F this place and the Vail Corp for driving it into the ground! Most of the restaurants are usually closed. Even if they were open I would advise you to bring a lunch. There is nothing quite like getting a burger, fries, and a beer for $35 and then spend that night in the bathroom shitting your brains out. (It has happened to me 3 time last year).

Today they only had 3 out of twelve lifts running but they still charge full price with no chance of getting a refund. Their level of customer service is pathetic at best. By noon, 2 of the 3 lifts had broken down and people had to be removed from the lifts using ropes and climbing harnesses.

When Vail first purchased The Stevens Pass resort I was happy to see them make some much needed upgrades to some of the lifts. Oddly enough, one of the lifts they recently replaced was one of the ones that broke down today. In the years since the change of ownership I have been stuck on broke down lifts a total of about 3 hours myself. The lack of ability to maintain their equipment really makes me question the safety of the lifts there.

They have not been able to staff the resort for the last two years enough to open up even half the lifts. When they say 6 lifts are open keep in mind they are including the rope tows and ‘magic carpet as lifts.

When I asked one of the management why the can’t get enough staff the manager rolled his eyes and said it is beyond his control. Upon doing some further research the reasons became clear. They underpay their staff (minimum wage or just above if you are highly experienced) and they expect them to put in 10+ hours a day but will only pay them for 6. Vail has multiple class action lawsuits filed against them in 9 different states over labor law violations.

The outhouses in the parking lots have not been serviced once this year. The frozen shit sculpture flowing out of the toilet is a scary sight.

I have been skiing at Stevens pass for over 40 years and it is an amazing resort. Since Vail purchased the resort it has been driven into the ground. This is by far one of my all time favorites.

As long as Vail owns this resort you should avoid it at all costs. If you purchase tickets ahead of time or buy a season pass there is no guarantee you will get what you paid for.
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Stevens Pass may lack in lodging accommodations and amenities. It may also lack in lift infrastructure compared to other Vail owned resorts. But what it doesn’t lack is snowy days and steep terrain. As far as where to stay, I recommend the small German themed town of Leavenworth located 2.5 hours from the Seattle Airport. Be advised, Stevens Pass Ski Resort is located right on Highway 2 between Seattle and Leavenworth and because of the insane amount of snow they get the highway itself does experience closures from time to time due to avalanches. There’s other routes that go around but typically if the pass is closed, so is the resort so make sure to check road conditions when you land. When we landed the road and resort had been closed for 2 days due to heavy snowfall and to clear avalanche debris and it was still snowing up at the pass. We had a pretty white-knuckled drive to Leavenworth but the pass had opened at some point that day and we were able to make it without any detours.

Leavenworth was great. It’s a charming little town with lots of restaurants, bars and rental property options. One thing I would say is that since its not a typical Colorado ski town, the condo we stayed in lacked some of the usual amenities we were used to like a mud-room with lots of hooks to hang gloves and helmets and store your board / skis and boots. Maybe others in the area had that but I thought it was worth mentioning. Also Covid was very much still a thing so we had limited access to restaurants and mostly cooked at the condo.

One big perk of Leavenworth is that its much lower in elevation that Stevens Pass. That paired with the fact that its on the East side of the pass means that they only get about 90 inches of snow per year so driving around town is no problem at all. Until its time to get up to the resort that is. It’s about a 40 min drive from town at 1,171 ft elevation up to the resort at 4,062 ft and as you get closer to the resort the snow gets considerably heavier. Also I found a ton of reviews that said the parking lots fill up super fast, especially on a powder day so we didn’t mess around. We left VERY early and often timed it right so that we were behind the snow plows on the way up. We never had any issues finding parking but take my advise and leave early.

