Bill Jennings: Here’s to the year’s best of the best

After taking full advantage of a memorable winter, it’s time for a debriefing. I made the rounds, distributing my days evenly at the local hills.

Sometimes I visit a friend in Colorado for a weekend in the rarified air of Vail and Beaver Creek. The trip helps me understand that on the snow, our mountains offer everything these glamorous resorts do – without airfare, hotel bills, $85 lift tickets or $10 pints of ale.

Here’s my take on the best of Inland Northwest snow riding for 2006-07, in no particular order. You’re encouraged to disagree, via the e-mail address below.

Best snow: Lookout Pass. A microclimate bestows Lookout with lighter, drier powder, and lots of it.

Best grooming: Great material to work with makes Lookout’s corduroy surface unmatched. It’s velvety smooth in the morning and holds up well throughout the day.

Best powder day: Closed for two days, Mt. Spokane released the hounds on 2 feet of accumulation on Feb. 28 – and it was still snowing. Honorable mention: Two days of untouched accumulation totaled 14 inches at 49 Degrees North on March 2 – topped off with blue sky and sunshine.

Best variety: A tie. It’s hard to get bored on about 3,000 acres at Schweitzer. Choose from long cruisers, 40-degree steeps, open bowls and more gladed terrain than ever this year. Silver Mountain is variety on a smaller scale, with higher-quality snow, more consistent visibility and fewer snow riders per acre.

Best run: The Meadows route off Wardner Peak at Silver Mountain is Inland Northwest skiing at its finest. You get a traverse with panoramic views and tempting drops, a protected bowl full of powder, followed by a roller-coaster ride through the woods that spits you into a mogul field. What more could you want? Another lap.

Best speed: Schweitzer has the vertical drop and wide boulevards conducive to flat-out ripping. Express lifts help set a frenetic pace. Just point ‘em downhill, keep your head up and hope you don’t get your pass pulled.

Best trees: Without hairy steeps for the hardcores, 49 Degrees North focuses on what its managers call “prime skier habitat.” Gladed slopes on all aspects range from steep and tight to open and easy. I skied 49 in fresh powder on Feb. 25 for five hours straight and never left the trees.

Best new terrain: 49 Degrees North serves up a treat with Left Wing in the new Sunrise Basin. Left Wing is an enchanted forest of big mature cedars with generous space in between, on a rolling slope with an ideal pitch for powder. Honorable mention: The lift goes in this summer on the north aspect of Lookout Pass, some of the truest fall lines around.

Best bumps: Mt. Spokane’s Two Face is the region’s longest, steepest mogul field – and with the bumps right under the lift, a chance for either glory or humiliation. Honorable mention: Shorter yet more intense, Silver Mountain runs like Eureka, Corkscrew, Jackass and Lower Shaft will make you sweat.

Best fuel: Fully loaded, the burrito at Schweitzer’s Lakeview Lodge cafeteria is bigger than a Chihuahua – stuffed full of beef or chicken marinated in Verde sauce with all the trimmings. At $6.95 it’s the best bang for your buck anywhere. Honorable mention: Nachos in the Boomtown Bar at 49 Degrees North. Two starving ski bums can’t eat ‘em all.

Best community asset: Mt. Spokane is unique in that it is run by a non-profit organization committed to the best interests of the snow-riding public. Proximity, low prices and variety of programs make it easy for anyone to experience the mountains in winter.

Not ready to quit? Silver Mountain plans to open on Saturdays as long as people show up or the snow melts – whichever comes first. I’m stowing my gear satisfied, with no regrets. Thanks for joining me.