Skill Practice Area Advice

Being relatively new to the area and new to bc skiing, I hoping to find any recommendations for places that might offer a chance to practice skills and build fitness/efficiency?  I’m think I’m looking for something I can hit up safely with or without a partner, within an hour or so of Seattle, and without any requirement for excitement, views or adventure.   

I’ve searched and scanned the trip reports and thinking maybe just heading up one of the forest roads near Hyak might be the ticket, but wanted to see if there was any additional advice or areas to explore.

Thanks!

Lapping Hyak when they are not in session is a popular diversion for folks with limited time.

Lapping Hyak when they are not in session is a popular diversion for folks with limited time. 

Thank you Chamois! When you say session, do you mean open, or are the cool with people heading up hill early mornings when the lifts aren't running?

I skinned up Summit West on Saturday starting at 8:15. The lifts were not spinning when I started but did start when I was half way up. Management caught up with me when I skied down and in a very cordial way asked me to not skin the runs after 8:00 am. I don't know if this is established policy but it certainly makes a lot of sense, and I shouldn't have been on the slope when ticket holders were skiing down. There have been many posts about skiing up ski runs previously, for example
www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboardi...ex.php?topic=18658.0

This is a great question. Some good suggestions, too. When I was in that same boat, I found that skinning West and Hyak in spring (post-season) was perfect. During the winter, I'd second the suggestion about hitting Hyak during the midweek when it's closed. It's a relatively safe and well-traveled area, and you can go right up the face and never totally lose sight of the base area.

Searching further and focusing on Hyak, I realized that my question has been asked and answered many times before.  Apologies for the bad etiquette. 

I apparently need to work on my message board skills as well.

Thanks everyone for humoring me. 

For pure descending skills practice and conditioning -- night skiing at Alpental Tuesday-Friday is a good workout that doesn't interfere with a "9-to-5" work schedule.  Lines are typically quite short.   Summit Central is another option -- the Triple-60 lift accesses some steep (though short) slopes and often holds bits and pieces of untracked snow long after everything else is packed out. Wednesday nights at Summit West is where lessons are conducted for the Washington Alpine Club / Mountaineers Randonee and Telemark program.

So when people do go to Hyak by themselves to tour around, are you just following right under the chair lifts (front and back side)? Or just skinning up where ever right up the face(s)? It seems like a perfect place to go when I want to get a few laps in by myself but I also want to make sure there is some sort of protocol on how to do it.