Now for the resort: I absolutely loved Stevens Pass. I’m a pretty easy sell though when there’s 84 inches of fluffy light snow that fall during the week that your there. We also lucked out in the fact that the resort had been entirely closed the previous day and a half before. And the way that they slowly opened things back up favored us heavily. On Day 1 we waited in line for first chair on 7th Heaven which we lapped over and over before exploring the terrain on Brooks and Tye Mill. I’ll post the link from that first lap down 7th Heaven which was absolutely incredible. On Day 2 we were told they were finally going to open the backside which once again, had not been open in numerous days and the reports were 40+ inches was back there. They weren’t wrong. Once again we waited for first chair and once again we were not disappointed. The 1800’ down Andromega Face with full sun for the first lap was indescribable. We ended up lapping Southern Cross and Jupiter all day. Worth noting, if you’re a tree junky like me, the South Park trees off of Jupiter were fantastic. Day 3 it dumped 20+ overnight so we waited again for the first chair down the backside. It was incredible, yada yada yada. Our last day there we realized we hadn’t ridden the front side of double diamond at all so we hit that pretty hard and by then the fluffy snow had mostly been replaced with wetter, heavier snow but it was still great. Our last run of the trip was out of bounds over by Showcase, through the woods and popped you out by the RV parking lot. An epic end to the trip.

