When Seattleite Meg White gave up her car for environmental reasons in 2004, her biggest hurdle was catching a ride to the slopes.

The solution? Start a shuttle company and become her own customer.

White grew up skiing to school in rural New York and moved to Washington for college. This will be her 18th season teaching people to ski in the Cascades and her third season working full time as the owner and CEO of To the Mountain, a private shuttle company based in North Bend.

To the Mountain has shuttle routes from Seattle to Snoqualmie Pass, Stevens Pass and Crystal Mountain and goes to every summer concert at The Gorge.

White started To the Mountain in 2022 after purchasing three old buses from a Craigslist ad. An environmentalist at heart, White was working as a freelance statistical programmer in cancer research until she lost all of her contracts during the pandemic. Working for herself — and skiing in the middle of the week — wasn’t something White was willing to give up. So, she took a chance on a new venture that would provide a service to the Seattle community and help alleviate traffic pollution to the passes.

“I like getting to live my values,” she said. “Environmentalism is super important to me. I honestly think that my bus can make a bigger difference than working to cure cancer.”

Today, White’s fleet of buses has a 16-stop route to Snoqualmie Pass, seven-stop route to Stevens Pass and five-stop route to Crystal Mountain. This winter, To the Mountain will run round-trip from Seattle to Snoqualmie Pass three times a day on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

In North Bend, To the Mountain stops at Pro Ski Service on West 2nd Street and South Fork on 436th Avenue SE. A ride from North Bend to Snoqualmie Pass is $20 round-trip. Other trips are $29-$56 one way, depending on the route. To the Mountain also sells $600 season passes, which give riders access to every shuttle from Dec. 15 to March 31, and provides custom charters.

White, a self-described hater of driving, doesn’t get behind the shuttle wheels, but running the company and managing its staff keeps her on a tight schedule. She has two full-time employees and several part-time drivers. Luckily, she said, To the Mountain makes it easy to work from the road. All the buses have wifi and are getting charging outlets this season.

“Part of what I’m trying to sell people is this idea of a lifestyle where you can have it all,” White said. “I can start my morning in the city … and then catch the afternoon bus around 3 p.m. and type out some emails, do some remote work on the bus, skip traffic and just end up at Snoqualmie Pass.”

White said riding her shuttles is also the best way for her to connect with customers.

“Actually getting out and using my bus service and interacting with the community I want to serve often furthers my business more than chaining myself to my desk,” she said.

White prioritizes connection not only with her customers, but with her peers, too. In North Bend, To the Mountain has partnerships with Pro Ski and its coffee shop Arete, along with The Line Bike Experience and South Fork. White’s Seattle partners include Gearhouse equipment rentals and evo bicycle shop, both of which are shuttle stops.

With these partners, White is working on cross-promotion, whether that means having physical advertisements for her partner businesses in the buses or encouraging riders to purchase from them. White has a partner at The Gorge who rents camping gear and receives Amazon Fresh orders for shuttle riders. Along the Crystal Mountain route, White partners with Wapiti, a locally famous gift and coffee shop. Riders can order food and drinks on the road that will be ready when the bus stops at Wapiti.

White is also using her tech background to make those partnerships more seamless. Currently, she’s working on an interface that would allow customers to book a shuttle ride and rent gear at the same time.

“I don’t want to offer that ourselves,” White said. “I want to keep our focus narrow, and I want to partner with other businesses that are already doing it and just bring them a ton of business.”

When starting To the Mountain, White assumed most riders would be “ski bums” like her. So far, she said her largest demographic has been out-of-towners — she’s had riders from Australia, Singapore, England and more.

While the idea for To the Mountain was “self-serving,” White said, fostering a community centered on nature has become increasingly important.

“Nature’s like my religion,” White said, chuckling. “I’m like a missionary trying to get everybody to the mountain.”