Summit Central at Snoqualmie Summit

Had my kid in a ski lesson. He had never been on a chair lift before. His instructor asked me to ride the lift with him, while she rode with another student in the lesson whose parents were nowhere to be found.
Ok I’ll help out and ride up with him. We get to the lift and just as the chair arrives the liftie tells me I can’t go up without gear. Huh? The lesson instructor then tells me oh sorry, maybe next time and takes off up the hill with the other student and leaves us there.
What the fuck? Why don’t instructors know the lift rules? Why don’t they have anyone to help a 5-​year-​old first-​timer ride the lift during a lesson I paid for? This place is run by idiots.
I can also add that there’s no reason to pay for lessons unless what you really want is babysitting. There’s no real instruction taking place, and most of the kids lessons are spent getting the worst skier in the group down the hill while everyone else stands around at the bottom bored.

Location is amazing since it is within a hour from Seattle. It has one of the largest night skiing in the nation so you can leave work at 5pm and still get a few hours of skiing in. The runs are a little short and daily ticket is pricey. Rental facility at Central is quite a nightmare with always a long line and not great quality equipment. BUT once again, it is amazing for being so close to the city.

It’s been a few years since I came to Snoqualmie, but man it doesn’t hold a candle to Crystal at all anymore.
It took my bf and I from 9:15 — 10:30 to get our tickets and set up with rentals on Dec. 30. Those lines are RIDICULOUS (don’t even get me started on the lunch wait or lift lines, though).
The price difference is so not worth it. Pay the extra $$$ and go to Stevens or Crystal. You’ll be actually doing things instead of spending half your day in line.

I visited during Christmas break and what a mistake. I waited in line for 3 hours just to rent skis. By the time I got my gear on and ready to go with three children I only had time for a few runs down the green slope before our ski pass ticket expired (it was good from 1 to 5 pm). The ski rental area was understaffed and poorly designed for the number of people who visited as we were packed in like sardines. We spent close to $ 500 for an hour of skiing.

I have been enjoying skiing at the Summit for a few years now. The experience however with the Corral Learning Center is, at times, unacceptable. The instructors try hard to keep things flowing when it is so disorganized. A person, who by the way learned later he is the manager, was very rude to me yesterday when I dropped off my son for a ski lesson.
Although I will go back to ski, I won’t be visiting the Kids Corral again.

Frequently disappointed in the park.

Great beer with a slope view at Whiskey Pete s.

Looking at all the ratings they didn’t get a good average so hopefully mine brings it up.
I really enjoyed summit central. The location was conveniently located near my cabin with a 5 minute drive to the base of the hill. Tons of parking even on a weekend.
Their prices are really reasonable and they give discount for military members/​government workers so super good deals on lift tickets and rentals (like $ 30.00 off).
They have great packages for beginners. $ 120.00 for 3 day ski lessons, all lift tickets and rentals. That alone is well worth it.
Really close to Seattle but do pick up supplies before you get here due to no grocery stores in the vicinity.
Staff is really awesome and they get an extra star just for that. All young guys and girls that really go out of their way to make your ski trip enjoyable. Really patient with people that don’t even know how to put ski boots on. Thanks guys.
Park opens at 9:00a and you can ski until 10:00p. How cool is that? The kids and I were the only ones skiing at night for about 2 hours.
I will definitely go back.
p.s.
Thanks justin for hooking up my kids and with the free rentals. You’re the best.

My first visit to Summit Central at Snoqualmie was a fun one! The biggest draw to the Snoqualmie ski spots is there are just so darned close to Seattle! My goodness, 45 minutes from downtown Seattle! can you beat it?! The drive up was quite spectacular. Once you are into the Mt. Baker/​Snoqualmie National forest the peaks really come into view! It was during a weekday (wed) so Summit West is closed and crowds were really at a minumum. The parking lot was pretty empty (again, weekeday) and located on the other side of the street than the actual hill. I did notice that people parked roadside perhaps to avoid having to cross the street. I have my own gear so have no input on what the rental shop staff and or gear was like. There is a nice fire pit next to the rental shop which I thought was a nice touch. Total damage for a day pass lift ticket was $ 40. It was my first runs of the year so I took it easy hitting the greens and working my way up to the blues. Again, being a weekday, not all the lifts or runs were open which was fine as I only had 2 hours or so before they closed. Some of the blue/​intermediate trails were not as clearly marked off as I would have liked and I did get a bit off course on one of the runs. Also, there was a few areas that flatten out a bit on some of the runs. However, I still had a lot of fun and so happy to squeeze in some snowboarding in the middle of the week.

