail has been eyeing buying a "feeder resort" somewhere around Seattle now that they have Whistler. It's part of their model, according to a member of their senior leadership team I ran into down in the Escalante a bit over a year ago. He mentioned "Stevens" was coming up in discussions but I suspect Crystal better fits what they want, given his comments about housing potential near the base etc. They might totally go for that garage notion!

it all begins with the pass life