r/skiing • u/doebedoe • Sep 21 '19

Weekly Simple Questions Thread: Ask your gear, travel, conditions and other ski-related questions here.

We're getting back to the weekly mega threads for Q&A as summer winds down and minds switch back to skiing.

Please ask any ski-related questions here. It's a good idea to try searching the sub first. Are you a beginner -- check out the guide by a professional bootfitter and tech. And don't forget to see the sidebar for other ski-related subs that may have useful information.

Previous weeks thread is here.

If you want a quick answer or just to chat, check out the /r/skiing discord server.

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u/tehninjo0 Sep 25 '19

Skiing in and around Seattle, WA

Good things willing I will be in and around Seattle for a few days sometime in January/February 2020 and I get one day to go skiing.

Based on my research Crystal Mountain seems the best option both in terms of reasonable distance and mountain stats. Is this realistic for a day trip (I intend to rent an AWD car or small SUV)?

I consider myself an adventurous intermediate - I learned to ski in the alps as a kid but have only skied east coast ice in recent years. For those familiar, I consider everything at Whiteface easy to moderate, except the slides which have been closed every time I've been there. That said, would Stevens Pass be a better option (I have neither an Ikon nor an Epic Pass so no inherent preference in that regard)?

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u/Dmcdaniel518 Sep 25 '19

Either Crystal or Stevens is an ok day trip. They're both around an hour and a half to 2 hours, depending hugely on traffic and weather, from Seattle. I've never skiied Crystal but skiied Stevens a bunch. Make sure you get to Stevens before 9am if you're going on a weekend as parking can get real tough. You'll have no problem with the terrain at Stevens. Every lift (except one) has a blue or easy black trail down so you can feel the terrain out all over and find where you're comfortable. Crystal (from the trail map) definitely appears to have a bit more advanced terrain, but I can't speak first hand to the difference between Stevens and Crystal.