Summit At Snoqualmie Tubing Center

Went on Sunday 21 Feb at 1.30 PM. I felt like I spent the entire time standing in a line. When you arrive there is a big line to fill out the liability form (why not collect it online first?). Then there is a big line to get into the tubing area. Once in the tubing area, my feeling was that the operators had sold way too many tickets — the lines were so long that we did only 6 runs in 2 hours. It was a pain getting from the top of the tow rope to a line for a lane because you have to cut through all the other lines, and there isn’t enough room for all the lines, so the lines all double back on themselves which means there’s lots of discussing/​stress with people about where the end of the line is. Perhaps part of the problem was that about a third of the lanes were closed (no idea why — they looked fine). Tubing down a run is about 20 seconds — so 6 runs in 2 hours was 2 minutes of fun and 1:58 of standing in lines, cutting through lines, or figuring out where the end of the line is. Tubing is a ton of fun, but the way the operators of the Snoqualmie Tubing Center choose to run the facility is a killjoy.

If you book online and upon arrival it’s pouring rain like it was this weekend you’re out of luck on getting a rain check or refund. Yet, if you want a guaranteed space you have to book weeks in advance. As others have noted it’s overcrowded and overpriced for what you get. Waiting in line to check-​in, waiting in line to tube, waiting in line to take the tow up the hill. It’s just not worth it folks to get less than 10 runs in two hours. We hadn’t been here in a few years, not going back ever.

If you’ve never been tubing before, this place will be fun. If you’ve ever gone tubing anywhere else, don’t expect this place to be better. Granted, I’m used to Soldier Hollow in Midway, UT, which is an epic place for tubing.
There are a variety of tube runs, from steep to long. The longest ones usually have a pretty large line. We got alot of tube runs in by going on the smallest hills (on the west side) and walking up the steep hill afterward. Don’t expect to use the tow pull due to the crowd– it takes about 10 – 20 minutes to get up the mountain. Also, you can’t chain up tubes and go down as a group, and you usually end up stopping shortly after leaving the incline and walking most of the way (as opposed to sliding all the way down to the end). Overall, you pay a premium for a mediocre tubing experience.

Don’t ever pay online for an advance reservation!
I did this, but had to cancel the next day due to a severe weather warning and WA State travel advisory.
It took me 6 weeks of hassle and 5 attempts to finally get a credit card refund.
They ignored several telephone messages and email messages, and I only got results when I finally threatened to (and did) make a formal complaint to my credit card company.
Dig deeper into these reviews and you’ll find other people with similar issues, as well as oversold and overcrowded lines with much time wasted between tubing rides.

They go by time batches now to prevent overcrowding. Recommend 9am as lots of parking. sign your liabilty form ahead of time, its faster. be careful if you choose to walk up as it can get slippery

Lots of fun tubing with So many lanes available!
Today was the best tubing experience in 4 years. The line was the longest I’d ever seen, but we still had fun. The staff kept things moving smoothly and nobody got hurt. Bunches of fun for sure!!:)

This place is a must go!
Such a good time for the family.
Beautifully nestled in the Great Northwest!
Washington is just BEAUTIFUL!

We had a blast! Including my 10 & 4 yr old boys. We ordered tickets online 2 weeks in advance, once we got there the first 3 sessions were sold out. Be sure to purchase online. I’d also suggest printing out your liability forms before hand too. Finding parking was a bit of a hassle but it was to be expected. We ended up parking on the street.
The lines to actually tube were not long at all. Maybe 2 – 4 people in front of you. By the end of your session you can just basically walk up and head right back down. I think by that time people are too cold and tired. The best part is the tow/​lift that pulls you back up. That hill can be pretty brutal after the second or third time. Who am I kidding… I only walked it once.
All the workers were very friendly and playful. Shout out to the guy in the mulberry colored snow pants!
Lastly, please dress your kids appropriately. No jeans and sneakers. It’s cold guys. Hurt my heart watching the kiddos freeze.

