moving to spokane in the fall, where should i get a seasons pass?

[danimal's dead]

Psssst, the train is your friend.

Lookout and Silver have kick ass glades and reliable snow. Schweitzer has more alpine type stuff. The fog is your friend, learn the ways of the Jedi, be a gladeiator.

[Cayuse]

)$&#@(* lake is nice but you should really try &^*$#&@ lake sometime.

[chiller]

Hiked south bowl last night, 3 in of new over soft spring slush, stoked

[spknmike]

Little late to the thread...

Most the Gonzaga kids get the college pass to Schweitzer. It's about $299 compared to $999. Good deal if you or the girlfriend can get in on that. Downside is the drive from Spokane.. 2 hours and if you are only able to ski weekends the place is skied out in an hour. I'd love to ski Schweitzer more often but the drive and higher prices don't make the pass worthwhile for me. They do have the best backcountry access in the area with Lookout close behind.

Don't kid yourself the (sustained) pitch of the terrain around here isn't going to be like the Wasatch. Our mountains top out at 6500ft. Only Schweitzer and Silver do avalanche control work.

I've had passes to Mt Spokey and Silver for the last 3 years. I tend to hit Mt Spokane on Wednesday mornings to catch the untracked accumulating since Sunday's closing. Most days you get the place to yourself, nothing very steep but tons of tree skiing and easy return 1800ft treed slackcountry laps. Also good for preseason/postseason skinning exercise (free!). Never go to Mt Spokane on a weekend.

Then I hit Silver on Thursdays (same deal, closed Tues and Wednesday) and weekends. Silver really has a ton of terrain if you explore it. No huge open bowls, but gladed steeps that match Schweitzer. Sidecountry is pretty good, but mostly 800-1000ft runs hiking back up to the resort. Few options to town for 3800ft descents in late Feb. I can ski untracked lines all day at Silver, can't say the same for anywhere else around.

Lookout isn't very steep and small. Good snow but not really worth it unless you like to hang out in the lodge and drink beer more than you like to ski. Steepest terrain here is technically out of bounds. Expansion in 2 or 3 years will open up a TON of sidecountry (Stevens Lakes, St Regis Basin will be steps away). I'll probably buy a pass then. I only hit Lookout early season for the most part (they open a week or two before everyone else).

49 is also flatter and lower elevation. Lift ride to the top has got to be almost as long as Silver's gondola. Good on midweek since most of the crowd, like Mt Spokane, are retired and stick to the groomers.

All in all, every area has it's merits.

Rank (current pass price):

Schweitzer ($699)
Silver ($249)
Mt Spokane ($269)
Lookout ($199)
49 ($299)

[spknmike]

Also might lookup the "7B Backcountry" group on Facebook. Good resource, meetups, etc for Schweitzer's backcountry (and the rest of the Selkirk crest).

[Dhelihiker]

I was born and raised in Spo. Its a shit town but it has character.

Mt Spokane is actully not that bad for a 35-45 minute drive. No gnar, cliffs etc but good sustained pitches and really close and cheap.

Silver is a total fucking waste, 49 is exactly like Mt spo only further away.

Schweitzer is a fun hill, I wouldnt drop $700 for a pass tho. The side country and BC are pretty legit. Caribou and Romans Nose are pretty fun. They have some small cliffs too. I would not call it flat by any stretch, not sure what the other posters are talking about.

Canada- Red is cool, Whitwater fucking rulz. A 20 minute hike and you are in the shit. both are road trips in my opinion. Nelson is worth spending several weekends. Cheap hostel in town.

and whatever you do, dont call it Gonz "o"ga Its Gonz "eh"ga

Eat and Dicks and say hi to Vinny for me

[GoldMember]

Speaking of backcountry near Schweitzer, here is a video of a sled/ski trip from a couple of weeks ago just north of there at Roman Nose. A bunch of my buddies went up for a couple days earlier this month, camped and skied. This should give you a good sense of what's available.

BTW, full price season passes at Schweitzer are $599 through 5/31, not $699 or $999 as others posted.

[the Cock]

I lived in the area for a year and tooled around the towns as much as i could.. I wouldn't move to Spokane... CDA is 20 min east of Spokane / 45 min west of Missoula and a little more suburban style living. Tubbs hill is right in town and easy to get a private beach on a hot summer day. The initial visit i took to Spokane to look at rentals turned up total dumps. Not to mention if you do get a pass at Schweitzer i think.. THINK CDA is closer. Post Falls is between the 2, but a little more expensive. Post Falls has(or had) a frolf course right in town that's not too bad if your on a time limit.. Faragot State Park has a better one. If you get a pass at Scheitzer.. get your jib on. It can be fun if you take it for what it has to offer.

