Central to West Crossovers
Weekend skiing and riding at The Summit at Snoqualmie after Silver Fir's opening for the season.
Glen Plake at Summit Central
Vintage Glen Plake at Summit Central in early 2000. Shot by Jerry Hanley for the Ski Washington TV Show.
Summit Central/Silver Fir 12-17-16
Got the pole cam back out for some cold, fast groomers.
Summit Central - Central Express
What an “Experts Only” Run at Summit at Snoqualmie Looks Like
A lap down the Wildcat trail at Summit at Snoqualmie. While the vertical on this Summit Central run is modest, some demanding obstacles exist along the way. Filmed in late January 2021; conditions were typical for the time.
Summit at Snoqualmie is a ski area in the Washington Cascades just east of Seattle. See our full mountain review here:
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Summit at Snoqualmie | Central Express
Ski Acres (now Summit Central) had its second and third chairs (after the install of Single Chair in 1948) around 1966, Alpine Bowl and Bonanza. Both were Riblet center-pole doubles, just like the rest of their early aerial lift system. They both ran roughly parallel to each other, serving long intermediate cruisers and black diamonds. Both lifts were quite long, spanning almost 4000', making them some of the longest lifts at all four areas of Snoqualmie. This also came with a lengthy ride time of over eight minutes on each chair. In 1998, after Boyne Resorts purchased the resort, two high-speed quads were built, Central Express at Summit Central, and Armstrong Express at Alpental. Central Express replaced and completely took over the duties of both outgoing Riblet chairs.
Central Express is a Poma high-speed quad. Being one of the last lifts to use Challenger II terminals, it uses Poma Omega chairs instead of the standard Arceaux chairs. Tower lifting frames and sheaves are also Omega style, while the lift uses TB-41 detachable grips. The lift has a bottom drive terminal, and dual tensioning, as is standard on many Poma/Leitner-Poma lifts. Summit at Snoqualmie's latest master plan involves replacing this lift with a realigned high-speed six-pack. The plan calls for moving the existing Central Express over to Triple 60, so while this lift may be around for awhile, its days in this location are numbered.
Recorded on December 21st, 2023
Insta360 X3
Skiing Down Alpine at Snoqualmie Summit Central - February 9, 2022
Thanks to Andy for taking this video. A little rusty. Haven't been out skiing on the slopes for about 3 years since pre-COVID-19.
2022-23 Season Highlights
What a winter! Whether you call this place home, or just stopped in for a day or two of fun, thanks for sharing another memorable season of sliding on snow with us. We hope you had as much fun as we did!
Already looking forward to summer at the mountain? We are too!! Our tentative opening date for mountain biking and scenic rides is June 24th. Bike pass information will be released in the coming weeks.
Summit at Snoqualmie | Holiday
When Ski Acres (now Summit Central) first opened in 1948, it operated only ropetows, and the following year, installed Washington's first chairlift. Several decades later, Snoqualmie has added more chairlifts, including several serving beginner terrain. These lifts are Gallery installed in 1967, Condominium Chair (Now Reggie's) installed 1970, and Edelweiss Chair (Now Easy Street) installed in 1972. The Gallery slope was steep for beginner skiers (although none of the aforementioned lifts were officially considered beginner chairs in the first place), so another chair was built in 1975. This lift would become Holiday, a Riblet center-pole double chair, just like the rest of the lifts. After many years of service, and becoming the main beginner chair at Summit Central, Holiday was replaced with a newer lift in 2019. This effectively doubled the capacity, and made it so beginners wouldn't have to learn to ride a center-pole chair just to get on an aerial lift.
Holiday is a 2019 Doppelmayr quad chair. It features ej chairs, an Alpen Star drive-tension bottom terminal, and a simple fixed top return terminal. The lift also features queueing gates and a loading carpet, to make it easier for beginners to load the lift. With the addition of this lift, Summit at Snoqualmie continues to be the leader for beginner skiers and riders in the Seattle area in Washington.
