Schweitzer, the largest ski resort in Washington and Idaho, recently added four new, beefy snowmaking guns to its winter arsenal. The guns are there to provide more consistent snow cover in the early season and more consistent powder to glide down throughout the season. But if weather forecasts hold, skiers and snowboarders will have plenty of natural snow, too.
While snowfall across the Inland and Pacific Northwest has been a bit hit-or-miss in recent years, this season is projected to be a "pretty solid winter," says Sean Mirus, Schweitzer's marketing and special events director. This season is shaping up to be the third La Niña year in a row, Mirus explains, leading to what's known as a "triple-dip La Niña."
That triple dip means Schweitzer is going to see snow — a lot of it.
"I'm sure all of our skiers and boarders around the region are going to be pretty stoked about that," Mirus says.
It's not just snow that skiers and snowboarders have to look forward to. Schweitzer, a 2,900-acre resort perched in the Selkirk Mountains of North Idaho, is also upgrading its six-person high-speed chair lift to increase capacity and reduce wait times on the mountain. The lift is named Stella and runs on the mountain's Outback Bowl.
"Skiers and riders on the mountain, when they go up the backside they'll be able to get up that much quicker," Mirus says.
People have been skiing at Schweitzer since the 1930s, but it wasn't until 1963 that the mountain officially opened as a ski area. The resort has grown rapidly in the years since and has managed to escape the consolidation and corporate consolidation that's gripped much of the ski industry in recent years, Mirus says.
"Schweitzer owns all the property that we operate on," Mirus says. "And we're independently owned and pretty proud of that fact."
SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE
There's a ton of stuff to do at Schweitzer. With 192 named trails and 3,000 acres, you could spend an entire season at the resort and not do the same run twice.
For pro skiers, the mountain is especially known for its tree skiing and high-angle grooming, Mirus says.
At just over 2 miles long, the Little Blue Ridge ski run is the resort's longest run and a good choice for intermediate skiers, Mirus says.
For beginners, the mountain also has plenty of mellow green runs. Mirus also recommends beginners sign up for the resort's famous snow sports school, which offers private and group lessons for a variety of ages and skill levels.
If you're looking for a break from skiing and snowboarding, try checking out Schweitzer's 100-yard tubing hill at Hermit's Hollow. Some of the resort's new snowmaking guns will be aimed at the tubing hill, making it accessible and well-powdered throughout the season.
The resort is also expanding its child care facilities by 15 percent this year. The mountain's Children's Center is a fully licensed child care facility for kids 4 months to 6 years old. It has a variety of indoor and outdoor programs for both visitors and the children of resort employees.
"The Northwest from Spokane to Sandpoint is just growing organically in a pretty drastic way, and we're seeing visitation and interest in Schweitzer growing along with that," Mirus says. "So we're trying to get ahead of that growth so the experience at Schweitzer stays the same." ♦
Q&A
SCHWEITZER'S SEAN MIRUS
FUN BIT OF HISTORY?
The town of Sandpoint was founded based on the logging and the mills that came to this area at the turn of this century. Before Schweitzer was a ski area, this was all timberland just covered in forest. Just embracing the roots in our region is important to us. The new hotel, Humbird, is named after the original mill.
WEIRDEST NAME FOR A RUN?
The one that comes to mind isn't a run, but it's our newest food and beverage outlet that we just opened last winter. It's called the Rowdy Grouse. In North Idaho and Washington, we have a lot of grouse, which are the birds that run around on the ground. We've had a couple of what I would call "rowdy grouse" that would literally run around on the ski runs and approach skiers and tap at them and be a little bit ornery. If you ask any of the locals around here if they've had an interaction with a rowdy grouse, I'm betting a good percentage of them probably have a story to go along with it.
MOST POPULAR MENU ITEM?
You know, we are in Idaho so probably the loaded baked potatoes at the Outback, which is one of our day lodges. You can only get to it via skis and snowboard. And then the noodle bowl up at Sky House, which is our top-of-mountain restaurant, where you can actually see into Washington and over into Montana and even up into Canada. A nice noodle bowl on a cold winter day definitely hits the spot.
Sean Mirus is Schweitzer's marketing and special events director.
