Crystal Mountain MI park update

Obie.

Obie.

Active member
We've been putting a lot of hours in building & have some new features up for this year already. It'd be awesome to see some more park riders come ride & enjoy them with us.

There's 7 rail / box features up in Tuck's

6 features up in the small(er) park

4 features up in basin street & more being put in soon.

New for this year already up is a lift tower tube & a top close out (16ft single bar across, 22ft dub barrel rail down) that are both in basin street.

Everything is hitting real well, come out & ride!
 
Might try Crystal this year. Seems we always go to Shanty when we're in the area because of their hospitality. I don't mean their accommodations, I mean because their employees are nice and not all rude. The last handful of times we went to crystal we were treated extremely poor and many people I know feel the same way and have not gone there for years because of it.

Maybe things have changed.......?

Feel free to PM me as well
 
I can't speak much for the customer service staff at Crystal as I work on-hill and am sort of "alienated" from everything that happens in the actual resort. (& I like it that way, haha) Although, that does still surprise me as I haven't really gotten that vibe, even as an employee.

But If you're looking to ride park, especially rail & jib features you won't be disappointed at Crystal, we keep it maintained best we can given snow conditions and amount of traffic...better than some other resorts I've been to around the state. If you do make it out feel free to ask questions you have to any of us wielding the big black rakes on-hill, or just to say what's up. We won't treat ya in the way you expressed in your post above.
 
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Here's a couple pictures I snapped this past Saturday on some of the set-ups we have up currently. the big blue tower tube is brand new this year.
 
Id be interested in hitting crystal again, its been many years. The cost of lift ticket seems to be so damn high for what you get skiing wise or has been in the past. I'd rather go to cab for a fraction of the price for about the same size hill or pay about the same amount and hit nubs or boyne.
 
glad to see the park crew posting in here. been shredding crystal for the past 15 years or so and it seems like they never really give a shit about their park. definitely looking forward to some of the new park ideas
 
Just a sugguestion: if Crystal has another propane tank like the one on Basin Street, put one on Jesters Alley. Low to the ground. Just something that people can mess around with for progressing.
 
Just a sugguestion: if Crystal has another propane tank like the one on Basin Street, put one on Jesters Alley. Low to the ground. Just something that people can mess around with for progressing.
 
13267704:[J_Gasper said:
]glad to see the park crew posting in here. been shredding crystal for the past 15 years or so and it seems like they never really give a shit about their park. definitely looking forward to some of the new park ideas
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Yeah, Crystal has always been notorious for being more of a "family" oriented resort & not putting much stock into park. But they're getting better, allowing us to put features such as the closeout at the top of basin. Much of what's missing from the park at any given time isn't due to lack of motivation or equipment, it's just due to the simple fact that we're not able to. We're gonna try and get more creative set-ups this season to achieve a "skate-parky" feel rather than the rail, box, rail, box mold ... look for that in the Basin Street park as the season progresses
 
13270837:Obie. said:
Yeah, Crystal has always been notorious for being more of a "family" oriented resort & not putting much stock into park. But they're getting better, allowing us to put features such as the closeout at the top of basin. Much of what's missing from the park at any given time isn't due to lack of motivation or equipment, it's just due to the simple fact that we're not able to. We're gonna try and get more creative set-ups this season to achieve a "skate-parky" feel rather than the rail, box, rail, box mold ... look for that in the Basin Street park as the season progresses
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Yeah you guys definitely killed a-basin, Ill say that much. I was there for a few days and I definitely like the way its heading. Giggles being in that lane now is a good move as well. If you guys really want to be serious with park though, you need to take something on the north face or the ridge and make it the main park. Tucks is so shitty geographically. The jump line is always rushed and its not an even slope angle wise. I know its not up to you, but if you make a proposal to corporate saying that tucks needs to be salvaged, I would totally back you on that. Me and a few buddies who are also owners at the resort would definitely be totally behind you and would mention something to the operations manager. North face would be hard because there is no lighting, but im sure there is something on the ridge where you could build a pretty sweet jump line.

I know crystal is all about being a family resort, but they truly dont get it. I met with the manager who kinda snubbed me off. Economically they are going to boom if they can match boyne's park or schuss. Nubs is always gonna trump just because of how their hill is designed, but crystal comes in at dead last when it comes to park. Obviously it has nothing to do with the park crew, but its just pretty disappointing that crystal wants to put themselves ahead of everyone but is leaving out a huge aspect.
 
