Crystal Mountain announces $1,499 pass for express lift lines

SEATTLE – Want to skip the lift lines at Crystal Mountain Resort this winter? Prepare to pay up.

Washington’s largest ski resort recently unveiled a new $1,499 product, the Crystal Reserve Pass, that will offer pass holders an express line on weekends and holidays from early December through March 29. The priority access will be available on Chinook Express, Forest Queen Express, Green Valley Express, Rainier Express and the Mount Rainier Gondola. Day passes are also available for $199.

The upgrade is about on par with a season pass or day ticket, so cutting the line will effectively double the cost of a Crystal ski outing. Prices for the Ikon Pass, a multiresort season pass that includes Crystal, are currently on sale for $1,519. Day tickets, which are priced dynamically, regularly reached $199 on weekends last season.

Crystal spokesperson Linnea Hansen said the new product was driven by customer demand.

We do pre- and postseasonal surveys,” she said. “(Skiers in) Seattle, Bellevue and Tacoma are looking to save time and for ease of access.” She likened the offering to high-occupancy toll lanes on local highways or expedited screening at airports.

The announcement prompted immediate public pushback, with a Change.org petition calling on Alterra Mountain Company, which owns Crystal, to cancel the new Reserve Pass.

“Skiing and snowboarding should be experiences that promote equality and shared enjoyment of the outdoors, regardless of one’s financial status,” the petition reads. “By allowing priority access through additional charges, Alterra Mountain Company risks alienating the average ski enthusiast who makes up the core of the skiing community.”

As of press time, the petition had over 1,300 signatories.

Hansen pointed to an expanded range of discounts on offer this season, including expanding from one to two days per month for the resort’s $62 Tuesday offer and selling three-day passes valid Sunday-Friday for $209 at Snowvana Seattle (Oct. 17-19) and the Winter Stoke Block Party in Enumclaw (Nov. 8).

“We’re serving guest needs at the high end while at the same time we’re also expanding accessibility,” she said.

While customers who purchase a ski lesson have long had priority access to lifts, pay-to-play priority lines are a newer but increasingly common trend in the North American ski industry similar to programs that operate at airports, concerts and theme parks. Such a system has been in place since 2021 at four ski resorts owned by POWDR: Copper Mountain, Colorado; Killington, Vermont; Mount Bachelor, Oregon; and Snowbird, Utah.

Known as Fast Tracks, the scheme had political repercussions on ski resorts that operate on public lands. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., issued a letter to POWDR in October 2021 calling on the Utah-based company to rescind the program at Mount Bachelor, which, like Crystal, operates on U.S. Forest Service land via a special use permit.

“Snow sports are already expensive enough that equity issues have been persistent, and financially disadvantaged families have long been unfairly priced out of access – something a Fast Tracks policy is sure to only make worse,” Wyden wrote.

“My concerns with this policy … are rooted in the understanding that a two-tiered system of access to public lands based on financial ability is antithetical to equity in the outdoors, leaving those who cannot afford to pay for the pass being literally sent to the back of the line,” he added.

Mount Bachelor proceeded with the Fast Tracks upgrade program, which this season starts at $69 on weekdays and $89 on weekends. Anecdotal reports from social media suggest that the priority lines are not heavily utilized.

The Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest could not be reached for comment due to the ongoing partial government shutdown. Hansen said the Crystal Reserve Pass did not require special approval from the Forest Service and that recreation staff are “in the loop on our business model.”

“Ski areas are responsible for revenue management that allows them to meet their financial targets and cover expanding costs,” said Pacific Northwest Ski Areas Association President Jordan Elliott. “Given the current funding crisis for all public land management agencies, a product like this would result in higher fees paid to the Forest Service.

Hansen estimated that, at most, 2% of skiers and riders on the hill at any given time would be using a Reserve Pass.

In the Alterra portfolio, Snowshoe, West Virginia, pioneered this concept with its Primo Pass, which also runs $1,499 this season. Sugarbush, Vermont, rolled out a similar reserve pass on for $2,000, capped at 275 guests.

Priority lines also exist at Mammoth Mountain, California, through an invitation-only pass, which includes priority parking and concierge service, rumored to cost $10,000. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort offers a similar product for $7,000 for early mountain access, a private lounge and lockers.