You Are Here: Snoqualmonix

 
What is Snoqualmonix?

Well, for one thing, it’s a sandwich you can find the Laconia Market on Snoqualmie Pass. Baguette, brie, apple, prosciutto. Get it warmed up in the oven. Heavenly.

It’s also the name that some of the locals around here have started to champion for the steep, rugged mountains around Snoqualmie Pass. The name is a combination of Snoqualmie, and Chamonix; the famous mountain village in France that is widely considered the epicenter of extreme skiing and alpinism. My dear friend, the late Garret Van Swearingen, who lived in a literal chalet on the flanks of Guye Peak, started Laconia Market with his wife and friends, and treated these mountains as a playground for skiing, paragliding, mountain biking and trail running, was especially fond of the nickname. In his spirit, I’ll continue to back the moniker. 

There are places in this world that are littered with accessible skiing, there are places where everything is far too gnarly. But here, in Snoqualmonix, there’s a little bit of accessible skiing, there’s a little bit of stuff that’s far too rugged, and then there is this vast grey area, where it’s not particularly accessible, but it’s also not too outlandish to even be considered. It’s the goldilocks zone, where the enterprising backcountry skier and ski mountaineer can draw endless lines on a perpetually shifting canvas. Once you get the classics in the bag, it’s time to try to get first tracks on them in good conditions. Then you start in on the lines that take a little more vision and creativity, eventually finding yourself where I am, having skied these mountains for decades, watching certain lines and faces, waiting patiently, hoping that the perfect set of conditions will line up to allow for something truly unconventional.

And in the meantime, why not go out for a nice rip in the powder? 

Did I mention that these mountains are frequently blessed with one of the deepest snowpacks in the country? Even the world?

With a base elevation that often keeps the freezing levels right on the cusp, the snow here is dense. Your Colorado skier will bemoan the density. Your Northwest aficionado will point to the sheer cliffs with scraggy trees that magically turn into walls of playful pillows and shreddy spines. As the nearby houses lose their first story or two to the 400+ inch average snowfall, the most remarkable mountain features transform from death-traps, to playgrounds. Much of this region is unnavigable in the dry season, but there come days in March and April on a big year, where it’s hard to find anything that couldn’t potentially be skied, so snow-plastered is the landscape. 

We often say to each other on the climb up to these ski descents: ‘If this pass were a thousand feet higher, and the north sides of these peaks were visible from the road, this would be one of the most famous ski-touring destinations in the lower 48.’ And we thank our lucky stars that neither of these things are the case.

Here, you have to go to know. You have to see it with your own eyes, which, once opened, will never forget.

This is a collection of pairings, representing a deep love and appreciation for the backcountry skiing and snowboarding in Snoqualmonix. In each of these image pairings, there’s a person sliding on snow. Often in optimal conditions. You want to be that person in that moment. But that feeling of freedom, floating, flying on snow is only part of the equation. The second image is focused on where that action is taking place. The objective gloriousness of the setting. Deep in a mountain-splitting couloir, hemmed in by cliffs hundreds of feet high on all sides. At the the tip-top of an impossible needle of snow. Slashing down churning sea of frozen waves that would have any surfer frothing. To be an active participant in a landscape of immense scale and unrivaled beauty. Some call skiing an art. I won’t argue.

Here is the canvas in all of its glory. What will you do with it?

You are here: Snoqualmonix

Opens Friday Dec 6th

5-9pm