Recorded on December 20th, 2023
Insta360 X3
Summit at Snoqualmie | Triple 60 trail
This slope is the namesake trail off the Triple 60 lift, and one of the main slopes. It is a black diamond, and in the past is all moguls, but this time, a majority of it was smooth, which makes it quicker to ski down. It is one of the steepest trails at Summit Central, and has a great view of the mountains behind on the ski down. I like this trail a lot, as its generally uncrowded, and is great to lap on the Triple 60 lift.
Recorded on March 5th, 2021
Summit Central Opening Day with Nice Dry Pow Pow
Summit at Snoqualmie | Central Express [Night]
Alpine Bowl and Bonanza were 1960's Riblets, and they opened up terrain south of the area served by Single Chair. This included terrain all the way to the southernmost boundary currently at Summit Central. In 1988, Silver Fir was built to separate the area into two skiing pods. Because of how long Alpine Bowl and Bonanza were, they were elected for replacement with Snoqualmie's first two detachable lifts. In 1998, both were replaced with a single detachable quad, which continues to exist today.
Central Express is a Poma high speed quad. It uses second generation Challenger terminals, TB-41 detachable grips, and Omega-style lifting frames and sheaves. One unique feature are the Omega chairs, which were only used on a handful of Challenger-Era Poma detachables, before the Omega was fully introduced. This lift, while only by ~200 feet, is the shortest detachable at all of Summit at Snoqualmie, at a length of 3864 feet. It's also the shortest vertical detachable, at only 945 feet. The lines on this lift usually aren't too bad, so when this lift is eventually replaced, in the next 15 to 20 years most likely, they'll probably keep it a quad with the same capacity.
Timestamps:
0:00 Bottom Terminal
0:32 Ride Up
5:00 Top Terminal
Recorded on January 28th, 2022
GoPro Hero 10 Black, 4k Video Quality, 30 fps and Horizon Leveling
2023 March 18 Snoqualmie Summit Central Skiing with the kids
Skiing at Snoqualmie Summit Central with Marvin and Edwin. Didn't get any good shots this time, but its the only time I got Edwin on camera skiing, so thought I should make up a video for memories' sake :-)
2018-19 Trail Maps
The Summit at Snoqualmie is excited to introduce it's new trail maps. Made by Stone Paper Solutions, these new trail maps are 100% eco-friendly.
Skiing with Andy Down Alpine Bowl at Snoqualmie Summit Summit Central - February 9, 2022
Trying to ski while looking through a video camera lens.
Snoqualmie Summit Central
Summit Central -Top Traverse 70 degrees spring ski
Summit at Snoqualmie | Central Express [Night]
This area of the mountain was first served by two Riblet doubles, Bonanza and Alpine Bowl. Respectively, Bonanza served the Bonanza Face trail, and Alpine Bowl served the wide open Alpine trail. Bonanza also served Golden Nugget. It is unknown when exactly Alpine Bowl was added, but it was likely around the same time as Bonanza, 1966. In 1997, Summit at Snoqualmie was sold to Booth Creek Ski, which added several new lifts. One of which, in 1998, was a lift that replaced Bonanza and Alpine Bowl, known as Central Express. This lift took the alignment of Bonanza, and has had a terrain park added around the mid 2000's. The Bonanza Face trail is no longer marked on the trail map.
Central Express is a Poma high speed quad. It uses second generation Challenger terminals, TB-41 detachable grips, and Omega-style chairs and lifting frames. This lift was one of the last Challengers ever installed, alongside sister lift Armstrong Express at Alpental, as well as Shooting Star Express at Mt. Hood Meadows and Sunapee Express at Mt. Sunapee, as Poma introduced the Omega the following year. This lift only runs around 850 fpm, even with the long, slow moving lines. It ran this speed last year I was here as well, and don't see why they couldn't turn it up to full speed. This is a great lift, serving some great terrain, and the only major terrain park at Summit at Snoqualmie, and I don't see it being replaced anytime soon.
Recorded on February 26th, 2021