Time to hit the slopes: Take a look at area ski resorts opening doors to the winter season

For skiers and snowboarders, Spokane is a strategic location. Few cities in the nation can match the proximity, variety, quality and affordability of choices for skiing and riding. Roads leading to mountain resorts that average 300 inches of snow or more a season fan out from the city like spokes on a wheel.

Rise early, pick your direction and drive. Before long you will arrive at a winter destination with a look and feel that can only be found exactly at that time and place. Skiing and riding have a rich history in the Inland Northwest. And every season brings something new at every mountain. Here’s everything you need to know, until you find out more for yourself, starting with your closest choice:

Mount Spokane Ski and Snowboard Park

Website: www.mtspokane.com

Distance from city center: 28 miles

Drive Time: 55 minutes

Overview: Every ski town has its icon and Mount Spokane looms above the city with top-of-mind awareness. You don’t need a webcam to know what kind of day you’re going to have. Simply looking north will tell you. If you have to work during the day, Mount Spokane is also the only local hill with the most opportunity to ski and ride at night, Wednesday through Saturday, from mid-December through early March.

The biggest news is last week’s approval by the Washington State Parks Commission for a new chairlift and 279 acres of additional terrain. Tree skiing on other parts of the mountain’s backside should also improve as measures are taken for fire suppression and forest health.

Spokane’s hometown hill is operated by the nonprofit Mount Spokane 2000. After operating expenses are paid, all revenue is plowed back into the guest experience. The impact of the commission’s decision won’t be apparent on Mount Spokane this season, but when you get there you will find more changes at a ski area that continues to improve on and off the snow.

On the snow, the new Natural Terrain Park can be found in the trees on skier’s right of Lamonga Pass just off Crash & Burn. All the features are made from downed timber on site that was either used as-is, or milled to its purpose. The hits, jibs, bonks, rails and wall rides loop through the trees to an exit further down Lamonga Pass.

Lodge One has also gotten a little attention this year, with new paint and interior work. In Lodge Two, you’ll notice more improvements in food quality and customer service, new retail offerings and a greater variety of demo options from the rental department.

Website: ski49n.com

Distance from city center: 59 miles

Drive time: 1 hour, 20 minutes

Overview: West Side resorts such as Crystal Mountain and Stevens Pass get the national attention, but 49 Degrees North is one of our best-kept secrets with the most lift-accessible terrain – 2,325 acres – in the state of Washington. In the past seven years, two chairlifts and more than 500 acres of new terrain have been added, including vast swaths of what 49 Degrees North is best known for: Excellent tree skiing.

Last summer, crews were busy building new features and revamping existing ones for an expanded terrain park that mountain management said will continue to grow and change throughout the season.

The food has always been good in a lodge that serves the Macho Nacho (seeing is believing). Let’s hope it’s still available from a completely revamped food and beverage operation that will offer new café and bar menus this season. The resort has also announced a new high-performance rental fleet with big mountain skis and boards in the latest innovative shapes.

Website: silvermt.com

Distance from city center: 72 miles

Drive Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes

Overview: The Silver Valley may only be about 70 miles away, but the vibe at Silver Mountain feels a long way from home once you’re there. It may be because of the European flavor of the gondola ride to the slopes. Or the incongruity of a water park where it’s always 84 degrees inside, no matter how far the mercury plummets outside. You can have it all during a mini-vacation based out of a condominium in downtown Kellogg at the gondola village.

Silver Mountain has always offered a big variety of terrain on two peaks in a relatively small package. This season two great new fall lines that were roughed out last year are cleaned up, widened and completed. You’ll find Shady Lady as you go down Silver Belt from the top of chair two, just past the last gate to the North Face Glades and before you reach Rendezvous.

Bootlegger drops from near the top of the Ridge Run serviced by Chair 4, just past Centennial. When you reach Moonshine, you’ve gone too far, but that’s OK. If you like steep and deep, drop there. Sign up for the First Tracks program on Saturdays and you could hit it before everyone else does, after an early-morning breakfast.

Website: skilookout.com

Distance from city center: 96 miles

Drive time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Overview: Lookout Pass may be on the frontier, straddling the state line between Idaho and Montana, but its remote location just happens to be right under where storms coming in from the coast stall against cold continental air and unload deep powder. Lookout is renowned for its snow, and it’s the most affordable choice among the area’s mountains.

Most of the terrain at Lookout is perfect for mellow cruising, which combined with easy access right off I-90 and low prices, makes the mountain popular with families. But you need a steep pitch to get the most fun from its deep powder, and the North Star lift provides access to expert terrain on the prime north aspect of the mountain.

Next to high-quality powder and early-season openings, Lookout’s claim to fame is its Free Ski School, which has introduced more than 60,000 kids to skiing and riding over the past 73 seasons. It’s also where you can ski down one run in Idaho and then ski in Montana down the next one.

Nothing is overtly new at Lookout this season. But the resort’s owners have been busy expanding over the past 10 years to three times its original size. Further expansion proposals are in the works and someday in the future terrain may extend to two adjacent peaks.

Website: schweitzer.com

Distance from city center: 88 miles

Drive Time: 2 hours

Overview: In a region of rustic no-frills hills, Schweitzer offers the Inland Northwest a little taste of the big-time. It’s a big place with high-speed lifts, spectacular Lake Pend Oreille views and a village filled with industry-standard lodging, restaurants, bars and amenities. You pay a lot more to ski and ride in this world, but if you do the mountain right, you get what you pay for.

To take in all of Schweitzer in a day, it’s best to start early and keep moving. On a clear day with fresh snow, no other local ski area offers you more. On other days, because of the resort’s size, variety of aspects and changes in elevation, you can often migrate from an area where conditions are dicey to another where the visibility and snow quality are excellent.

An extensive snow-making system gives Schweitzer a clear advantage for getting a jump on the season. The resort opened with limited operations last weekend. Another feature you won’t find anywhere else around here is a snowcat operation. Selkirk Powder Company, headquartered near the summit of the Great Escape Quad, takes customers into several thousand acres out of bounds above the Middle Fork Valley.

Schweitzer invested more than $1 million in mountain improvements this year. Most of them won’t be too obvious. Pavement in the main parking lot and new bathrooms for the tubing hill are the most significant changes. The snow-making system’s capacity has also been upgraded.