Copy
Voice
After a succession of rebranding, messaging and voice development projects for Crystal Mountain, our shop copy was harvested for a succession of pre- and early season emails for the Seattle ski area. Whether promoting the president’s message on the 2020 season or selling interest in local season passes or freeride program sign-ups, the words translated well to the email program format. In a year of upheaval and uncertainty, these words helped establish a consistent tone for the brand in line with the Feel Different Here campaign we developed for them in 2019.
Crystal is a place that hits us right in the heart. It’s a paradise valley at the end of the road with the space to explore and the perspective of a powerful mountain presence.
It’s where we find our line and find our community—where we celebrate a ski and shred culture in all its characteristic and regional forms. In essence, it’s and environment where we just feel different.
As the new year hits and we reflect on what Crystal means to its community, we celebrate that ethic—but also invite you to drop in—with a gallery of images that speak directly from the heart.
WILD CARDS ON SALE NOW
Grab a reloadable 3 or 5 day Wild Card for the 20-21 season
Your skis are calling to you. Your ride is antsy. Show them some love with the three-day or five-day Wild Card, valid weekdays and early or late-season weekends. With one easy yes, you commit yourself to scoring your days when traffic is light while also saving the stress of ski trip travel. It’s your commitment to your inner, or younger, mountain self. Play your card when the day is right—but if you get shutout, there’s no one to blame but yourself. Prices start at $99 for a 3 day and $129 for a 5 day.
Purchase Your Wild Card
CRYSTAL QUIVER PASS UNLOCKS SEASONAL DEMOS FROM BRAND-X
Access a full quiver at a fraction of the cost
For the price of a new pair of sticks on pro form, you gain access to every professionally waxed and tuned demo in our high performance fleet at our slope-side Brand-X demo shop. Pick the right equipment for the conditions and swap out as often as you’d like. From aggressive carvers for groomers, floaty freeride sticks for pow, or even a snowboard, or skis, for switching it up in spring—our shop is stocked for you. Prices starting at $299.
Unlock Your Quiver
SKI AND SNOWBOARD LESSONS ARE READY TO BOOK
Space is limited so register soon
The path to becoming a lifelong skier and snowboarder is about fun, freedom and a spirit of adventure. For that reason no one wants a stale ski school experience when they are learning to ski or learning to snowboard. That’s why our Crystal Mountain lessons take a modern, freethinking approach to on-mountain education—the polar opposite of a textbook ski lesson or snowboarding lesson led by a stiff drill instructor.
Reserve Your Lesson
As we’re starting to see snow pile up on the slopes, and as our winter operating plans have become more clear, I’m writing to connect with the Crystal community again with more details regarding our plans for this winter.
Last month, we reaffirmed our intention to operate safely this winter and previewed some of the changes we’ve been planning in order to make that intent a reality—from more outdoor dining and on-hill takeout to new weekday passes and a stringent mask policy. We’ve been open and transparent, but as we’ve been developing the details of this plan, we know you still have a lot of questions about this winter.
So, in an effort to dive into the very specific details, we’ve created an “In the Know Guidebook” to help you navigate all the shifts and changes for this winter. We’ve outlined the rules, the guidelines and the etiquette required to pull this off. It’s required reading whether you log 50 days a season or are just planning your first trip to Crystal. Please read it carefully to understand the safety policies, updates to services and the changes to our on-mountain experience. We’re counting on every member of our community to do their part.
As part of an entire industry, we have worked closely with the Governor’s office and other state officials to update safety mitigation requirements for winter. Here’s a quick rundown of some changes that will affect how you navigate your day on the mountain.
To help us keep our resort healthy and open for adventurers of all types, we will ask our guests to commit to our health code of conduct, and continue to wear a face mask, frequently wash their hands and maintain at least six feet of distance from others. Furthermore, before hopping in the car for a day on the snow, we all need to take a moment to assess our current health, and if we’re not feeling right, we ask that you make the decision to sit it out until you’re feeling better.
Advance planning is essential. Walk-up sales for lift tickets, rental equipment and lessons have been discontinued so you’ll need to book online in advance. We are planning to open the sale of tickets, lessons, and rentals online starting November 12, 2020.
To start the season, passholders will not be required to make a reservation to ski. We hope to continue throughout the year without reservations but we have a newly developed reservations system built-out and ready-to-go in case conditions arise that make such a system necessary.
Our lodges will operate under the State’s indoor dining guidelines, (currently limiting indoor capacity to 50% of normal). As such, we will be offering a mobile-app table-reservations system to allow you to pick a time to come inside, warm-up, and have a meal. We’ll also be introducing mobile ordering that will allow us to have your food ready for you during your reserved time, or to order at one of our many new outdoor food-service locations, making it easy to grab a meal on the go. We’ve also added several outdoor seats, fire pits, and a 3,000 sq ft. temporary “lodge” structure in the base area to offset the loss of indoor seats.
Our retail and rental operations will operate under the State’s indoor retail guidelines, limiting these spaces to 30% of their normal capacity. Reserving your rentals online in advance will help us to have your equipment ready and waiting when you arrive and to deliver a faster and easier rental experience than ever.
Guests will be asked to ride chairlifts and the gondola with members of their traveling party only and will not be asked by our lift operators to partner up with other riders. Skiers and riders in lift lines will be asked to maintain six feet of distance between parties.
RV reservations will be online only, a tough decision that we outlined a few weeks back. If you missed it, please see the announcement here.
We’ve largely eliminated cash-payments on the mountain in order to reduce the circulation of bills between staff and guests so please bring your credit or debit card.
We’ve added a dedicated shuttle lane in A lot to keep the shuttles running as efficiently as possible since capacity will be limited on shuttles to maintain proper distancing. There will also be a dedicated drop-off lane with an unload zone near the top of A lot.
Alongside these changes, we are committed to healthy practices and to doing our part to battle the spread of COVID-19. As always, our priority is the health and comfort of staff, community, and guests–and for that reason, we will be taking extra precautions and safety measures during this time. It’s just the right thing to do, right now.
It’s going to be different at Crystal this winter—but with more than 3,000 acres of terrain and plenty of space to spread out, we’ll all have plenty of room on our mountain. We remain committed to providing fun and memorable mountain experiences for our community and won’t let mitigating the risks to COVID-19 stand in our way of doing so.
We want to be clear though, that we’re calling upon the community to be flexible, to be calm, to be respectful and, above all else, to be kind. With all the work and all of the adjustments we’ve made—both big and small—I’m confident we will deliver the experience worthy of our extraordinary terrain and beauty. I also have great faith in our community to do the same.
As a reminder, your pre-season homework is to plan ahead and review our “In the Know Guidebook.” It’s even more important than waxing your skis, finding your boots or watching that same snowboard movie one more time. Think of it as your ticket to powder days this winter. Our guidelines might change as conditions shift and we’ll keep you updated all winter long.
I know we’re all dreaming of that first turn this season. And, it won’t be long before the snow stacks up and we’re all skiing and riding together again. It’s the release, the reset and the recharge we all need right now. And, as skiers and snowboarders, we can all feel it in the air.
See you all soon, at Crystal.