Crystal Mountain, WA 4+

Terrible “upgrade”. Hard to navigate. No more NOAA 7 day link. No more base, mid and top temps (just base). 4 day forecast graph isn’t even labeled. What the heck does it even mean? Pleas re-enable old app until this one actually works!

In over half a century CM never charged for parking and offered a first rate ski experience adored by its faithful clientele. Then along came a corporate buyout by Aspen business gurus Alterra. The day lodge got a makeover with tagger art, decor suggestive of the I-5 express lanes through downtown Seattle. Now CM charges for parking and has raised the season pass rate by a staggering 70% since last year. Here on the plaza on a sunny Friday afternoon enjoying the nonexistent après ski scene, where we used to dance to live bands. Now the fireside cantina window closes hours before the lifts do. To get a beer requires climbing the stairs to the bull wheel bar, but don’t bother asking for a pitcher. Those got poured out with the new ownership. As my wife (who has skied CM since it opened more than 60 years ago) says of the new owners, “They’ve cut the heart out of the Crystal Mountain community.” The terrain is still 5-star. The experience has been reduced to 2-star.

The latest version of the app requires a connection to their server before you can activate tracking. As most people who go to CM know, cell coverage is horrible. There have been days that I haven’t been able to load a session in order to start the tracking. The whole app is kind of a step backwards from the prior version.

When tracking does work, the details are pathetic. For each run it should give run/where, time of day, duration, avg speed and max speed like the prior version.

Needs lots of work on Weather and Forecast. The Parking tab is a dismay. I normally get “404-Something is off here.”