Steven's is thinking of reopening.

I noted on the web cam that since this morning that they have turned on the heaters under the pavement. Seems like a good sign it will be opening. Strange that with the deep snow pack, the positive forecast, etc. that they have yet to announce. <br><br>Must be lots of logistics to overcome.<br><br>Alan<br><br>P.S. seems to be lot of animosity towards this ski area! Especially from people who haven't bought season passes lift tickets nor skied it for some time.<br><br>I don't know much about the history of ski areas in the PNW (I ought to get onto Lowell's site and do the reading), but I think that they are all out to make a buck. Always found the service to be fine at Stevens and the other lift areas. One thing is that the terrain there seems to exceed that of some of the others except maybe Crystal, but then I will claim ignorance on that point since I am sure it will start a flame war.

I have to agree with BigSnow about all the negativity about Steven's Pass. All these ski areas are in business for profit. I find it kind of ironic that a bunch of backcountry skiers are harping about the high price of a season pass. Buying a pass is an assumed risk and most of the time it is an incredible bargain if you ski alot. It's disappointing that so many people in this world seem to always want something for nothing. End of rant. Thread drift- I have a season's pass at Mission Ridge, today after skiing I talked to the operations guy before going home. He said they had no plans to reopen, they had thought about it, but it just wasn't worth it. I thought to my self, good! Running a bunch of groomers over this beautiful snow would be a crime.

Confirmation of the obvious:<br> www.stevenspass.com <br>[hr]<br>REOPENING ALPINE - Saturday & Sunday, April 2-3, Limited Operations!<br>Just when we thought spring was here to stay, we are back in winter with more snow than we have seen in some time, 32" new since Sunday with a base total of 47". We will be reopening for limited operations this weekend, Saturday & Sunday, April 2-3, 9am to 4pm, conditions permitting. <br>**Rental equipment will NOT be available** <br>Lifts scheduled to operate:<br>SkyLine, Hogsback, 7th Heaven & Tye Mill.<br>Lifts will access primarily intermediate, advanced and expert terrain. No lift accessed beginner terrain will be available! <br>There will be no terrain park features or pipe available. <br><br>Lift Prices, 9am - 4pm:<br>Adult - $30, Youth - $18, Senior - $21 <br>[hr]<br>Per the other aspect to this thread - please cut Stevens a break. They really did try hard this year. Everyone I've ever met that works there is really, really nice. And they've also sunk a lot more into infrastructure like nice lodges, which has value to some of us (like those of us with kids, that will be spending lots of time and money in said lodges just as part of the givens of skiing with kids.) In terms of their ownership they had the bad luck to be hitched to a company that's a lot more concerned with unloading a bunch of Yuppie realestate in Belltown that they paid too much for in the dotcom bubble than they are with their skiing operations, rather than being hitched to a company that has other ski mountains they've made a killing from this year.

I've got no particular axe to grind with any of the ski areas, but I do wonder about opening in the absence of 1) rental equipment, and 2) beginner terrain. Seems quite bizarre, since people are bound to show up expecting one or both.

I would expect that Business/Karma is going to bite Stevens in the years to come:<br><br> seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/outdoors/...9_nwwtrailmix14.html

"Wear long pants. And wear them somewhere other than Stevens Pass." <br><br>This is mainly aimed at this last sentence. As a very happy Summit passholder, I agree with the sentiments in the piece, but encouraging customers to head elsewhere in print (Sunday circulation: 469,853, plus Web, etc.) because a business didn't give a big enough discount is garbage, IMHO. If you're going to take on a business like that in such a forum, I'd prefer to see a little more justification.