My impression is that there were plenty of locals who bought an Ikon pass intead of a Crystal-only season pass. Alterra announced the aquisition of Crystal in September and the deal closed by early Oct, long before the deadline for buying Ikon. The Crystal pass is around $1300. Even Full Ikon was several hundred dollars less. For those who can only ski weekends and perhaps one ski vacation or two, Ikon made more sense. I can't imagine there are huge numbers of travelers who are flying and using Ikon to head to Crystal.
The weekend in mid-January that caused the huge parking mess happened after there were 2 storms midweek. Obviously people who had to work who probably didn't ski when there were holiday crowds couldn't wait to get on the slopes that Saturday.
Here's a different take on the move that looks at the change in a bigger perspective.
https://skiing.substack.com/p/well-the-mountain-wouldnt-be-so-crowded
Here's the original Open Letter on the Crystal website:
https://www.crystalmountainresort.com/the-mountain/crystal-blog/an-open-letter
The folks around SLC are wondering if the day ticket limits that Deer Valley and Powder Mountain have might be a strategy considered by the LCC/BCC ski resorts given the complaints about traffic and parking in recent years.
https://www.sltrib.com/sports/2020/01/25/washington-ski-resort/
What's more concerning to me is the decline in the # of skiers. Not to change the subject, but I noticed the link in the article:
https://qz.com/175664/the-descending-popularity-of-downhill-skiing-in-america/
