Snoqualmie vs... everything else.

I feel like ranting a little bit today, and I havent been posting any blog entries lately so this is just another reason to do so. This weekend was joyous for the Pacific Northwest. There were snow showers on Friday and 8" of fresh snow accumulated on our various Cascade mountains. It's the first new powder in a few weeks now, and it was beautiful. I was able to make two days worth of snowboarding; Saturday to Steven's Pass, and Sunday to Snoqualmie's Central Summit, formerly known as Ski Acres. Now that's where I want this post to begin - that's my segway.

I always hear people gripe on the words skiing or snowboarding and Snoqualmie! "Snoqualmie sucks." What are they referring to? Snoqualmie is actually, now, made up of 4 different mountain locations: West, Central, East, and Alpental. They all have very different feels to them.

West is your beginner mountain, which is just hills essentially with very little unique terrain except for the diamond heavy Wild Side, which is hidden to the far left.

Central is your all-around mountain with beginner hills on your far right, triple 60 which is a mix of everything, Central Express which is your intermediate with lots of nice hits for boarders and a big snow park, and then you have your hidden gem, Silver Fir, which is basically a whole thing of its own. That's your Steven's Pass, shrunken down, and removed of all the stupid stuff. It's got all sorts of terrain: traverses, moguls, big steep faces, lots of trees, winding corridors, and tons of spots for all sorts of fun. And there's the big traverse to the other mountain; Mt Hyak.

Hyak, also known as East, is barely used, never a line, and has some awesome terrain, if you like powder, trees, and that sort of stuff. It's also got nordic skiing for you cross-country skiers.

And then there's Alpental. People may go there and say... "dang this place is small." That's probably because they stayed on the lower mountain and yes, that's true, it is small. Only 3 lifts. But there's another chair, at the top of Armstrong Express, which takes you to the summit, and theres just tons and tons of stuff to do up there, in every which way you want to go.

So what's my infomercial for?

Because.... sometimes when I ask people if they wanna go snowboarding with me, they ask where, and i say Snoqualmie. They'll reply, I dont like that place. Boo! Maybe they went there a long time ago, and went to Summit West, which used to be called "Snoqualmie Summit" and never went to Central, which used to be unaffiliated and called "Ski Acres", or Silver Fir, or East, which as mentioned before, was called "Mt Hyak" or gone to Chair 2 at Alpental. Actually even Armstrong / Debbie's Gold is a good run.

I went to Stevens yesterday, and I've gone there many times; The back side is nice and all, and the place as whole is a lot bigger than any of the individual mountains of Snoqualmie, but is it really better than Silver Fir or Alpental? I dont know if I agree. I can see skiers liking Stevens more, but for snowboarding, I think Central takes the cake. I havent gone to Baker in a couple years and I really did like that place, it's awesome and its only weakness is its distance from Seattle and its crazy drive up. I havent had a chance to go to Crystal yet but I hear good things and want to someday soon.

Anyway, just keep in mind that Snoqualmie isnt just West. There's alot of lesser known gems in the area. I'm not going to go out and say that Snoqualmie is the best, or anything like that, I want to say that you shouldn't pass up a good snow day because you think it's "snoqualmie" and its small.