April 21, 2018 Boreal

It has been a year since our last visit. This is their last weekend, and it was time for us to check it out again. It is at 7100' with 600' vertical. This is definitely a snowboard area, but skiers are allowed! We used our MAX Passes for tickets. It is at the high point of I-80, and there is lots of snow. They have a fenced off access to the lifts, one person scans your ticket and you are "in" to all of the lifts. They open at 10am which gives the sun time to have a softening effect with their north exposure. Yes, it's a small area with open and treed runs and 2 gullies. The interesting part is that there is a Woodward Tahoe site there which is the "only action sports facility for skiing, snowboarding, skateboarding, BMX and mountain biking, scooter riding, parkour, digital media, tumbling and cheer". Hmmm. Beside access to the snow they also have a huge facility. So, it is a nice low-key area with the ability to teach many sports. We are too old to be students, but we enjoy skiing there.

Boreal is where hoards of young skiers (including me) learned to ski. Every Saturday busloads of school kids would make the trek up and for a few bucks get a lesson, and get drug up the "J" Bar! Seemed like every bus had a kid going back each week with a broken leg...Great fun....And then in high school it became the place to go night skiing. Unlike Washington, they really light up the hill at Boreal. The first time I skied Stevens Pass in the mid 80's I thought I was going to die in the dark...Hundreds of yards between dim bulbs high in some tree...I guess it's gotten some better.

Boreal is where hoards of young skiers (including me) learned to ski. Every Saturday busloads of school kids would make the trek up and for a few bucks get a lesson, and get drug up the "J" Bar! Seemed like every bus had a kid going back each week with a broken leg...Great fun....And then in high school it became the place to go night skiing. Unlike Washington, they really light up the hill at Boreal. The first time I skied Stevens Pass in the mid 80's I thought I was going to die in the dark...Hundreds of yards between dim bulbs high in some tree...I guess it's gotten some better.

I love your report of Boreal.

Your report of skiing at Stevens at night in the 80's is correct. When I moved to WA in the 80's, I was a skier instructor in the Central NY area and would teach in the evening with the best lighting.