Ski Area Profiles: Loup Loup
‘Welcome to the Loup’
No strangers here
By Mary-Colleen Jenkins
Photo at right: Visitors enjoy expansive views from the top of Little Buck Mountain (elevation 5,348 feet). Photo by Mary-Colleen Jenkins
The Methow Valley is well known for its Nordic skiing, but hidden among the Ponderosa pines on Highway 20, between the small towns of Twisp and Okanogan, you will find the perfect spot to add a little downhill to your trip.
Loup Loup Ski Bowl is a non-profit ski area that may be among the smallest of Washington resorts, but it offers skiers a full day of fun in a gorgeous location with great snow, plentiful sunshine, and no lines.
The sign on the lodge greets locals and strangers alike, “Welcome to the Loup.”
Maybe it’s the size of the place or the non-profit status, but Loup Loup has a friendly vibe that you don’t often find at big resorts. It’s a community-focused ski area and tourists aren’t strangers, they’re just the new neighbors.
Loup Loup’s fixed quad lift leads to 10 cut runs that range from green to black. Even new skiers can take advantage of the beautifully groomed, long runs from the top. The black diamond runs offer a fun challenge for more experienced skiers, and there are fun tree runs that allow for additional exploration.
The platter surface tow makes for easy access to Loup Loup’s terrain park. Kids can spend hours looping up the poma, through the jumps, and back again. Even the littlest rippers can independently navigate the tow rope by the lodge, while parents bask in the sun at the picnic tables out front.
You don’t have to be an alpine skier to have a great time at Loup Loup, which has a tubing hill and 23 kilometers of cross country trails that can be accessed directly from the parking lot. Two Washington State Sno-Parks are just two miles away.
Amenities
Loup Loup offers lessons, rentals and ski repairs, and has a rustic lodge with a concession stand for hot food, beer and wine and gigantic salads. The lodge is warm, busy, and refreshingly egalitarian—no brown-bag segregation here!
If You Go
Loup Loup Ski Bowl: www.skitheloup.com
Okanogan Country Tourism: www.okanogancountry.com
Twisp: www.twispinfo.com
Central Reservations: www.centralreservations.net
Washington State Sno-Parks: www.parks.wa.gov/winter/trails/?TrailType=snowplay
Mary-Colleen Jenkins is a freelance writer from Seattle.
