Schweitzer, ID: 03/03/21

jamesdeluxe

Administrator
After two enjoyable days at the artist formerly known as Jackass Ski Bowl, I headed north to Schweitzer Mountain. My wife and I skied there in March 2013 and really liked its extensive grab-bag of terrain. Apparently, Schweitzer had been part of the Powder Alliance for a number of years but discontinued its membership before this season due to the overwhelming number of visitors who were taking advantage of it. Instead, they made reciprocal deals with like-minded independent mountains including Loveland, Grand Targhee, and Whitewater, so I used the three free days from my season pass.

20210303_085626-jpg.8529


I can’t recall if it was covered in other TRs, but if you want to know why it's called Schweitzer Mountain, the general story that you read online and hear from locals is that in the early 1900s a peculiar hermit-like immigrant from Switzerland lived on the road to the mountain. His name was never cited; he was simply referred to as Schweizer (which means "Swiss man" in German). Following reports of odd behavior, the police searched his dwelling and found the skins of numerous house cats that had gone missing from nearby residents nailed to the walls. Upon questioning, he claimed to have made cat stew out of them. He was later committed to a mental institution and forgotten; however, by adding a "t" -- to make it easier for English-speakers to pronounce -- the Swiss man lives on as the namesake for the biggest ski area in Idaho with 2,900 skiable acres.

From the summit, you can see three states (WA, ID, MT), British Columbia, three mountain ranges (the Selkirks, the Bitter Root, the Cabinet), and beautiful Lake Pend Oreille (French for "hanging ear" -- pronounced pond-o-RAY), which you can admire from many parts of the ski area. Topographically, the ski area is composed of two large bowls: Schweitzer Bowl on the front side and Outback Bowl on the back side.

Following are pix from Wednesday. I skied three full days there with the last two in full sunshine, which provided nice views of the lake. With no fresh snow since the previous Thursday, conditions were clearly transitioning into spring, so the best thing to do was stay on the south-facing runs in Schweitzer Bowl until around 11 am and then move to Outback Bowl. Here’s the Pend Oreille trail mid-morning.
20210303_093946-jpg.8534


A bit further down:
20210303_094618-jpg.8535


The Great Divide trail along the ridgeline between the two bowls is a favorite for enjoying the scenery:
20210303_131406-jpg.8536


Throughout the day, I kept running into an expert sit-skier who promptly left me in the dust before I could get my camera out. Here he is toward the bottom of Outback Bowl:
20210303_131503-jpg.8538


As Tony mentioned in his report, Schweitzer is a premier mountain for low-visibility storm days due to its more than 1,200 acres of tree skiing ranging from mellow to quite steep. The big improvement since my previous visit is that they replaced the old Snow Ghost double chair in Outback Bowl with two new lifts, a high-speed quad and a fixed triple, which make it easier to pick and choose your routes and accumulate vastly more vertical.
20210303_133149-jpg.8539


The barn housing the Stella six-pack:
20210303_134151-jpg.8542


Toward the end of the day, I tagged along with a group heading toward the chutes off the South Ridge:
20210303_141156-jpg.8537


20210303_141458-jpg.8540


Due to being comparatively protected from the sun, the farthest run, Ayer's Alley, held pleasant winter-like snow so I did it twice.
20210303_141922-jpg.8541



During non-pandemic times, the traditional MO of destination skiers who fly into Spokane is to head to Canada to highly-rated Red Mountain, Whitewater, et al; however, after visiting all five ski areas on the U.S. side within 60-90 minutes of Spokane -- 49 Degrees, Schweitzer, Silver, Lookout Pass, and Mount Spokane –- I can once again recommend the Inland Northwest region. It’s a shame that the closest ski areas in Idaho to the south, Brundage and Tamarack (which snowave mentioned as benefiting from a more continental climate with drier snow), are something like five hours away.

I smiled at Wednesday's front page news in the local paper underscoring the obvious –- that red-state America has moved on from the pandemic. Other than in liftlines at Schweitzer Mountain, during my week there I only saw a small minority of people wearing masks inside restaurants, cafes, stores, and lodging. Anecdotally, I spoke with five different people on chairlifts who mentioned having had the virus at some point.
20210303_071322-jpg.8547


Here’s the pleasant local diner in Sandpoint where I ate breakfast all three days. I dig the 1950s Vegas-style sign out front:
20210303_080231-jpg.8548


20210303_080106-jpg.8549
 
Last edited:
great report! I need to make it back up there sometime.

as far a masks... I, too was surprised (kinda, not really) at how everything was "back to normal" up there (even though non-enforced mask mandates were still in place in Kellogg and CDA)... especially considering that area got hit pretty hard as recently as a few months ago. But then again, it's N. Idaho... probably enough said on that.