This was a blast. We purchased tickets online thank goodness because our session was sold out and headed up with 4 kids ready for fun. It was perfect for little kids and big kids too. Loved how nicely the lanes were groomed and that we did not have to bring any sledding gear with us. The line to check in was long, so I recommend arriving early, and maybe walk up the hill to avoid the long rope tow lines. Either way 2 hours was plenty for our crew. We will be back again for sure.

Overpriced, long long wait, not worth it!
We pre-​purchased our tickets online, but still had to stand in line for over an hour to get our pass to enter the tubing area. Our tickets were for 9 to 11 am. By the time we were done waiting, it was 10:20 am. The electricity was out, which wasn’t anyone’s fault, but the hike back up the hill was brutal.
There were zero attendants on the hill, and not nearly enough innertubes since half the people were using them as chairs or holding onto them while standing around. Maybe there were more tickets sold than tubes available.
If the electricity is on, and you get there an hour or more before your scheduled time, and you have kids 8 and under, it MIGHT be fun. But even then it is HIGHLY overpriced.

My daughter was hosting a friend from out of town and bought tickets the day before their intended outing. The website said that some sessions sell out, and they wanted to avoid disappointment. Unfortunately, her friend got very sick that night and was not well in time to go in the morning. She is just a student with no income and can’t afford throwing away money. The Summit Tubing Center initially sounded as if they would consider refunding her payment or rescheduling. When she called again, no one picked up the phone. She left voice mail messages and sent e-​mails, but no one followed up. She is very unlikely to plan an outing there again after the poor customer service.

Sooo much fun!!! My six year old and I didn’t even notice the rain because we were enjoying ourselves so much. All of the employees were great. Realllly nice and very helpful. Especially since my daughter was going by herself and half the time I was coming up as she was preparing to go down. Considering the rain I would probably have been grumpy and cold as an employee but they were all nice and even told jokes. I got there a little late so I’m not sure if a full two hours seems like enough time. We could have kept going all night and even thought about buying tickets for the next session but decided we’d just come back again. Highly recommend doing this! Even with kids.

As far as the tubing goes it was a blast, lots of snow for the little ones everywhere to eat and throw. Made me feel like a little kid again myself. Sadly there is a dark underbelly to the place though… Ok so not that bad but kinda frustrating. There is very little signage to tell you where to go when you first get there so you are forced to drive around to try and find the tubing area. Then there is a small sign saying the ticket both and parking lot down this way right next to the concession chalet and restroomthat you don’t see until you’ve parked and have walked up to it. Now the process is that you drive down the hill get your ticket and then tube and maybe hit the food hut afterwards. Nothing there tells you this… I was chastised by the worker there telling me that I had to walk back up the hill with family in tow to get the vehicle and drive down hill to the ticket booth area… the couple behind us just laughed and started walking down the hill. Save some walking and drive down then hill to get closer to the ticket booth, unless you want some food in your belly as you hurdle down the tubing runs. The ticketing part is very slow… think dmv… Ok not that bad but close. Save some time have one member of your party brave getting the tickets and the rest pick out the tube they want. If your by yourself… may good have mercy on your soul… Jk. After getting the ticket and tube you’re next decision is whether to walk up or be towed. The walk isn’t so bad until the very end when it’s a little slick and all the little ones have trouble getting up. So they are littered along the side with parents either helping them or yelling at them to man up and keep up. The tow option is definitely easier but you will be in line for a while. There’s two line but everyone seemed to stay in the right one. So we bypassed most of the people and went to the left line, sure it stopped every now and then but I was saving energy for my epic tubing runs. If you decide to walk there are aisles by the tow rope are easier than the walk path on the far side which is darn near a vertical climb at the end on which we needed help from a passing yeti, ok not really. When we were tubing we had the little ones go first and I being the largest, went last after pushing all down the hill. That way it deterred people flying down to early and running into little ones. Some runs are faster than others so it helps to check it out so you aren’t that guy that goes too early and nails a kid walking off the run. That’s it for the tubing, oh yeah they closed the tubing about 10 minutes early on us so we never got our last run in, but it was fun nonetheless. There are bathrooms up top and down at the ticket area. The food hut was very crowded and the parents, one could see, had either checked out, or didn’t care their sweet little ones were standing in the way of those trying to get to the bathroom. Oh well, my entire group had a blast. There was a lot of people there so it is what it is and waiting is a fact of life there. I saw no arguments our really bad behavior or foul language which was very nice. Have fun and be safe.

