Ski Washington
Snowboarding and skiing in Washington State is not that common for out-of-staters, and the Washington Ski Resorts are also rarely visited by international visitors. The ski resorts in Washington can rely on local patronage from the heavily populated areas near the coast such as Seattle and Tacoma.
The lack of Washington ski resorts with a well developed village may also be a contributor to the low volume of destination visitors. Some of the ski hills don’t have any lodging at all, in part because it’s just not necessary. Of course, that’s not to say that the Washington State ski resorts are not worthy for a roving powder hound!
The Cascades feature a marine west coast climate and the mountains, including some rather prominent volcanoes, typically score massive amounts of snow. The Pacific Northwest ski areas are renowned for having “Cascade Concrete” at times, but that’s not to say that they don’t also have lovely quality powder at other times.
Washington Ski Resorts
Crystal Mountain is the largest Washington ski resort and it has the highest top elevation. It’s also the best WA ski resort (well according to us anyway!). Crystal is about 2 hours drive southeast of Seattle.
Stevens Pass is 1.5 hours east of Seattle, so it gets really busy with weekend warriors. Mid-week, it’s a powder hound delight with awesome terrain and abundant snow. There’s no lodging on-mountain but you could stay in the quirky town of Leavenworth.
Mt Baker up north near the Canadian border gets record breaking amounts of snow (along with doses of rain due to low elevation) and is well known for its super testy terrain and excellent backcountry. It has a bit of a cult following from the “locals” who think they own the hill, and the small in-bounds area gets heavily tracked in a nanosecond on a powder day.
The Summit at Snoqualmie (made up of Alpental, Summit West, Summit Central and Summit East) is a popular WA ski resort. It’s only 52 miles (one hour) east of Seattle, so it gets absolutely and utterly inundated on weekends.
A little further inland are Mission Ridge, Badger Mountain, and Loup Loup, and near the other major city of Washington State, Spokane, are 49 Degrees North and Mt Spokane.