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Snowflakes Swirling Like Feathers

wind%20signs%20its%20name%20in%20the%20snow%20grundlepuck.JPG
"The Wind Signs Its Name In The Snow" on Mt. Rainier, by Grundlepuck.

Meteorologists are predicting heavy snow this Friday for north King County and the mountains, and if that isn't worthy of an exclamation point then we're not sure what is! Snow means, of course, sitting inside with peanut butter hot chocolate and thinking dreamy philosophical thoughts about individuality (snowflakes, etc.) or James Bond (On Her Majesty's Secret Service). It means reading Snow by Orhan Pamuk, A Winter's Love by Madeleine L'Engle, or The Winter Of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck.

Fine. For all of you athletic, outdoorsy people, snow also means skiing.

Outdoor sports are one of the key coping mechanisms for surviving the gray winters in Seattle--not one in which we, personally, partake, but it's a good idea in theory. Skiers and snowboarders have been watching the weather carefully for months now, gauging when the resorts will be open and primed for business. This winter, we recommend you go the extra mile and at least become aware of your favorite ski resort's environmental friendliness rating, compiled by the Ski Area Citizens' Coalition. A whopping four of Washington's resorts are in the bottom ten, and none of our resorts are in the top ten.

We remember choosing not to go to Cal Anderson Park for a snow fight on one of the city's few snow days last year, and we've been vaguely sad about it ever since. So don't be like Seattlest; even if you are in the middle of a fantastic book, take an hour and get out to enjoy the snow this weekend. And of course, if you're a skier or what have you, we are thrilled on your behalf that Crystal Mountain will probably be open at last!

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By Katelyn in on December 10, 2008 3:00 PM

Comments [rss]

  • MvB

    Snow kills, bilco. Snow kills you dead!

  • bilco

    Cue the local news (except channel 13. They're bankrupt and going off the air, I've heard). Get the panic up and running!!!



    It's going to snow! Seattle will be brought to a standstill by the blizzard!!





    well, more likely, inconvenienced by some slush.

  • plumitt

    Short story:

    I'm very skeptical of this organization's methodology. Their list may not accurately represent the actual ecological soundness of the ski area, and hence, may not valuable for deciding where to go on that basis.



    Long story:

    This rating scheme is heavily skewed towards avoiding expansion of ski areas, period. If you look at the “How We Grade” section, you’ll see that this group is targeting really a single agenda: don’t grow ski areas. (Of the 100%, about 60% of the points are strictly due to expansion, or the lack thereof.) Many of those areas with top scores probably haven’t expanded in years; Crystal Mt Washington just did a big expansion (sort of, it added what was backcountry terrain to in-bounds terrain) - hence why it is in the bottom.



    I’m also a little suspicious of their statement that there are only 2% more active skiers now than in 1978, and using that to justify the lack of a need for new available terrain. I suspect if you measured the amount skied in skier-hours, or total-miles-skied you’d see something very different. Mind you, faster & larger chairs impact this as well.



    This group just doesn’t want ski areas to grow, which you can agree with or not. Regardless, I think there’s room to be suspicious of their methodology and reasoning.



    Not surprisingly, the ski area association has a response: http://www.nsaa.org/nsaa/SACC-talking-points-2008.pdf

    (Note, I do not work for them, I’m just presenting their perspective.)





    ps. See you for that snowball fight in Cal Anderson!

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