To reinforce why I wouldn't move to Spokane - CDA is a little more suburban, YET.. I bought a 9 shortly after moving to CDA. The very first morning i woke up in my house, I went to go out to my Uhaul, and was told to get back in my house by the calvary.. seems my neighbor 2 doors down was holed up in his house at gunpoint. Six weeks later there was a triple homicide that made national news with two children kidnapped from the house (the man was caught 4 blocks from my house with the girl he kidnapped and kept for over a month after raiding her home) Shortly after that, my neighbor across another street (i had a corner lot) shot his father over drugs and ran up Tubbs where he eventually commited suicide as the police tried to catch him. I could go on.. but I cant type that much. One week after buying my 9, a man actually tried to break in my kitchen window at about 3 am. I only had to say "you better have a bigger gun than I do" to scare him away. Point being.. if you are an outdoorsy kinda guy.. you will enjoy CDA or Post Falls. Post Falls is a bit more expensive.. but if i could do it again.. I would have paid for it. I cant imagine what Spokane would have been like as it definitely seemed rougher town than CDA when i toured it.
Don't misunderstand me.. I really enjoyed my time there. Its beautiful in CDA. I just wasn't prepared initially for the environment. A search of the sex offender registry turned up 172 in my zip code alone. There were 5 zip codes in CDA. I learned quickly.

-Miss Cock

[mtngirl79]

Damn, Cock, what part of Spokane did you live in? Hillyard?

CDA has issues, too... at least when I lived in the area. Once friends and I got stopped by cops while we were walking around downtown and asked to prove we were shopping and not loitering. They wanted us to show them that we had money. Kind of strange, we were just walking on the sidewalk. Maybe that is how they keep the crime down?

Tubbs Hill good fun in the summer!

[GoldMember]

^^ No, Cock lived in CDA.

[wolfelot]

Jeez cock, although Im not sure, it sounds like you went ahead and opted for the absolute cheapest, lowest rent part of town possible. Looks like your neighborhood had quite a few low life's. Given all the heat that went down in yer hood that has to be the case. It may be a good idea to look into things if the rent is to good to be true.

[The Duke of Hurl]

Well, at least we don't have to delete this thread anymore.

Cayuse, &^*$#&@ lake? Really? That place sucks, overwhelmed by californians and sex offenders, I'm pretty sure that's where Cock lived.

Rage on, Mags. CDA, the next Oakland.

Brutah, I've lived a lot of places, never felt safer than I do here

[Brianskis]

I wanna know how you get to the Zoo in 45 minutes from CDA???

[icelanticskier]

Damn, Cock

ah, there is just somethin about a gal that uses the word, "cock". was at a party last night and this girl and i are having a discussion that was moving in the right direction. until she said, "penis". man did i edumacate her right quick! she'll never be the same. mission accomplished..........

rog

[doughboyshredder]

Silver is a total fucking waste,

Huh? I don't understand how you can say that. Dry snow, no crowds and 1,800 vertical glades with mini banks and slashers everywhere. It's not steep, but damn it's fun. Best part about it is on a pow day it doesn't get tracked out. You can still get untracked the next day. TE trees are some of the best glades in the PNW.

Sent from my PantechP8000 using TGR Forums

[teledance]

45 min to the Zoo from CDA now that's some serious driveing. I gotta agree you don't want a Silver pass no wear and tear on the vehicle, terrible terrain, bad vis.
Ski Schweitzer with all the rest, at least the chairs move faster there.

[the Cock]

Yup.. you're right, I meant to say Kellogg - Missoula is a couple hrs away. Anyway, I lived about 2 blocks off of 4th Ave, and 6 blocks from Tubbs. All houses for the surrounding blocks, no apartments, and was next to a school. My rent was on the high end. Actually paid a few hundred per month more than if i rented a townhome in Post Falls. I have a large dog and needed space. My landlord actually said to me while showing the house "and this is a safe white neighborhood". This was back in 2006.. so for all i know it could be a cleaned up town by now.. just my experience was to get out, even tho my job paid me recockulously well (for you icelanticskier)

[icelanticskier]

thanx! woot!^^^^^^^^^^^

rog

[MagnificentUnicorn]

Spokane has the second highest crime rate in WA after Moses Lake.

[chiller]

We need an Inland Northwest Ski thread

[wolfelot]

We need an Inland Northwest Ski thread

That is a great idea. The "snow in the pnw 2011/2012!" thread is solid but too oriented to the cascades.

[teledance]

Thompson Pass skied decently and should last another 2 weeks, 1.2 mile hike. Moon Pass is also open, Gold Pass closed still.
Selkirks have a lot of snow still.

[spknmike]

Thompson Pass was pretty good. Nice seeing you up there! Mainly skied the area you put tracks on, snow to the car was nice.

Moon Pass has a few slopes but won't last long -- or could hike a 4x4 road up to Gold Hill (or further to Boulder Basin) from the south.

[b0ardski]

+1 on an INW thread
3 days left to buy a $450 sun-fri pass at schwizz
Starts paying for itself after 7days on slope.

[Brianskis]

http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...-Spring-Skiing

Started one last spring, had some action.... Definitely need to get one started in the fall for a full winters worth.