Glad you seemed to enjoy your week as much as I did. I'd just had several weeks of almost endless powder days, so I appreciated the sun and mild temps!
 
We have definitely noticed that Idaho is the most wide open state we have seen as far as pandemic protocols are concerned. Here's a hotel pool in Pocatello at 10:15 last night:
IMG_0074a.JPG


Fortunately for this road trip I had my second vaccine Feb. 16, Liz had her first Feb. 18 and is working on getting #2 the week after Iron Blosam, where we will arrive tonight.
 
jamesdeluxe":5xsfeteu said:
The Great Divide trail along the ridgeline between the two bowls is a favorite for enjoying the scenery:
Maybe during your week. I've skied Schweitzer 6 days in 3 seasons, only had a view of the lake on two of them, and even on those days for maybe half an hour at most. Great Divide gets a lot of blowing snow and bad visibility.

... the best thing to do was stay on the south-facing runs in Schweitzer Bowl until around 11 am and then move to Outback Bowl
My impression this week was the opposite. Sometimes the south facing didn't hit prime corn mode until noon or even later, so best to ski north facing winter snow early in the day. Ayers Alley would be a good example of that though we found the snow in the South Bowl Chutes just before Ayers softer. Those were the last two runs we skied during our visit because only then did the fog lift above the Lakeview lift.

In Outback Bowl I'd expect north facing Whiplash, Australia and Shoot the Moon to have packed powder winter snow. Shoot the Moon was our favored entry into the Outback side of the mountain. Did the alpine bowl under the upper Colburn lift retain winter snow? What about the tree runs dropping off North Ridge?
 
Tony Crocker":1pbgp9jh said:
My impression this week was the opposite. Sometimes the south facing didn't hit prime corn mode until noon or even later, so best to ski north facing winter snow early in the day.
Your days there with fresh snow were closer to winter with a dollop of spring, My mostly overcast Day 1 was a transitional winter/spring affair. Days 2 and 3 were more like late March.

Due to COVID SOP (as mentioned above, Schweitzer was the only place on my entire trip that even made an attempt at pandemic protocol), you and Liz probably didn't share chairs with anyone but I did with single skiers on quads and the six-pack. Locals all recommended starting on the fun Quicksilver trail near the Sunnyside triple, then progressing to the skier's right through the Great Escape sector by 11 am, after which the snow start getting a bit heavy on the lower half.

I found the snow off the South Ridge in nice shape toward the end of the day.

Tony Crocker":1pbgp9jh said:
Did the alpine bowl under the upper Colburn lift retain winter snow? What about the tree runs dropping off North Ridge?
I skied the open runs left and right from the Colburn triple many times and they stayed winter-like all afternoon. I wasn't comfortable doing the double-black tree lines like Australia by myself. I've never hit a tree but any screw-ups in there and you're stuck for possibly hours because so few people were skiing them. I don't believe that patrol does sweeps of trees (certainly not 1,200 acres worth) at the end of the day.

Locals also noted that 2020-21 has been a below-average season, only 200 inches YTD, and that Schweitzer would normally be around 300 by March. I didn't notice the comparative low-tide conditions that much; however, one suspects it will become apparent on south-facing terrain in the coming weeks.
 
jamesdeluxe":17smu3gz said:
Your days there with fresh snow were closer to winter with a dollop of spring.
Our days at Schweitzer were 100% winter. I was comparing to our skiing in Montana during the same days you were at Schweitzer. Schweitzer is lower and probably warmer than Montana Snowbowl or Discovery so softening on comparable exposures might come earlier. But it's good to hear that the open terrain under Colburn retained winter snow.

