Crystal Mountain’s new leader ready for the long haul as season comes to an end

SEATTLE — Washington’s largest ski resort bid farewell to a roller coaster season recently, and there’s a new face on top of the mountain.

Linnea Hansen, a self-professed weekend warrior-turned ski mom who made her career in the wine industry, became Crystal’s new president and chief operating officer last month after two years as vice president of marketing and sales. The promotion makes her the third person to lead the resort in as many years, a high rate of turnover for ski resort management.

This decade’s leadership churn came as Crystal wrestled with overcrowding, parking reservations, overpromising on a splashy capital improvement plan and more. This past season was marred by multiday highway closures in December and March that prevented skiers from reaching the resort.

Hansen also fills the vacancy on the heels of a tumultuous time for Denver-based parent Alterra Mountain Company, which bought Crystal in 2018 and made it Washington’s only member of the Ikon Pass, a season pass valid at ski resorts around the world. A record snow drought plagued the Western U.S. this winter, likely hurting Alterra’s bottom line. The Pacific Northwest also received less snow than an average winter, but late-season snowfall buoyed Washington resorts that stayed open, including Crystal.

Industry observers like Stuart Winchester, founder of the Storm Skiing Journal, see the last eight years of rapid change as evidence that “Alterra has been treating Crystal like a petri dish.” When it comes to the new leadership, he said, “Her biggest challenge is: Can she stabilize the experience?”

Here for the long haul

A steady hand is exactly what Hansen promises.

“I'm here for consistency,” she said during an interview this month on the Mount Rainier Gondola....