People to ride with at Stevens Pass, in Washington State

I'm a long-time snowboarder. I live in Bellingham, WA, the city of subdued excitement, and switched over to riding snow skates about four years ago. Last season (2010/2011), the general manager at Mt. Baker, my local mountain, decided that snow skates were unfit for his chair lifts (I had ridden there two years in a row before it became an issue), which is unlike every other mountain in the state. He thought to call me up to tell me this, and suggested that I give it up and ride a snowboard. This was dutifully written up in Starfish, the snowskate mag, but it hasn't changed their policy. I'm also old enough to remember that type of discrimination, and when Mt. Baker was the progressive resort that let snowboarders like Terry Kidwell, purple spandex tights and all, on the mountain. If Mt. Baker wants to be like Deer Valley, fine, but it still was a sad day to realize that it was no longer the resort for me. I won't support Mt. Baker financially until this policy changes.

So now I ride at Stevens Pass. I have a short freestyle deck (Danny Kass 36") and a longer Florida Powderskate. I mostly stick to blue runs as tackling black diamonds with no bindings are a bit out of my reach so far. I love powder days, the only days I get out the Powderskate.

I'd really like to meet other people to go riding at Stevens Pass in Washington State. I've met a few of the locals at Stevens but haven't got their email addresses / magic ten digits thus I'm still looking for people to ride with.

I'd ask that you like riding trees, particularly the squirrel trail at Stevens and all the similar sweet spots. I don't ride park much but occasionally will have a go; not having bindings makes rail slides a whole other challenge.I'm also as fast as I can be on a snowskate, but that's not necessarily as fast as someone on an all mountain board who's bombing the run.

This year I'm probably going to be on the Muffin Run bus on Tuesdays, starting in January. Meeting at the mountain or on the bus would be fine. Alternatively, I'd be happy to share driving duties from Bellingham on other days than Tuesday.