White Pass

White Pass's summit reaches 6,549 feet, dropping 2,048 vertical feet to a base at 4,501 feet across 45 runs spread over 1,402 acres at the crest of the Washington Cascades, between Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens. Terrain splits 60 per cent intermediate, 20 per cent advanced and 20 per cent beginner, with no expert-rated runs, and average annual snowfall of roughly 400 inches. The resort carries Powder Alliance affiliation. Seven lifts, including three quad chairs and one triple chair, serve the mountain alongside one double chair and two surface lifts.

White Pass's position between two of the Cascades' most famous volcanic peaks gives it a distinctive scenic backdrop uncommon among Washington resorts. Its intermediate-weighted, expert-free terrain has built a reputation as a genuinely family-friendly mountain relative to some of the state's steeper Cascade areas. The resort's continued local ownership, unusual among Pacific Northwest ski areas of its size, has kept its focus on serving the Yakima Valley community directly.

The ski area was founded by the Yakima Valley Ski Club on US Forest Service land. In 1952, founders Bob Smith, Bob Vaa and Lars Holmberg formed the club and secured Forest Service permission to clear more than 600 acres for the resort, which officially opened on 11 January 1953, the same period a new road through the pass was being built into what would become US Highway 12.

In 1956, the Smiths sold their share of the ski area to a group of investors, the same year the resort's first chairlift was installed. White Pass has maintained local ownership through most of its history, and in December 2022 a Yakima-based partnership of Andrew Sundquist, David Severn, Dan Plath, Adam Dolsen and Patrick Smith acquired 100 per cent of White Pass Co. Inc.'s stock, keeping the resort in local hands after the previous owners had spent several years seeking a new generation of local investment. Adult daily tickets run from 75 to 95 US dollars, with season passes from 299 dollars.