2004 DTR - Stevens Pass, Washington

Just a couple hours from the beautiful city of Seattle lies the winter playground known as Stevens Pass. This is a pretty cool place. The constant snow that falls here builds some very interesting formations making the whole mountain a natural snowboard park. Like something out of a Dr. Seuss book, there were toadstools and mushroom-like creatures everywhere. If you take a look at the many different ridges that make up the ski area, you will also see the steepest chutes imaginable. Big snow bubbles cover the rocks and trees giving this place a kind of spooky feel to it. Add a wicked troll, some rabid mountain goats and one angry snow pirate and you got yourself one mean episode of Xena, Warrior Princess.

Stevens does a good job of making their mountain snowboarder-friendly. East Coast transplant Matt Gormley took over park detail this year giving Stevens Pass the best park in the entire Northwest. Everything was perfect; the natural mountain features give the jumps and rails the extra bling you wont find anywhere else. We put our new Analog unitard jumpsuits to the test here and Lucky got to be Stormshadow and I was Snake Eyes. You make the call here, janitor or commando. See pictures.

As usual the promotion went better than we could have hoped for. Indeed, people do love free gear. But here at Snowboarder Magazine, you first must prove your loyalty. In this case blood was drawn over a free subscription. Children also got their first taste of gambling as they played blackjack for DVDs. Twelve-year-olds can't gamble for shit. The gambler himself once said," You gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, know when to run." In this case we are going to run, straight to Mt. Baker and our last stop in the U.S.

SNOWBOARDER Magazine's Best of Stevens Pass
Best night riding
Strong contender for best park