Deciding between mountains in WA

[wgrand802]

I just moved to WA to go to school in Olympia, and I am assessing my options of where to ride this winter. I am looking for as much big mountain/off piste terrain as possible. Summit at Snowqualmie is the closest and significantly the cheapest (around $250 for a student pass), is the Apental peak worth going to or are there too many lift lines and not enough terrain? My other options are White Pass and Crystal, which both seem to have good terrain but are more expensive and over a 2:15 drive.

Can anybody help me out? Is Snowqualmie worthwhile, or do I need to make the extra effort for a different mountain to enjoy my winter?

[Dhelihiker]

Alpental is STEEP but small, the side country is good from what I have seen on TGR. Its not really friendly to exploring, lots and lots of cliffed out death zones.

Crystal is a really good resort, long drive, good in and out of bounds. Same with Stevens Pass.

Baker is a really long drive but the side country is sickter


Pretty much everything else sucks

[skiingsamurai]

[ame="http://tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=164396"]new to PNW (Seattle), where to go what to do - Teton Gravity Research Forums[/ame]

[SeatownSlackey]

living in Olympia or just school?? if you're living south of tacoma you're gonna be damn near equidistant to both xtal and snocrummy pass.

drive is faster and easier to the pass but from the south sound its but the differential cant be more than 30min [barring downed trees and retarded drivers on 410]

[PNWbrit]

All of them: Baker, Stevens, Alpental and Crustal.

Baker: Dread locked hippie chick, provides lots and lots of fun. While not tall, she's amply endowed with more sweet attributes than any other.

Stevens: Seemingly uptight country clubber, but when the sweater comes off and the proper perimeters are probed, she delivers like a pizza driver on meth.

Alpental: The pierced punk rock chic: TOTALLY GNARLY and don't underestimate her spunk with only 2200 vertical. She'll slay you and her BC makes JH look like the mall.

Crustal: The prom queen who gives it out to everyone. Kinda used up, too plopular and hard to get with for a solitary moment. But o lawdee, if her social coordinator has made space, she gives it.

^^^ Respect the Mullah.

Depending on how many days you plan to ride and from Olympia.... you should probably try and get into a cheap quad pass for Crystal. I think they were hooking up people to make foursomes through their facebook page = $650 = 10 days as break even point.

[Scotsman50]

mmmmh. Are you going to Evergreen College as if so you might find the capitalistic running dogs at Crystal too much to bear!
But seriously,
GF of my friend lives in Olympia and for her its only 1:45 to Crystal which is about same driving time to the Pass.

Alpental rocks and the BC is fantastic but requires learning and mentoring due to gnary cliff bands. Chair 2 line on a weekend can be a bear! Also lower elevation so sometimes snow conditions not as good as Xstal( IMO). But place is iconic for a reason!

Crystal: as Buster says, popular. Lift lines on a powder day can be bad ( but not IMO as bad as Chair 2 at Alpy( there are exceptions)) When lift lines occasionally become unbearbale , I go touring from top. However, the Bc touring goes on forever and is more forgiving than ALPy. Snow tends ( not always )to be better. I've been skiing there 5 years and still finding new terrain. Options are immense but Lift pass is correspondingly higher.

White Pass" only skied there twice, enjoyable but limited.

With LA Nina forecast you picked a good year, hopefully.

[The AD]

Do you think you might want to night ski at all? If so, then a Snoqualmie pass is the logical choice. The Unlimited Snoqualmie pass also includes five days at Crystal, doesn't it?

[doughboyshredder]

With the new chairs at White Pass, that place is going to rock.

Alpental sucks, don't go there. Anyone that tells you otherwise is just trying to keep you from going to Crustal.

[Hugh Conway]

It's a complicated equation involving 1) average freezing level 2) where exactly you are located and your tolerance for driving 3) how much you are willing to traverse 4) how much you are willing to spend 5) what days you have free to ski (weekends = bad at snocrummie)

[ACH]

With the new chairs at White Pass, that place is going to rock.

Alpental sucks, don't go there. Anyone that tells you otherwise is just trying to keep you from going to Crustal.