If you don’t like waiting in lines in the cold out, then you might want to pass on the tubing. This place, though fun when you actually get to slide down the hill for ~10 seconds, allows far to many people in. It takes much away from the experience. If you utilize the tow rope I doubt you’d be able to squeeze in 4 runs within the two hour window. Overpriced and overcrowded. Even when you bypass to tow line you often reach to top where it’s so crowded you can’t even move around to queue up. Also, be attentive to the tube you select. Many have long valve stems that could poke you in places you may not wish to be poked… at least not while sledding!
Also, due to an apparent lack of snow, at least two of the runs look like they’ve been created by –and probably have– using snow scooped up off I-​90. Just nasty brownish snow w/​all sort of debris in it. These runs are slower too so skip them.

We enjoy the tubing runs, they’re fast and well constructed.
However, the experience is overpriced for the amount of actual sliding you get to do.
When you pay $ 20 for a two hour time window for a child, and $ 23 for an adult, you expect to be able to slide more than 7 times. It feels like there are just too many people for the equipment to handle. You wait a good 10 – 15 minutes at the top of the hill, and equally as long if you choose to get towed back up,
Our 7 runs were accomplished today by skipping the tow rope and hiking up the hill ourselves 5 of those runs. If we had waited for the tow we would only have been able to go 5 times.
Lower the price, increase the time window, or limit the number of people, and this would be a better value!

So much fun. Other reviews implied that it gets overcrowded, so I’m glad we were there on a Seahawks game day, which made it not as crowded as it might have otherwise been. The tubing runs have a stunning view, and I felt like there were enough newer tubes to suffice. I snagged a superfast fairly new one and was very happy with it. Just be sure to grab one that doesn’t look like it’s faded by the sun, looks like it’s taught with air, and check the inside to make sure no metal pumping tube is sticking up – I saw one or two with this hazard, but it was easy to pass over them for a newer one.
The runs, while not watched with a hawk eye, had staff at the top every few lanes or so. You still have to use your own best judgement as to how long to wait before the previous person clears the lane, and I had to stop a small kid or two who was about to go way too early after their parents, but it was no big deal. I did once slam into a group of adults who were just casually talking at the bottom of the runs, which was so irritating. DON’T STOP AND HAVE A CHAT IN A SPOT WHERE PEOPLE ARE HURDLING TOWARD YOU AT GREAT SPEEDS! Even if you feel like you’re far away from the slope, even if you’re all the way near the rope line, I promise you someone can still slam into you and then you WILL fall on them and that’s just awkward for everyone involved. So walk and chat! Easy as that.
A few complaints I read on here were that it would be so crowded that you’d only get to do 3 or 4 runs an hour… not true of my experience. We did at least 15 runs that first hour, using the tow line half the time and walking up the other half. Walking up the side without the toe line is faster, and the slopes on the non-​toe line side tend to be less croweded, since the little ones seemed to tube coser to the toe line. The toe line was handy though, and I found that going up it on my stomach was an easy way to make sure I didn’t get decapitated. It is a low line, and you need to watch out for it.
On my last run, when they called last call, I got a spin/​push from an employee and that was a glorious ride. No matter how old you are, I highly recommend asking for an employee to spin you, you won’t regret it!

