DOWNHILL SKIING & SNOWBOARDING

Just 30 minutes from the town of Winthrop is one of the Pacific Northwest's best kept downhill ski secrets, the Loup Loup Ski Bowl. The lift tickets are affordable, the lodge and lifts are family-friendly and the terrain is surprisingly extensive and variable. The Loup (as the locals call it) offers 1,240 vertical feet with ten cut runs, as well as 23 km of groomed nordic ski trails. Rentals and lessons are available at the always-friendly ski shop.

The Loup is the kind of ski hill where you can set your family members free, knowing you will easily reconvene at the base, and you'll never stand in a lift line for more than three minutes. There is a quad chairlift, a poma lift and rope tow - not to mention the popular tubing hill and terrain park. For more information and directions, visit: www.skitheloup.com