Now for the breakdown: The snow was top notch. Light and fluffy and didn’t live up to the rumored name of “cascade concrete” at all. We pretty much had 3 days in a row of first tracks down super deep terrain. It did get wet and heavy at the end but when its that deep, who cares. The lifts could definitely use some work. There’s only a few high speed quads, nothing bigger than a 4-person chair, and no gondola’s or bubbles. Most of the lifts you’ll be riding if you’re a powderhound are the ancient 2 seaters with no lap bar and they aint for the faint of heart. But to me it adds to the nostalgia of the place. I loved em. Off-piste is where Stevens thrives. Easily some of the best off-piste terrain anywhere I’ve been. Its steep enough to keep your speed in the deep stuff. And surprisingly the type of snow they get sticks to the super steep rock faces well so your constantly in waste deep pow even when you’re on an incredibly steep pitch like the top part of Bobby Chute (7th Heaven). Many of the blues and definitely the greens were too slow in my opinion, probably cause of the heavy snowfall but it was hard to keep your speed up on them even later in the day when it was compacted down. The value is absolutely there. You can’t put a price on 500 inches of snow. Period. The locals will tell you the resort has taken a turn for the worse ever since Vail bought them, and I cant argue that cause I rode there "pre-Vail". The base area was busy and there were some decent lines but considering Covid and the restaurants being limited capacity and the crazy amounts of recent snowfall its kind of understandable. I wouldn’t say its very child friendly. Especially when compared to the other resorts Vail owns, frankly some of the terrain is definitely dangerous. I actually got cliffed out on day one in an area above Tye Bowl and was clinging to the cliff face, ended up having to drop about 15 feet and still dont understand how I didnt get hurt. There wasn't any signage in the area to deter kids is the only point I'm making. We didn’t experience any nightlife. The resort did have night skiing but we were pretty exhausted from catching first tracks everyday that we didn’t stay long enough to see how it was. Lastly, of course I would absolutely revisit. Pretty much any time I’ve been powder starved for a year or 2 I will probably make my way back to Stevens. It just seems way more consistently deep than some of the other historically snowy US regions like Tahoe or Colorado, and the steep terrain and awesome trees will have me jonesing for a return trip.
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Since Vail took over this place sucks. Way understaffed. They have never got the chairs loading by opening time like all the previous owners did. I usually stand in line for a half hour to an hour watching the one ski patroller do 5 or 6 laps..before the chair finally loads. I can take up to 3 days for them to open the upper chair. The employees are disheartened. Just an altogether bad vibe now. Now they up there prices, can't perform and they shortened the season by 2 weeks with the snow base at its highest. Now you only get a couple days of spring skiing. Obviously it's about share holder profits . Don't pay the staff, shorten the season, don't run all the chairs. Tom Katz who is in charge got a 5 million dollar bonus to screw Stevens Skiers. I am done after 3 years ofB.S. skied there over 50 years. Just took the last three to ruin my winters . Back to Crystal mountain. At least Alterra can perform and get the mountain on time or earlier. DONE!!
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This resort has gone steadily down hill for the past few years. Vail bought stevens and ever since has not only dismantled the parts of this resort that made it feel like home but also has turned to greed over fair treatment of their employee's. I am sad to say that I will have to leave my favorite ski resort in the past for it has become a object of profit rather than the family oriented paradise I remember.
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I've had a season pass at stevens every year for around 15 yrs. I won't be returning next season. Vail has ruined this place. There is NO LIMITED OCCUPANCY, NO MASK ENFORCEMENT AND NO SOCIAL DISTANCING ENFORCEMENT. IT IS NOT SAFE BY ANY MEANS WITH COVID. If I wish I could get a refund for my season pass because it's honestly not fun. GO TO CRYSTAL, BAKER OR SNOQUALMIE. AVOID STEVENS AND BOYCOTT ANY VAIL RAN MOUNTAIN
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Went up on 12/22/20. What a disappointment. Lift lines as long as I've ever seen. I arrived late in the morning ~10:30. Parked in the upper, upper parking lot which was extremely crowded with a ginormous pothole that stretched almost entirely across the road just before entering the upper most lot. When I got out to the area of the Mt. where you can ski down to the lifts, I was really surprised how long the lift lines were. I asked a couple of skiers coming down the Mt. if the lines had been this bad all morning, the response was - MUCH WORSE! The guys I spoke with said they got to the mountain at 8:30 AM and once Mt. opened, they waited in line for almost two hours to get on the Skyline lift. Evidently that lift and others opened late without any good explanation as to why. Additionally they said the rope maze for skiers to get into weren't set up until 9:30 AM. I asked them how many runs they had gotten in since the lifts started running and they said ONE run. This was now ~ 11:00 AM. Talked to another couple in line and they told me the same. The whole reservation system based on COVID pre-cautions is a joke. The place is packed, from the parking lots to the lift lines to the mountain itself. Based on what I experienced, Vail Resorts isn't limiting anything and packing people on the mountain. In addition to that, they don't appear to be keeping up the maintenance of the parking lot roads and the lifts. I was told the backside had not opened yet as well which compounded the long lift lines. Too often in the past few years, after VR took over the management of SP, the amount of times the lifts are not working, in particular, Jupiter on the backside, seems way to high to me. I recommend avoiding SP until Vail Resorts gets its' act together and truly focuses on a positive skier experience versus a positive shareholder's experience, because without the first, the second will never happen.
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Too many people, limited terrain, high prices, and amateur parking. Been skiing there 50 years, yep, it needs to improve.
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$90 a day, no deals or wait, book on line & save $9, what ! Who do you think you are, aspen?! Riding here for 20 years. What a bad start, can’t see how you can justify this:  whistler for $120, Breckenridge  $150. These mountains have so much more to offer. Where is your mid mountain grooming?   What is the long term plan? Nothing new, just high prices.
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I have been skiing at Steven's for years with my family and have no complaints about the skiing or the facilities. I have used their children's lesson program for many years and been very happy. However, it is no longer possible to get reservations for kids group lessons. They sold me a 3 pack of lessons and I have yet to be able to get a space in lessons for my children. I call weeks in advance, with no luck. Also, they have no waiting list. They explained I would have better luck on weekdays, but my kids are in school and I work! I would not recommend the kids lessons at Stevens, and as long as you are not doing lessons why not ski at Crystal where kids are free :)
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Stevens is pow heaven, especially during the week! If you don't like crowds avoid the weekends or, if your abilities and the conditions allow it, be prepared with avy gear and hike the ridges to get away from the crowds and find the freshies. Also, if you are a weekend warrior get here early to get a parking spot because it fills up fast and early.
If you're looking for a "resort" type atmosphere this is not the place for you. If you are all about the skiing/riding, pack your lunch, pack your beer (or whatever substance you're bringing) and get up to lot 4 for great vibes and get ready for some great snow.
If you're one of the few visiting from out of state and want to find the steeps, find a local and see if they're willing to show you where the goods are. Great mountain if you're into the steeps and deeps and know where to go. Most of the fun challenging terrain is not visible from the lifts or main runs. Well worth your money and time if you hit the right spots and do it right.
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