jimk
Active member
I skied five out of six days last week at Schweitzer Mtn, ID. It was my first ever visit to Schweitzer. It was as beautiful as advertised. The skiable acreage (2,900 acres, 2,400' vertical, top elevation 6,400') was more impressive than I expected. The front face of the mtn features quite a bit of above tree line or nearly treeless terrain. It's a huge half-bowl. The backside is a similar giant half-bowl, but features more treed terrain. I caught two mostly sunny ski days and three fairly snowy/lower viz ski days. It snowed about six overnight inches of somewhat heavy snow before each of my last three ski days. Skiing this increasingly deep-ish snow in the offpiste was very challenging for me and I was leg-weary by my last morning of skiing, Saturday, 22 March 2025.
17 Mar 2025 Schweitzer approach road, impressive snowpack. At the base of the mtn, about 4000' below, there was virtually none.
View of base area with magnificent Lake Pend Oreille (Pond-der-ray) in the background. Perhaps the most impressive lake view I've ever seen from the 100 ski areas I've visited.
Looking up at the central part of the front face of the mtn from the base village.
My son heading down the front face of the mtn.
Again, on the frontside, the lake shore is barely visible in the upper background.
The upper lookers left of the front face.
Looking up the Lakeview chair lift line on the front face.
Other direction, March 18th. Lake covered by low clouds in the early AM.
A view across a section of the backside of the mtn. This was earlier in the week when the offpiste was dryer/friendlier.
View down the impressively steep Colburn Triple chair lift line on the backside of the mtn. The terrain depicted in the prior photo above is in background.
Excellent and copious tree skiing on the backside of the mtn.
More on the backside over by the Cedar Park Express chair.
Even from parts of the backside you can see the lake. It's 1,150' deep (5th deepest in the US) and nearly 45 miles long.
to be continued...
17 Mar 2025 Schweitzer approach road, impressive snowpack. At the base of the mtn, about 4000' below, there was virtually none.
View of base area with magnificent Lake Pend Oreille (Pond-der-ray) in the background. Perhaps the most impressive lake view I've ever seen from the 100 ski areas I've visited.
Looking up at the central part of the front face of the mtn from the base village.
My son heading down the front face of the mtn.
Again, on the frontside, the lake shore is barely visible in the upper background.
The upper lookers left of the front face.
Looking up the Lakeview chair lift line on the front face.
Other direction, March 18th. Lake covered by low clouds in the early AM.
A view across a section of the backside of the mtn. This was earlier in the week when the offpiste was dryer/friendlier.
View down the impressively steep Colburn Triple chair lift line on the backside of the mtn. The terrain depicted in the prior photo above is in background.
Excellent and copious tree skiing on the backside of the mtn.
More on the backside over by the Cedar Park Express chair.
Even from parts of the backside you can see the lake. It's 1,150' deep (5th deepest in the US) and nearly 45 miles long.
to be continued...
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