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[Hugh Conway]

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nice douche, douche

[wgrand802]

Thanks for all of the responses and for the link to the other thread.

I am going to Evergreen. Whether I stay for another years is pretty much riding on how good of a ski season I have here.

Right now I think I am leaning toward either White Pass to check out that new expansion or Apental if I can find someone who knows the terrain. Google maps puts Snowqualmie as being 45 minutes less driving than white pass which sounds good. But I think most of my trips will be on the weekend which counts against Snowqualmie.

Stevens and Baker are out of my range for a place to go regularly, Google maps put Stevens at 2.5 hours and baker even longer...

the AD: I don't plan on night skiing, and I only get the 5 passes to crystal if I don't buy the student pass. Looking at it now it will be worth it to get the non-college pass and get the 5 passes to crystal though... ($290 vs $480 to get 5 $65 tickets)

Decisions decisions, I appreciate the input and am open to more

[Kyle Miller]

Here are a few important questions that will help to answer this question.

Where/what resort are you from?
How many days do you ski/ride a average season?
What type of terrain do you prefer (other then powder)
do you occasionally go into the park?

[LIP]

Fer Crissakes people. SEARCH FUNCTION JONG!!!! Like this has NEVER been discussed before.

[ACH]

nice douche, douche

Yes, your post here is very helpful thank you.
Expectations of you are not let down in the least.



To the OP.

Explore.
Be flexible, give yourself the opportunity to try different areas and make your own educated choice.

The Summit area pass is cheap and will given access via I-90, this isn't a bad way to go. Just watch freezing levels. Add to that the night skiing aspect which might get you more opportunity. Add to that discount passes to Crystal, Steven's and others and you have a pretty good way to experience it all first hand. Also note, last year Boyne (they Manage both Crystal and the Summit), offered discounts to pass holders at the Summit for skiing at Crystal mid season.

[doughboyshredder]

If I was in Oly, there's not a chance I would drive to snocrappy on a weekend, when white pass isn't that much further. The crowds at the summit on a weekend are ridiculous. I actually plan on driving over and around to White Pass for a handful of weekend sessions this year.

[doughboyshredder]

White Pass will now solidly have the most acreage per skier of any resort in WA.

[Mofro261]

White Pass will now solidly have the most INTERMEDIATE acreage per skier of any resort in WA.

Looking at the new terrain while there last March didn't really make me all that excited to head back and ski it this year. Mostly low angle addition similar to the existing backside chair.

[doughboyshredder]

Everything is flat once you get used to Alpensmall.

I still think there will be some fun tree shots, and I just can't handle Alpy on mid winter weekends.

[Triple8Sol]

Absolutely, positively Crystal. Get the pass w/o gondola access (who needs it). Lots of accessible sidecountry and even backcountry on either side of the resort. Alpental is good, but small and not worth the drive from Oly. Another option to consider is going down South to Meadows in OR. Prob about 2hrs for you.

[oftpiste]

Obvious answer from Oly is gold xtal pass which includes 10 alpy days over the season. I think having the gondola pass on good days will make it worthwhile for early tracks. Seeing as how you're equidistant there's no contest. I love alpy, but over the course of the season you're likely to get a higher number of good quality days at xtal's higher elevation, and you absolutely do not want to ski anywhere on snocrummy pass on a weekend.

New terrain (lift served) at White pass looks fun, but also looks decidedly intermediate at best. Stevens Pass from Oly? Why?

[prokeke]

What about Stevens pass?

[oftpiste]

^^^^ ridonculous drive from Oly.

[The AD]

Another option to consider is going down South to Meadows in OR. Prob about 2hrs for you.

Two hours? I'd think more like three at best. Heck, it's 110 miles just to Portland from Oly.

[mdp]

Since I live in Yakima, White Pass is my local hill at only 50 miles away.

I'm hoping the new terrain at White will thin out the lift lines on the existing quad, so that I can get to my favorite areas within the old boundaries quicker. Some of the new stuff looks okay, but pretty tame. I've never hiked around back there, maybe the new chairs will put some better sidecountry stuff within easier reach.