The precious powder of northern Idaho’s Rocky Mountain ski areas is piled high, thanks to its dry climate. For Western Washingtonians, a week in Idaho can be the highlight of winter.
This year the main ski areas have some new wrinkles.
Ambitious is the best word to apply to Schweitzer Mountain Resort, two monster bowls a 90-minute drive east of Spokane.
Seattle-based Harbor Resorts, owner of Stevens Pass Ski Area, poured $6 million into demolishing historic, but long and sluggish, Chair One and replacing it with two new lifts.
“Because Chair One went to the very top of the ridge, any type of wind would shut it down, which meant shutting down the chairlift to that whole side of the mountain,” said spokeswoman Lisa Gerber.
Basin Express, a high-speed detachable quad, goes to the base of the steep final pitch and opens lower-altitude intermediate terrain; the fixed-grip Lakeview Triple goes to the ridge and provides access to the mostly expert terrain in the South Bowl.
High winds might shut down Lakeview but the intermediate terrain still will be accessible.
The ski area has sleigh rides, snowmobile tours and groomed cross-country ski trails. Lifts rise from 3,950-foot elevation to the 6,400-foot summit. Beginners have 20 percent of the runs; intermediates 40 percent.
Skiing Magazine’s 2008 resort guide ranks the resort third in North America for tree skiing.
Once the silver was mined out of the mountains, Kellogg residents turned to a renewable resource: about 300 inches a year of champagne snow. The result was Silver Mountain Ski Resort, a 19-minute gondola ride from Kellogg.
Silver Mountain’s 3.1-mile-long gondola is the world’s longest people-carrying single-stage gondola without angle stations or two-drive terminals, and it’s just 68 miles east of Spokane.
Here expert skiers can find double black diamond runs, and beginners are happy with their terrain; intermediates are treated to the longest run, 21/2 miles over a 2,200-foot drop. There are three bowls and 67 named runs.
One of North America’s longest quarter-pipes (1,111 feet) is at one of the Northwest’s oldest (1935) and smallest ski areas, Lookout Pass, a 12-mile freeway ride from Silver Mountain.
The day area’s first skiers jumped the Northern Pacific railcars from mining towns and hopped off when the train slowed down through the pass.
Now visitors just take Exit 0 (yes, zero) off I-90 and they’re practically in the parking lot. It’s near Wallace, and the daily ski tickets are cheap, just right for taking the whole family. There’s a free ski school for ages 6 to 17, one that’s been offered for more than 60 years.
“It really is free. All you have to do is show up,” said marketing director Jim Schreiber.
But it’s the snow that’s the big draw at Lookout Pass on Runt Mountain, which has the Idaho-Montana border running through the middle of it, letting you ski in two states.
And the snow!
“We usually get 385 to 400 inches of snow each year. That’s always a positive thing for us,” Schreiber said.
“Our snow tends to be light and fluffy because of where we’re located. The Idaho Forest Service, which has been keeping records for 70 to 80 years, stated that Runt Mountain has more snow than anywhere else in the state of Idaho,” he said.
This year, Lookout opens a new North Star double chair on the Idaho side that will open up six new intermediate and advanced runs. It has the second oldest lodge in the Pacific Northwest. Sit by the fire and have a bowl of famous Lookout chili.
Its 540 acres offer 34 runs, 25 kilometers of groomed cross-country and a vertical drop of 1,150 feet.
“We’re the Wal-Mart of the area: low prices and family atmosphere,” Schreiber said.
Columnist Sharon Wootton can be reached at 360-468-3964 or www.songandword.com.
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