Hello all, another quick update on Crystal's park. There's been a couple long builds these past two weeks (ending damn near sunrise) & we were able to get some more brand new features, as well as old ones back out in Tucks & Basin street. I snapped some photos of fellow park crew employee Nic yesterday that'll give you a feel of how everything is looking. Come out and shred with us!

Brand new 20 ft flat stock rail in basin (meant to be the next 'step up' from the old Tbox in Jester's).

You can also see the flat-up-flat rail in the background that has been moved and re-setted.

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We put this spine in on our last build, really fun feature.

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The round tube DFD with the new box DFD in the background.

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Our new battleship box (set before the DFD box)

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We refreshed the Blue tower tube

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Small Hip hit at the top of Tucks.

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Other additions that I didn't get photos of include:

-- Hipped / quarterpipe hit after the small hip with a corrugated metal tube as the coping... tucked way to the left of Tucks

-- Barrel bonk pyramid in the middle line of Basin before the spine

-- Double 20ft boxes set parallell at the bottom of basin

-- Big 30ft Rainbow rail has been up for 2 weeks but that's set at the bottom of Tucks, after the big DFD
 
13349778:graemeskiiiii said:
Insurance wouldn't cover it this year.
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^ Sorry man, just the way it is.

We're having another build tonight, if anyone has any suggestions feel free to post em up!

Recent super cold temps and Snowcat trouble have hindered our recent builds, but it's looking like a good nite for it tonight, everything should be hitting prime this weekend.
 
13349863:Obie. said:
^ Sorry man, just the way it is.

We're having another build tonight, if anyone has any suggestions feel free to post em up!

Recent super cold temps and Snowcat trouble have hindered our recent builds, but it's looking like a good nite for it tonight, everything should be hitting prime this weekend.
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is insurance the actual reason you guys cant have a jump line? If so, thats unbelievably pathetic. I know its not your fault, but that is a typical crystal management move.
 
Such a shame to see Crystal falling off the edge like this. I'm glad to see the park crew is doing what they can with what they have, but management at crystal is a joke. They are completely neglecting the need of a park...and economically they are going to suffer. Such a shame.

One of our buddies was the old park manager and left recently for exactly this reason. They totally neglect the park crew and their funding.
 
Enjoyed seeing you guys reused the old trail signs for skirting on your features. Really liked the up flat, flat with the drop, and closeout setup while we were up there.

I know its not under your control but see if you can't get your operators to make the pads for features wider and the landings not as steep if using pads is your preferred method. I over shot almost every single landing or didn't land on one due to it being so narrow.

To chime in on the jump situation, kind of a two part thing, insurance for them is crazy expensive. It sucks for you guys to not be able to have them, but Im guessing some of the money saved from the cost of insurance was used for new features. Its hard to justify spending the money for parks and their extra insurance when in reality parks don't bring in that much money.
 
13349968:[J_Gasper said:
]is insurance the actual reason you guys cant have a jump line?
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13349983:Stang* said:
Such a shame to see Crystal falling off the edge like this. I'm glad to see the park crew is doing what they can with what they have, but management at crystal is a joke. They are completely neglecting the need of a park...and economically they are going to suffer. Such a shame.

One of our buddies was the old park manager and left recently for exactly this reason. They totally neglect the park crew and their funding.
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@J_Gasper : This is true, I know it's pretty lame...definitely a step in the opposite direction as far as overall park progression goes. But it has given us more 'free-range' to build more progressive jib features to compensate for the lack of a jump line. A mere 3 years ago the closeout feature at the top of basin would've most likely not of been allowed.

@Stang* : In my personal opinion I wouldn't really classify the lack of a jump line as ''falling off the edge,'' Crystal has always been criticized for their park and will be for centuries to come just due to the stereotype that has been built around it (and the recent upper management decisions). But that's beside the point, we're doing our best with what we have & (trying to keep all bias aside) I think our parks this year are the best Crystal has ever had. It's not gonna be Cannonsburg or Nub's just for the simple fact those resorts put a hell of a lot more stock into park. But If you're a rail / jib lover you'll definitely enjoy what our park has to offer.

And I'm assuming you're speaking of Will, definitely miss having him around Crystal. He was a very positive dude and it's a shame he wasn't able to build to his full potential as a park manager. I hope he is enjoying his time in New York.

