Snoqualmie Pass
One of the great things about Seattle is that there is tons of big-mountain skiing around the area: Snoqualmie Pass is about 
45 minutes away, Chrystal Mountain is about an hour and a half away, Mt. Baker is about 3 hours, and Whistler is about 5 hours. Well, one benefit of all the rain in Seattle during the winter is that when it’s raining in Seattle, it’s snowing up in the mountains – and as any resident of the Pacific Northwest can tell you – this was a historic year in that regard. So, one day we went to bed with a weather report saying there would be two feet of snow up in the mountain, so we set the alarm and grabbed our ski gear the next morning and went out for some wild skiing in near white-out conditions.
The snow was really heavy and wet, and it was deep, deep deep. This was a different kind of “powder” skiing that we enjoyed skiing at places like Grand Targhee, Aspen, or Chamonix, France; no, this was heavy. If you weren’t carrying some serious speed, there was no way you were going to make a turn. And, as Michelle will testify, even traversing could be an issue. But, as far as local skiing goes, this was the best day we’ve ever had with under an hour’s drive to get to the mountain from our home!
Photo
years to go, but it never happened, and now we have it in our back yard. Unbelievable. At any rate, we had no idea what to expect, and it was awesome. The weather was perfect, and the snow was incredible. We only skied one of the mountains, Whistler (Whistler consists of two gigantic mountains: Whistler and Blackcomb). There is so much terrain that one really doesn’t know what to do, but it is incredible. We spent most of our time skiing the Symphony and Harmony chairs on the top; wide-open areas above the tree line where you can ski anywhere you can see. And, on top of the amazing mountain, you can also enjoy one of the best ski-villages around, Whistler Village.
Chamonix encompasses an entire valley at the base of Mont Blanc and there are various ski areas that belong to Chamonix, including three family ski areas (La Flegere, Le Tour, Brevent), and two advanced areas (Grands Montets, and the Vallee Blanche). Perhaps the most outstanding way in which Chamonix differs from the ski areas in the US is that it is generally acceptable to ski out of bounds, or off-piste. Although some avalanche control is done, it is generally less comprehensive than in the States, and avalanche risk should be considered while skiing. Some of the advanced ski areas can be very dangerous and typically require that you hire a guide. We had huge amounts of snowfall nearly every day, and visibility was so low that we skied two full days at Le Tour because we felt confident we wouldn’t unwittingly wander off into a dangerous area. The first day we were there was perhaps the lowest visibility we had during the trip, and we all suffered from vertigo because we couldn’t tell the snow from the sky. But, the obvious upside of that was the bottomless powder we skied on all but one day, and even that day, we skied great soft snow. On our last day of skiing, we skied the Vallee Blanche which is a 20 km long run which takes you down and around Mont Blanc, through various glaciers and over incredible terrain. We hired a guide to help us navigate the area effectively, not only in getting down the right path, but also in helping us avoid crevasse.