I’ve skied Summit for the past 34 years — starting when I was a kid. The things you think are cool as a kid really get tiresome as an adult. Before this year, we had high hopes that Boyne would really improve the place, but instead kept the same tired old worn out management. The terrain park is a great idea but in the wrong place. Other ski areas create a dedicated area for the terrain park but this one is plopped right in the middle of the hill and have destroyed two inbounds runs. They manage to cut the entire hill in half — it is the only resort that you cannot ski from one side to another. They need to remove the saplings under the lifts and from the main runs in places you never want a tree. Please create a path so you can move around the mountain from one lift to another and back without hiking. Since this place is mainly intermediates., how about a run that goes from the top of one quad to the other as an intermediate, instead of a black diamond. With a hill that short and the low snow cover, summer and snow grooming are very important to do, not just write it on sign and say we do it, actually do it. Maybe next year

On the green course, they have an obsession with riding in 2’s. Yes there’s a long line, yes, you should maximize the amount of people on a chair, but c’mon, putting aside the one rider and making a big stink about it probably adds to the wait time.
Lift staff is incompetent. When I was getting off the green lift (has a steep ramp down, there was a kid right in my way. Instead of stopping the lift and letting the kid move, guy did absolutely nothing. I either had to get off and fall or run over the kid. C’mon son.
In general the staff seems pretty apathetic and unfriendly. A few of the people in the rental shop were friendly, but customer service is lacking for the most part.
Prefer Steven’s Pass much more.

I would give this place 4 stars but the rental area has issues. While the staff was nice and everything worked out fine, it was severely understaffed for a Saturday with fresh snow. I waited an hour to rent a snowboard. There was one guy doing boots and one guy doing boards. having to put in the bindings for each customer. It took forever and the rental room reeks of smelly feet from people leaving their shoes in there. Awful awful awful. I feel bad for the employees because they are hustling and working hard but the line was just so long. Management needs to staff it better.
As for the rest of the place — I really enjoyed my day here. The last time I snowboarded was 8 years ago at Bear Mountain in CA so I spent half of the day on my ass. I did have a fun time though and I have the bruises to show for it.
The lodge is kind of dirty and the food is overpriced, but what do you expect? The upstairs bar is pretty cool though — I had a hot chocolate with Malibu rum and whipped cream. Tasty!
The bathrooms, especially the men’s (which you can smell all the way from upstairs) reek of urine so badly that it’s just nauseating. They appear to be clean for the most part, but the smell is terrible. The whole bottom floor of the lodge smells like a urinal. They need to do something about that.

I had yet to use my snowboard this season, so I was more than stoked when a small group of co-​workers wanted to spend our Friday off on the slopes. The only other snow area at Snoqualmie that I have ever been to is Summit West — but after researching the web site, we decided that Summit Central was the place to be (since it offered the most «variety» for the different abilities.
We got there at 9 am (A real feat since I don’t think any of us get to work usually until 10), got ourselves lift tickets, rental gear, and lessons (for those that were learning). I found the area to be less developed — I’m not used to seeing 2-​person chair lifts. As a newbie to the area, and really just getting back my «snow legs», the terrain was great. The snow dump from the night before left a nice, soft top-​layer on most of the trails. Being unfamiliar with the terrain though, I was not so stoked to find some fairly flat trails.
By the afternoon though, the fresh trails were gone, and all that was left was hard packed ice. I fell miserably after getting of a lift on the nice patch of ice in the unloading area. I’m actually very annoyed that the lift operators weren’t breaking up the ice as they normally do under those conditions.
It’s always sad when the 50-​something co-​workers are more in shape than the 20-​somethings (i.e. ME). It was quite a struggle for me by the end of day, and I was more than happy to park myself at the bar with a Hot Apple Pie for an hour before heading home. We probably left at a good time, as the night skiing crowd started piling in (We think that maybe the evening ski schools use Central as their teaching facility.). There were definitely a lot more people coming into the ski area than there had been all day.
Probably more like 3 stars, but I’m giving an extra star because I had a great time. It isn’t always about the slopes and snow — the people matter too. I would say the company was definitely worth a star — if not more!
Update: We went back, and I won a Jameson Irish Whiskey t-​shirt from the J-​girls. Go me!

So, I clearly missed the memo that this is no longer called Ski Acres… but it’s about dang time.
It seems like they finally realized that there were neither skiers populating this hill nor one legitimate acre — let alone MANY acres of decent ski runs to justify such a misleading name.
Unless you are all about terrain parks, don’t let the promise of A high-​speed chair lift (as in singular) pull you in. If it were up to me, I would utilize their heated walkway to venture up to the fire pit and camp out at Whiskey Pete’s for the day. $ 4.75 for a 16oz beer is about the best deal you’ll find up there.