@MRoden : Thank you for your insight, being a cat operator at the Burg I definitely respect it. And yes, we were able to order quite a few new features this season, which has made our parks much more well-rounded IMO.
 
And finally a quick summary of the build tonight that took place in Basin St ...

-- We gave the 30ft round tube rail a much needed reset. changing the lip to a mellow urban and tranny-ing the skier's left side of it, giving the ability to hop off early into tranny or make the jump on from it. The skier's right side is left as a wide flat deck with a small 'bump' lip located about half-way down the rail for those who like a big pop on from the side.

-- The flat-up-flat rail has been replaced by the tall 17ft flat dub barrel rail. Lip is even with the rail as a 1 ft gap on.

-- The double box feature has been replaced by a single down box with a urban lip. The other box needs repairs to the sheeting before being able to be utilized again.

Our supervisor stayed behind with our cat driver to build another snow feature, that of which I have no information on currently.

We've gotten a lot of snow, as well as very cold temperatures in the past 2 weeks. Everything is holding up very solid and the new snow has eliminated the extremely icy conditions we were battling with earlier this season.
 
I commend you guys for the work you put into the park. Everything was maintained pretty well. Now Im not a regular but when I was there the park was empty besides a few riders with an exception of jerrys running through.

Crystal Mtn is a family attration and the park will always take a back seat as a far as funding goes. Looks like you guys updated the features recently. Only feature that I had an issue with was the flat bar that had the boxish sides running along the bottom of it. No way anyone could pop on that thing.

Keep up the good work
 
13354716:Detroit_Steeze said:
Only feature that I had an issue with was the flat bar that had the boxish sides running along the bottom of it. No way anyone could pop on that thing.

Keep up the good work
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Thanks man, glad you enjoyed your time.

I'm confused on what feature you're talking about though, only one that comes to mind is our 30 ft flat round bar that has the tranny-ed sides right now?
 
Nevermind......you're talking about our park bench feature. That is in need of a re-set but that statement is false, I see people pop onto it quite often. I have footy of it actually from a couple days ago....Use those tails of yours
 
You guys should build a natural park. It's cheap cause you use trees but its also so sick! Shanty Creek did it before, I believe they called it the "natty park". Crystal could put it right in the Glacier Valley glades too!
 
13566529:SKIGAN14 said:
You guys should build a natural park. It's cheap cause you use trees but its also so sick! Shanty Creek did it before, I believe they called it the "natty park". Crystal could put it right in the Glacier Valley glades too!
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true.. not how succesful it was tho cool concept tho
 
13566529:SKIGAN14 said:
You guys should build a natural park. It's cheap cause you use trees but its also so sick! Shanty Creek did it before, I believe they called it the "natty park". Crystal could put it right in the Glacier Valley glades too!
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That's funny you mention that, cuz the park manager and I talked about that alot last season. He had the idea to put it in the glades skier's left of Little Vincet and in-cooperate the natural quarter-pipe bank that exists on skier's right of Little V.

Totally on board with that idea, think it would be a badass spot for it. Little V already has alot of potential with that bank (probably one of my favorite shred spots @ Crystal)...it should happen at some point.

Just would require alot of off-season hours put in.

On a side note-- Crystal opens this weekend and the park crew dudes posted a picture of them setting up a rail. Sure there will be a rail-box dub setup for opening day.
 
^^^anyone gonna be there? I have no friends from my town so I'll just be lapping singles by my lonesome
 
13569906:Lonely said:
^^^anyone gonna be there? I have no friends from my town so I'll just be lapping singles by my lonesome
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I will be hitting Crystal January 17 if you want to meet up
 
13569777:Obie. said:
That's funny you mention that, cuz the park manager and I talked about that alot last season. He had the idea to put it in the glades skier's left of Little Vincet and in-cooperate the natural quarter-pipe bank that exists on skier's right of Little V.

Totally on board with that idea, think it would be a badass spot for it. Little V already has alot of potential with that bank (probably one of my favorite shred spots @ Crystal)...it should happen at some point.

Just would require alot of off-season hours put in.

On a side note-- Crystal opens this weekend and the park crew dudes posted a picture of them setting up a rail. Sure there will be a rail-box dub setup for opening day.
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huh? crystal aint opening
 
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