Mission Ridge and White Pass Beacon Parks

I just thought I would point out that Mission Ridge and White Pass both have extremely under-advertised Beacon Parks as well.

Unfortunately you have to have a lift pass to use either one, because they are near the top of the mountain.  Neither one is labelled or straight forward. 

At White I asked the patrollers where to go, and I still couldn't find it until a patroller took me there.  To get to the White Pass park you head down the main trail that leads to the backside, but you go straight into the trees left of the slow sign where the trail curves to the main runs on the back.  There is a box on a pole and you have to open the case and flip the switches of the beacons you want to look for.  Unfortunately this is only effective practice until you memorize the locations of their beacons, but it is still worth  checking out.  The search area is roped off and it is significantly smaller than Alpental.  You also don't receive the positive sirens when you hit a box, and it doesn't time you.  I found that the boxes were pretty easy to feel, and I used the stopwatch on watch to time myself, so although it is not quite as slick it was still good practice.  Some of the switches seem to short out sometimes because I would not get a signal, and then I would turn the same switch off and on again and receive one.  It is also a little confusing because they have 8 switches, but not all of them are wired in, so you have to experiment until you get a signal.  It works best to have two people because then you don't know which boxes are turned on. 

I don't have information on Missions, but I talked to a patroller and he said you have to ski down to it and it is on a slope, which is potentially more realistic than the other two flat parks.  He also mentioned that you need to check with the patrol shack at the top of the mountain, and they will turn it on for you.  They also have beacons (Trackers) for you to borrow as long as you leave a drivers license with them.

At Alpental you can do the ski down scenario but you need to walk uphill with your skis and have a partner hit the start button when you are ready . The big plus is you can use it 24/7 any day of the week regardless if the area is open. A night search is good to try with your headlamp when the ski hill lights are off.

Twenty years wandering around White and I didn't know that. : Thanks for the tip - sounds like it's right near the entrance to the Hogback skin.

I agree that it is way better that you can use the Alpental park without buying a lift ticket anytime you want to. I also don't understand why the ski areas aren't advertising and putting up signage for these parks. It seems that having better trained sidecountry and backcountry riders is only going to take away headaches from the ski patrol.

I found out about it from a website about the beacon parks from BCA that lists them all by state.

www.backcountryaccess.com/english/education/trainingpark.php

Supposedly Stevens, Baker, and Crystal have them as well.

I also don't understand why the ski areas aren't advertising and putting up signage for these parks.  It seems that having better trained sidecountry and backcountry riders is only going to take away headaches from the ski patrol. 

Perhaps some areas arranged the Beacon Basins just to train their patrols? And they see trained beacons users as more likely to go OB and be a patrol hassle or liability issue? It doesn't make sense to us BCers, but I'm trying to figure out their logic.