jamesdeluxe":17smu3gz said:
Locals also noted that 2020-21 has been a below-average season, only 200 inches YTD, and that Schweitzer would normally be around 300 by March. I didn't notice the comparative low-tide conditions that much; however, one suspects it will become apparent on south-facing terrain in the coming weeks.
We heard the same from Lono at Whitefish. Long term these are among the areas most favored by La Nina and overall the weather this year has certainly fit the La Nina mold. But the specific storms have most often tracked farther north in Canada or farther south into central Idaho and Wyoming while leaving the areas close to the border (including Red and Fernie) below average.
 
jamesdeluxe":24yjxmf8 said:
Apparently, Schweitzer had been part of the Powder Alliance for a number of years but discontinued its membership before this season due to the overwhelming number of visitors who were taking advantage of it.
#-o
 
jamesdeluxe":1o8b3ams said:
Apparently, Schweitzer had been part of the Powder Alliance for a number of years but discontinued its membership before this season due to the overwhelming number of visitors who were taking advantage of it.
Tony Crocker":1o8b3ams said:
On the NY Ski Forum, we've been discussing over the last year or so the bean counting that a ski area has to do to decide which multi-area pass to align with -- how much (if anything) it receives for each visit, the likely on-mountain F&B/lodging impact (and how it differs between various passholders: Ikon, Epicpass, Indy, Powder Alliance, or the reciprocal agreements with independents like Loveland and Whitewater), managing larger crowds and not upsetting local passholders, etc.

Schweitzer addresses a lot of that in their FAQ but we don't have many details other than that Powder Alliance generated an average of approx 5,000 skiers over the course of a season (one assumes that Ikon will deliver multiples of that number) and that they plan to upgrade lift capacity, parking, and ticketing procedures in anticipation of the new destination visitors.
 
I believe current Schweitzer skier visitation is extremely weekend concentrated. There was a huge contrast between the Thursday and Friday of my recent visit. I also had even better deserted powder days on Wednesday and Thursday of my prior visit in 2012. Surely Schweitzer sees the potential of growing destination business with not much impact upon their Spokane area weekend locals.

Also, once the border opens the combined attraction of Schweitzer and Red Mt. will be attractive to some Ikon passholders and can easily keep them busy for a full week.
 
Probably a good buy for them.

IKON really has become the dominant player in certain North American markets:
  • Southern California
  • Utah / SLC
  • Pacific Northwest
  • Interior Northwest
  • Alberta / Interior BC "Powder Highway"
Its New England and Colorado operations are strong too.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Pacific Northwest
Crystal is the best mountain in Washington, but for Seattle skiers Stevens plus Whistler is arguably more compelling. This is particularly true because Ikon only gives you 5 or 7 days at Crystal. Due to severe crowd issues in the pandemic years, you must now buy a dedicated season pass at Crystal for unlimited skiing there.
Alberta / Interior BC "Powder Highway"
Banff + Revelstoke vs. the RCR resorts (Kicking Horse, Fernie, Kimberley, Nakiska) strikes me as a tossup.
Interior Northwest
Epic has no presence while Ikon has Schweitzer plus Red Mt. across the border. But day tickets are still reasonably priced, so locals are not as compelled to sign up for a multiarea pass as in other regions. Many of the interior NW areas are on Indy and/or Powder Alliance too.

Utah used to have reasonable day tickets through the ski shops. Those days are long gone.

Before Alterra Mammoth was already selling 35-40K MVP season passes per season. Mammoth bought Big Bear in 2014 and the MVP became the Cali4nia Pass including Mammoth, June, Snow Summit and Bear Mt in 2015-16. Alterra inherited that dominance in 2018-19.
 
Last edited:
Banff + Revelstoke vs. the RCR resorts (Kicking Horse, Fernie, Kimberley, Nakiska) strikes me as a tossup.

Well, some include Red Mountain as part of the Powder Highway. I'd rather do Banff, Revelstoke, Red Mountain, and a day ticket at Whitewater than the Epic combination. Plus you forgot Panorama on IKON. It's a big vertical place, but can suffer a snow shadow - but less so than Nakiska or Kimberly - and has cheaper heli-skiing with RK Heli. IKON is the Powder HIghway Pass!

EPIC?
Nakiska is lucky to get one upslope storm per year, otherwise, it's a Calgary Olympic boondoggle since the Canadian Parks Department could not figure out how to host races at Lake Lousie o Sunshine. Despite World Cups going on now! Re-use, Recycle, etc - except when it comes to Banff!

