January 2025 Washington Ski Experience

In January, I had the opportunity to visit a friend getting his Master's degree at the University of Washington. Having only been to Washington once, it was a great opportunity for me to check out Seattle, the University of Washington, and get some turns in at the two Washington mountians on the Ikon Pass: Crystal Mountain and Alpental at The Summit at Snoqualmie.

Crystal Mountain

View of Mt.Rainier from the top of Crystal Mountain

After flying into Seattle on Thursday evening and working remotely on Friday, my friend and I woke up early Saturday morning and drove 2 hours to Crystal Mountain that lies 6 miles outside of the Northeast entrance to Rainier National Park. We drove in the dark most of the way there, but one thing that really captured my attention was the scenery. We drove 95% of the way to the mountain in a lush pinetree forest with no snow. In fact, it wasn't until we reached an altitude of 3000+ ft that we started to see the first snow on the ground. It made me pretty nervous...However, during the final 15 minutes of the drive, we started to see more and more snow pile up along the side of the road, and my nerves turned into excitement.

My buddy and I skied from lift start to lift close and hit nearly all the inbound spots on the mountain. Crystal had received about 4" of snow the night before, and it was just enough for us to ski hard and hit a lot of jumps. My favorite spots were the Northwood Bowl, where we spent most of the day, and the Chair 6 bowl, where we found great snow and also completed the long and famous hike to the top of Silver King Peak. Both spots were filled with extreme terrain that was highly technical and really fun to ski.

Overall, I was really impressed with the expert terrain and great views that Crystal offered, and I look forward to skiing it again.

Summit at Snoqualmie

Because I was flying back to DC on Sunday night, my friend and I decided to forego the longer drive to Crystal and instead ski at The Summit at Snowqualmie on Sunday. Snowqualmie is just an hour away from Seattle and, although much smaller than Crystal, offers a decent amount of technical skiing. Snowqualmie is unique in that it's a collective of mountains, the best of which is Alpental, which is where we decided to go. Alpental sits at a lower elevation than Crystal, and the snow quality was rough compared to what we skied the day before. However, we made the best of it and skied all over the mountain, finding bumps and jumps and hitting areas that required advanced technique.

My favorite part of Alpental was the rustic 2-person Edelweiss lift at the top of the mountain. The lift took you to the best terrain and offered a great opportunity for you to talk with the person next to you as you ascended steep tree runs and rocky cliffs.

Overall, I wish we had a little better snow, but the terrain and the proximity to Seattle makes me want to come back.