Upper lift line.Bottom terminal building.Bottom terminal building.Both stations are housed inside buildings with partial Poma enclosures underneath.Rails for chair parking rows.Uphill side of the bottom station.Leaving the base.Riding up the lift line.Arriving at the return.You make a 90 degree turn upon exit.Top station underneath a snowshed.Last tower before the unload.View down the long lift line.Towers have extra bracing near the bottom.Middle part of the line.Lower lift line.Looking up the line.Gates for the different parking rows.
I’m sure Meadows does, they get pretty hefty visitation to the point they keep adding new parking lots. But I think following the new Buttercup lift, they’ve set their sights on doubling their lodging capacity with the new Sahale Lodge expansion they’re already fundraising for, which I think will come around in the early 2020s…
Any new lift around this area would run down the upper/lower Elevator runs (skiers’ left of the Cascade lift line), according to their master plan. I’m sure Cascade has plenty of life left with how infrequently it runs.
Interesting fact about Cascade Express, this lift actually killed summer skiing at Mt. Hood Meadows. It replaced the Texas Chair, a Riblet double which had its bottom terminal located in the canyon directly to the left of Blue and Mt. Hood Express, where the run I believe is called Arena comes down. You can actually see some of the break over tower foundations from the old Texas Chair if you ski on the ridge to the right of the Cascade Express headed towards Outer Limits or Heather Canyon.
The Cascade Express lift obviously follows a much different alignment than the old Texas Chair, and goes much further down the mountain allowing a lot of that great terrain to be lappable by this lift compared to the days of the Texas Chair where you’d have to take Blue/Jacob’s Ladder to then get to the Texas Chair. All fixed grip back then too. But being located much lower on the mountain… The snow doesn’t reach the bottom of Cascade Express in the summer.
Real shame because Arena is a fun run, I would have had no issue lapping that in the summer months. I wish I knew more about the days of summer skiing at Mt. Hood Meadows, like how they got skiers to and from the snow pack and how long it would operate. Thankfully Timberline nearby has year round skiing anyway.
Can’t talk about how they got skiers to the Texas lift in the summer, but I know a big reason Meadows doesn’t do summer skiing anymore is that they were banned from using salt to preserve snow because it was burning some of the grasses and meadows in their permit area. Timberline doesn’t have this issue. It’s too bad, too; a good amount of my family grew up summer skiing at Meadows and had nothing but good things to say about it.
i have been skiing at meadows for years and years, but i have only been on this lift llike 6 times. just the slightest gust of wind is enough to completely shut operations, same goes for vista and i assume palmer at timberline
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Does the snowshed at the top help with wind?
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It serves the same purpose that Palmer’s snowshed does over on the Timberline Lodge face.
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Out of curiosity, how does one gain the ability to post pictures and video in the comments?
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For YouTube videos, you just copy and paste the URL of the video into the comments.
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Same goes do photos to
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Do they have the money to potentially put in a 6 place bubble lift?
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I’m not sure, but it most certainly wouldn’t be built here. I could see a bubble 6 or 8 replacing both MHX and Blue.
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I’m sure Meadows does, they get pretty hefty visitation to the point they keep adding new parking lots. But I think following the new Buttercup lift, they’ve set their sights on doubling their lodging capacity with the new Sahale Lodge expansion they’re already fundraising for, which I think will come around in the early 2020s…
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Bubbles don’t seem practical given the amount of wind exposure on the upper line.
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Any new lift around this area would run down the upper/lower Elevator runs (skiers’ left of the Cascade lift line), according to their master plan. I’m sure Cascade has plenty of life left with how infrequently it runs.
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Where can you see their master plan?
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Interesting fact about Cascade Express, this lift actually killed summer skiing at Mt. Hood Meadows. It replaced the Texas Chair, a Riblet double which had its bottom terminal located in the canyon directly to the left of Blue and Mt. Hood Express, where the run I believe is called Arena comes down. You can actually see some of the break over tower foundations from the old Texas Chair if you ski on the ridge to the right of the Cascade Express headed towards Outer Limits or Heather Canyon.
The Cascade Express lift obviously follows a much different alignment than the old Texas Chair, and goes much further down the mountain allowing a lot of that great terrain to be lappable by this lift compared to the days of the Texas Chair where you’d have to take Blue/Jacob’s Ladder to then get to the Texas Chair. All fixed grip back then too. But being located much lower on the mountain… The snow doesn’t reach the bottom of Cascade Express in the summer.
Real shame because Arena is a fun run, I would have had no issue lapping that in the summer months. I wish I knew more about the days of summer skiing at Mt. Hood Meadows, like how they got skiers to and from the snow pack and how long it would operate. Thankfully Timberline nearby has year round skiing anyway.
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Can’t talk about how they got skiers to the Texas lift in the summer, but I know a big reason Meadows doesn’t do summer skiing anymore is that they were banned from using salt to preserve snow because it was burning some of the grasses and meadows in their permit area. Timberline doesn’t have this issue. It’s too bad, too; a good amount of my family grew up summer skiing at Meadows and had nothing but good things to say about it.
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i have been skiing at meadows for years and years, but i have only been on this lift llike 6 times. just the slightest gust of wind is enough to completely shut operations, same goes for vista and i assume palmer at timberline
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Some pictures of the Texas chair that preceded this:
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