Kimberly - sad place. The fire knocked out their HSQuad for a year+. I have never bothered to ski it.

Fernie and Kicking Horse do not quite make a Powder Highway.


Epic has no presence while Ikon has Schweitzer plus Red Mt. across the border. But day tickets are still reasonably priced, so locals are not as compelled to sign up for a multiarea pass as in other regions. Many of the interior NW areas are on Indy and/or Powder Alliance too.

Pac NW / Interior NW is a broad category for me...a little undefined. Basically anything, not Utah/Colorado? The Sun Valley, Bachelor, Jackson, Schweitzer, Crystal and Alpental is the strongest offering...combined with Sun Peaks and Cypress in Canada.
Crystal is the best mountain in Washington, but for Seattle skiers Stevens plus Whistler is arguably more compelling. This is particularly true because Ikon only gives you 5 or 7 days at Crystal. Due to severe crowd issues in the pandemic years, you must now buy a dedicated season pass at Crystal for unlimited skiing there.

I never did more than 5 days a season at Crystal. Basically, you are not going to ski 2x a weekend from Seattle since there is nowhere to stay near the slopes. The exception is parking lot camping at Crystal (a NW thing). Also, Whistler is a good 5-hour drive with bode crossing slowdowns and a lack of a highway/intestate-like road through Vancouver. Seattleites don't have the SoCal mentality to drive to Mammoth. Ownership in Whistle Canada has more restrictions so I did not know anyone with condos up there. Basically, Whistler is a once-a-year destination - possibly twice.

What's really really interesting to note: one of the most popular ski campaigns in the winter in Seattle was: GOT SUN? by Sun Valley ID. A play on the 'Got Milk' campaigns of the time 2000. Basically, Seattleites want to go to Sun Valley or Colorado or Palm Springs or Cabo just to have some sunlight in the winter. It's not the rain - not at all. It's the overcast and short daylight hours causing caffeine addictions, alcoholism on microbrews or heroin.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I did forget Panorama on Ikon (I think it's new in the last year or two), and I'm not that impressed with Kimberley or Nakiska either. But Red is a 8+ hour drive from Calgary (the key metro area of that region) and 5 hours from any of the other areas discussed in Alberta / Interior BC "Powder Highway." I mentioned Red as part of Interior Northwest because in terms of drive distance and proximity to other areas, that's where it belongs.

"Powder Highway" has an evolving definition. When I first started going up there in 1997, I'm fairly sure it meant just Fernie, Red and Whitewater. Remember Kicking Horse didn't exist until 2001 and Revelstoke until 2008 as big time ski areas. Nobody would consider Kimberley or Panorama "Powder Highway" with their modest under 200 inch average snowfalls.

Fernie and Castle are my two favorite lift served areas up there, and Kicking Horse is elite for terrain and decent for snow though it has a deficient lift system. Neither pass has a corporate owned ski area with unlimited days in that region. For visitors it could still be a close call with my preferences. Not for me personally because Mammoth plus Iron Blosam make Ikon automatic.

My impressions of Seattle come mainly from Larry Schick. He skis mostly Crystal but gets to Whistler a few times per season. Sun Valley has historically been the major destination resort for Seattle, and yes I've heard that it's because of the SUN. And Larry takes trips to Hawaii too.
 
Last edited:
What's really really interesting to note: one of the most popular ski campaigns in the winter in Seattle was: GOT SUN? by Sun Valley ID. A play on the 'Got Milk' campaigns of the time 2000. Basically, Seattleites want to go to Sun Valley or Colorado or Palm Springs or Cabo just to have some sunlight in the winter. It's not the rain - not at all. It's the overcast and short daylight hours causing caffeine addictions, alcoholism on microbrews or heroin.
That's funny about the SV ad, and I totally get it. The gray is reason the wife and I didn't stay in either Leavenworth, WA or NW Montana. Just horrible inversions. I actually got more claustrophobic than depressed when it's like that. While in WA, we drove to Boise for a long weekend just to get some sun.

Thankfully, where I live now (Near McCall) is just far enough south to not get the weeks on end of gray. Typically, 45* N is about the latitude you want to stay south of for more sun. In fact, I actually live right on that line, there is a sign for it at the bottom of my neighborhood along the highway.

3744003103_2d44412c52_b.jpeg
 
Back
Top