I have been coming to the Summit Tubing Center for years (it used to be called the Snowflake Tubing Center). Take I-​90 to exit 53 and the parking is really easy to find. You won’t need to worry about chains or anything. The parking is free (yay!) and really close so you can gear up right there. Tubing sessions are sold in two hour increments and I highly recommend pre-​purchasing them online as they frequently sell out. Your ticket covers the two hours, the tube rental (don’t bring sleds or your own tubes – they aren’t allowed and you don’t need them), and the staffing and maintenance of the course. There are ~11 pre-​carved lanes that you hurl yourself down. At the end, you can either walk back up the hill (there are two different walking paths (one on each side), or wait in line to take the tow rope to the top. I find the tow rope line to move quickly, but you may get decapitated by the cable that runs by your head — jus’ sayin’ — so I usually walk back up. They have tickets for adults and youth, but they also have a child’s ticket. If you buy a child’s ticket you MUST have the child ride on the lap of a paying adult each time. Overall, it is a really fun place. BTW — there are bathrooms there and teeny café that is usually overcrowded and overpriced, but you can get coffee in a pinch.
So, now the big question: what happens when something goes wrong? Well, we went tubing last week with some friends and I became a little nervous when I noticed the staff were mostly late teens/​early twenties and my friend was screaming my name in pain. We got her out of the middle of the run and it turns out she had dislocated her shoulder (which had been dislocated before) when she went into a Superwoman pose on her innertube – she didn’t fall out of tube, or run into anything, she just is prone to this injury. We took her to the only staff at the bottom of the hill (which I think they should reevaluate), the tow rope operator. He said that he doesn’t have a walkie-​talkie (which also may need reevaluating), but that if we could get to the top of the hill, ski patrol and the tubing supervisor, Jake, could help us out. The tow rope dude offered to hitch our friend to the tow to be pulled up, but she couldn’t lower herself back down without pain, so we walked it. We got to the top and any reservations I had about the age and ability of the staff dissipated when we saw Jake. He had contacted ski patrol and was walking us to the tubing stand when another tubing patron handed him a woman that was almost passed out. He directed us where to go, handled the emergency of the fainting woman, and kept a cool and calm head about it all.
Ski patrol came and they were great. They popped her shoulder back into place, had us do a little paperwork, and we were on our way (home, and to the hospital, not back out tubing). The staff at the Tubing Center refunded our tickets and gave us tickets to return another day even though it was not their fault and we had signed liability waivers. That kind of service and the attention we received from Jake and the ski patrol made us feel really comfortable coming back here for many more tubing sessions! Thanks guys!

We’ve been going to the Tubing Center for three or four years now. It is our annual Christmas Break tradition and as long as the weather is nice, it can be a fun trip.
However, the equipment is getting old and worn out. Many of the tubes have huge (6″+) metal air tubes sticking up where the person is supposed to be sitting. I saw a few new tubes, but basically they all need to be replaced.
The biggest reason for the two star review is they let too many people in to each session. When too many people are put into this poorly laid-​out facility, you get only three or four runs per hour. You’ll spend 30 seconds sliding down the hill, 5 minutes hiking back up (or taking the slow rope tow) and then waiting in line for 10+ minutes. They’ve also pulled the boundary lines in this year at the top of the facility. This means there is even less room for people to gather tubes and navigate. It feels like a crowded concert or a shopping mall during Black Friday.
New equipment, a layout redesign and a few additional runs are needed to justify the ticket price.

