Where In The PNW Were David, Theo & Ruby On Martin Luther King Day?

In incoming email this morning, from Tacoma.

Subject line: "Easy One".

Seeing the subject line and also seeing that photos were attached I knew that I was going to be seeing some photos the location of which should be easy for me to guess, unlike previous instances where I was befuddled.

The text in the email: "Where in the Pacific Northwest were David, Theo & Ruby for Martin Luther King Day?"

Well.

I looked at the photos and quickly felt fairly certain I was looking at photos taken in the Snoqualmie Summit zone of the Washington Cascades.

For those unfamiliar with mountains, with their nearest mountains hundreds of miles distant, Snoqualime Summit is the high point of what is known as a mountain pass. As in a pass over a mountain range.

In the Snoqualmie Summit mountain pass case this is the mountain pass Interstate 90 passes over the Cascade Mountains on its way from Seattle, across America, to the East Coast.

There are several ski resorts in the Snoqualmie Summit zone. The only one whose name I remember is Hyak. Let me Google and see if I can find the names of the current Snoqualmie Summit ski resorts.

Oh my, I have been gone too long from my old home zone. Apparently Hyak no longer exists. Hyak is now called Summit East. The other three ski resorts at Snoqualmie Pass are Summit West, Summit Central and Alpental.

Alpental existed when I still lived in the neighborhood, but I forgot the name, only remembering the now no longer in existence Hyak.

The Snoqualmie ski resort zone is a little over 50 miles east of downtown Seattle, accessed via freeway, thus making going skiing a doable thing after work, what with night skiing. Or any time one has some free time and is in the mood to do some slippery sliding whilst trying to keep warm.

That photo at the top is what I believe to be a moving sidewalk type device which brings people wanting to have fun on the snow up a mountain in order to slide back down the mountain. On the moving snow sidewalk, in the front, that is my little sister, mama Michele, leading niece Ruby, and nephews Theo and David.

What follows are a few photos of what David, Theo and Ruby did after reaching the end of that moving snow sidewalk.

Ruby appears to have successfully tubed down the groomed slope. I do not know if that is one of Ruby's brothers coming down behind her in the next lane.

Above we see Theo, Ruby and David taking a break from sliding to pose for a photo to send to their favorite uncle. Well, one of their favorite uncles.

Above appears to be the winter equivalent of what I did with David, Theo and Ruby the last time I was in Washington, August of 2017, when we built sand castles at Birch Bay. Here it appears the twins and David are constructing an igloo. I've no clue how they have managed to make blocks of snow. I just now noticed, Ruby is throwing a snowball, which the photo caught in mid air. I hope the snowball did not hit mama Michele.

So far at my current location we have not had enough snow stick to the ground to warrant opening the Mount Wichita Ski Resort, or that covered moving snow sidewalk which takes one to the summit for a slide back down the mountain.

Winter is about a third gone.

I suspect Winter will turn to Spring at my location without there ever being enough snow to open the Mount Wichita Ski Resort....

UPDATE: Upon further examination it appears that in the photo at the top that the entity identified as David, behind mama Michele, Ruby and Theo, is actually mama Kristen. David's whereabouts in the photo are unknown, but is suspected he is behind mama Kristen, helping attend to the collection of tubed sliding devices.

UPDATE 2: Apparently there is still a ski area at Snoqualmie Summit using the Hyak name, as in Hyak Sno Park.

UPDATE 2 Addendum: Hyak is not a ski area, those are the Summit names. Hyak is a “Sno Park” meaning it’s run by the state and you need a pass to park there, but the parking lot gets plowed and the restrooms are nice. People take off on cross country skis from there. There’s an old rail road track or something that cuts through the trees that’s perfect for hikers,/snowshoers,/XC skiers. But not downhill, that’s all at the three summit places and Alpental.

UPDATE 3: The correct name for the afore referenced Moving Snow Sidewalk is Magic Snow Carpet.

David Theo & Ruby Snoqualmie Summit Snow Fun

David on the left, Ruby in the Red Tube
with Theo on the right

At my old home zone location of Western Washington there are these things called mountains.

Mountains any direction one looks.

To the west the Olympic Mountains on the Olympic Peninsula.

To the east and south the Cascade Mountains.

At my old home location in the Skagit Valley I could drive a few miles to the east and be in a cross country ski zone, or a few miles to the west and be on a saltwater beach.

My Favorite Nephews, David and Theo, and Favorite Niece, Ruby, live in Tacoma, walking distance from the south end of Puget Sound.

Last night David, Theo and Ruby's mom, my Favorite Little Sister Michele, emailed me some pics, with the subject line of "Snow Fun".

The text in the email explained what I was looking at in the pictures....

We went tubing at Snoqualmie Summit yesterday and then played in the snow at the Hyak Sno-Park. Super fun.  And just over an hour from our house.  I know you like things like this, so I thought I'd send some pics.

To which I replied....

I had not seen snow lanes for tubes before. That must be a new invention since last I was in that snow zone.

Theo trekking rather than taking the Magic Carpet

To  which my little sister further elaborated....

Yeah, I’d been hearing about the tubing center for a few years, but this was our first visit.  You have to make reservations and buy a ticket for a two hour session. They have 5 or 6 sessions that all seem to sell out.  They really hit on something.  It used to have a rope tow to get you and your rental tube back to the top, but now it is a Magic Carpet. 

David ready to be launched

The mention of a Magic Carpet had me questioning....

Magic Carpet????

Ruby taking a break at (I'm guessing) the Hyak Sno-Park

The Magic Carpet question had my little sister explaining....

Think of a narrow, enclosed, moving sidewalk, but it is carpeted. It is weird, cuz you can feel the rollers under your feet.

This Magic Carpet thing intrigued me. The only means by which I have ever been transported up a snow covered mountain has been via chairlift, rope tow or gondola.

It did not take much Googling to find out that the ski resort  at the summit of Snoqualmie Pass is now called The Summit at Snoqualmie. I can not remember what this ski area was named whilst I still lived in the neighborhood. There are several ski resorts in the Snoqualmie Pass Summit area, in addition to The Summit at Snoqualmie, such as Hyak and  Alpental.

On The Summit at Snoqualmie website I found the conveyance which transports tubers up the hill referred to as the Magic Carpet, with it being explained as "our convenient covered conveyor surface lift that whisks you to the top of the hill..."

Seems like this Magic Carpet thing must be quite a feat of engineering, somehow adjusting to the ever changing snow depth.

The last time I was on a chair lift at Snoqualmie Summit it was not to go skiing. At some point in time in the late 1990s, myself, and some fellow mountain bikers, rode the chair lift up the mountain to easily access some extremely bumpy trails. The chairs were retrofitted to hold a bike, which rode on the chair ahead of the one the rider rode to the top.

As I recollect a large number of bikers were using this elevation gaining method. I remember the long ride back to start was a lot of fun. I do not remember how many times I took my bike up the chair lift that day....