I took my wife and two girls (4,6) up to Snoqualmie Pass on Jan 13^th, 2012. We took our minivan and had no issues even though there was a ton of snow. They keep the roads extremely clean and free of snow unless there’s a huge storm the night prior. I bought my tickets online from
and all I had to do was give the confirmation number when I got to the counter. I didn’t print out the receipt or anything like that. If you want to save a few minutes you can also print out the release form which is also on the site.
When you drive up you’ll see a large sign which points you towards the tubing parking lot which is where I parked. We walked about a ¼ mile and saw that people were actually parking a lot closer. So drive about another few hundred feet and you can save yourself and your family a little walk.
I bought the tickets for the 11:15 — 1:15 time slot. I wanted to sun to be out and give some kind of warmth and thankfully that happened. There were not a lot of people because this was a Friday. If you can swing a day off work and get your kids out of school I would recommend this. This guys that were working the tubing lanes said that Saturdays and Sundays were mad houses because of all the people. The whole time we were there I don’t think there were more than 50 people which was perfect.
Kids 6 and over can slide down the hills by themselves. The berms on the lanes prevent them from spilling into anyone else. The only part of the park that’s hazardous to kids is at the bottom. Because the adults are heavier they travel farther down the lanes and will go way past the end. If a kid isn’t paying attention down there they will get creamed. Definitely be aware of that because some adults have no situational awareness. Once you get to the bottom they have a really great system that pulls people back to the top. You can either ride with your kid on that or walk up. My oldest was doing this by herself after I showed her how to do it.
Be advised that these are some fast lanes. I rode down with my 4 year old and I was a little worried because we were hauling the mail and spinning around. It’s fast when you have an adult and a kid and we did go past the end and almost take some people out even though I was dragging my feet trying to slow down. People will be on their iPhones and not even paying attention at the bottom.
If you get cold or hungry there’s also a little snack shop above the ticketing booth. They have the standard burgers and dogs.
We had a great time and will definitely come back.

For this review, I am not rating the facility.
This five-​star review is for the Tubing Center’s ski patrol employees and emergency services. I write it using the still-​swollen left temporal lobe of my brain.
One of the first questions I asked my friend when we arrived was, «All these kids, no helmets for rent, and no one standing at the top of the slope to regulate when you go down? Isn’t that dangerous?» Once in your tube, sitting at the top and waiting for the kid in front of you to get to the very bottom of the slope, you can’t really see anything past your feet. It’s just aisles of kids and a few adults sitting in their tubes waiting to go down. So many kids. So many heads that might collide with other heads at very fast speeds. A system was in place where the person/​people behind you, who were standing, would say «go!» and you would hesitate for a moment before pushing off the ledge. But no staff was observing the crowd, nothing was regulated. Personal responsibility is key in life, but not everyone holds that belief– which makes high-​speed «no helmet» activities dangerous, y’all.
Of course, lawyers representing The Summit at Snoqualmie have written a contract you sign immediately upon paying your entrance fee. They aren’t responsible for injury or death. They aren’t responsible for the $ 10,280 in medical bills that are incurred with an emergency transport to Harborview in an ambulance, bills that you can’t pay if you are currently unemployed and uninsured.
But those guys in ski patrol were great when it came to knowing when to call the ambulance. They didn’t see the accident happen, didn’t see my skull collide with another adult’s skull and knock me unconscious. My boyfriend did, though, and he carried me to the guys in ski patrol who asked all the right questions and determined I needed to be put in neck and head braces. An ambulance was called and I was taken away. They knew what to do. Harborview took care of me from there, and after CT scans and x rays and blood draws and neck traction for five hours, determined that I had a severe concussion. I was told many times how lucky I was that I wasn’t paralyzed. So it could have been worse.
That was two months ago and I still feel like hell. I have months of scans and visits with a neurologist ahead of me because I have some damage done that I tried to ignore at first but which has caused even more problems in the past eight weeks since the accident. The folks at the Tubing Center were nice enough to check in with me, calling for the first few weeks after the accident to check on me. Maybe they were afraid I would try to sue them. I signed a contract and I’m not a litigious jerk, so no. I appreciate their concern.
So, look. WEAR A HELMET. Rent one from the ski lodge (you can walk or drive there from the Tubing Center.) If you don’t have health insurance? Don’t bother doing something dangerous involving speed and ice WITHOUT A HELMET.
Yours in daily vertigo and ibuprofen,
Tommy C