For anyone who is interested, the Forest Service recently posted a copy of Meadows’s Master Development plan on their website. There’s some interesting information and a couple of maps at the beginning of the document.
Where did you find the document? I’ve been searching the Forest Service website for some time, but I’ve only found plans for the I-70 corridor and Aspen.
I emailed them directly asking for it as I had been (unsuccessfully) searching for it for years now. They sent it to me and also attached it to the project page for Meadows’s South Lodge addition. I don’t know about the other forests or private land, but Mt. Hood National Forest has a page on the USFS website where all projects (completed, under evaluation, and proposed) are posted.
I can’t provide any documentation or information on specs sadly, but there is another lift at Mt. Hood Meadows that was removed recently and served a very odd and short life span. It was the Shipyard Ropetow that was built specifically to service only the Shipyard Terrain Park, a short but entertaining terrain park to the left of Buttercup. It popped up in either 2014 or 2015, but I’ve never seen it reappear ever since the new Buttercup quad was installed in 2017 to replace the old YAN double.
The Shipyard Rope Tow even had its own day pass and season pass! Some people really love that terrain park! But with the disappearance of that rope tow came the disappearance of the Shipyard related passes. The rope tow was brand new, but it interestingly enough didn’t have any handles so you needed raw strength gripping on the cable to make it to the top. The cable was intentionally smooth so it wouldn’t rip up gloves like old ropetows tend to do, but the lack of grip made it difficult to hold on.
I believe the rope tow was Mt. Hood Meadows’ temporary solution to a lot of people just hiking up the hill to lap the terrain park, since the old Buttercup double was constantly swamped with beginners and people wanting to take it to Vista Express or Easy Rider. But the new quad handles the demand well and almost no one would want to drive all the way to Mt. Hood Meadows just to toil around on one small terrain park all day.
I remember this rope tow as well. As far as I know, it used the parts from the old base area rope tow that was replaced by the Ballroom Carpet which was installed either the year before or the same year as the Shipyard rope tow.
The vertical rise of the unnamed Riblet doesn’t match Yellow/Stadium (too high vs. actual), and the Yellow/Stadium single entry fits the 1967-2011 timeline correctly. I think it may instead be a duplicate of the old Texas chair. The install years are only one apart and the vertical/inclined length figures are near identical.
There haven’t been any lifts at Meadows that were removed without a direct replacement, so this explanation is the only one that makes sense to me after 20+ winters at MHM. Skilifts.org also listed an unnamed chair similar to this one, back when the site wasn’t broken.
The unnamed one is definitely a duplicate of Texas except with the correct install year. Texas was installed in 1974 according to Meadows own instagram.
According to an inside source, the next major project for Meadows will be a chairlift running from the Sunrise parking lot to around the bottom of the Vista Express. This would also include a new beginner terrain pod in that area as well as a small lodge at the Sunrise lot.
This is consistent with what they shared at a Town Hall meeting last year. Next, after that, will be a replacement of the Heather chair (and a possible realignment).
Still waiting for the proposed “Elevator Express”, which was included in their last master plan and was supposed to run from the bottom of North Canyon to the top of outer limits/A-Zone entry. Same with a replacement and slight realignment of Daisy. Does your source know if either of those projects are still in the cards?
Also curious if anyone has mentioned a capacity upgrade/replacement (like what happened to MHX) for either HRM or Shooting Star. both are major bottlenecks when the upper mountain closes and aren’t much newer than the old MHX was. Not sure how HRM would handle the extra skier traffic, though…
As far as I know, HRM and Star are not planned to be replaced anytime soon. The main reason for MHX being replaced was that it reached the end of it’s service life due to high hours rather than capacity. HRM and Star don’t have nearly as many hours on them because they’re not open for night skiing.
When the new lift eventually is installed from the Sunrise lot (with the new beginner area), I’d love to see them remove Easy Rider at the same time and extend the new lift up to where Easy Rider currently unloads. Would be much easier to get to other lifts in the main base area from there…
Lift Blog 
The Heather Canyon Yan lift is the former Hood River Meadows double lift relocated and chopped down in size some.
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For anyone who is interested, the Forest Service recently posted a copy of Meadows’s Master Development plan on their website. There’s some interesting information and a couple of maps at the beginning of the document.
Click to access 107996_FSPLT3_4493066.pdf
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Where did you find the document? I’ve been searching the Forest Service website for some time, but I’ve only found plans for the I-70 corridor and Aspen.
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I emailed them directly asking for it as I had been (unsuccessfully) searching for it for years now. They sent it to me and also attached it to the project page for Meadows’s South Lodge addition. I don’t know about the other forests or private land, but Mt. Hood National Forest has a page on the USFS website where all projects (completed, under evaluation, and proposed) are posted.
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I can’t provide any documentation or information on specs sadly, but there is another lift at Mt. Hood Meadows that was removed recently and served a very odd and short life span. It was the Shipyard Ropetow that was built specifically to service only the Shipyard Terrain Park, a short but entertaining terrain park to the left of Buttercup. It popped up in either 2014 or 2015, but I’ve never seen it reappear ever since the new Buttercup quad was installed in 2017 to replace the old YAN double.
The Shipyard Rope Tow even had its own day pass and season pass! Some people really love that terrain park! But with the disappearance of that rope tow came the disappearance of the Shipyard related passes. The rope tow was brand new, but it interestingly enough didn’t have any handles so you needed raw strength gripping on the cable to make it to the top. The cable was intentionally smooth so it wouldn’t rip up gloves like old ropetows tend to do, but the lack of grip made it difficult to hold on.
I believe the rope tow was Mt. Hood Meadows’ temporary solution to a lot of people just hiking up the hill to lap the terrain park, since the old Buttercup double was constantly swamped with beginners and people wanting to take it to Vista Express or Easy Rider. But the new quad handles the demand well and almost no one would want to drive all the way to Mt. Hood Meadows just to toil around on one small terrain park all day.
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I remember this rope tow as well. As far as I know, it used the parts from the old base area rope tow that was replaced by the Ballroom Carpet which was installed either the year before or the same year as the Shipyard rope tow.
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I forgot about that rope tow! You’re probably right about the parts.
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Offering some tower and chair counts for the chart:
Shooting Star Express has 88 chairs.
Mount Hood Express has 112 chairs.
Hood River Express has 21 towers and 112 chairs.
Cascade Express has 21 towers and also around 110(?) chairs.
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I believe cascade has 123 chairs.
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Mount Hood Express and Hood River Express actually have 102 chairs
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Mt. Hood Express has 102 chairs, same with Hood River Express (oddly enough, since it’s longer than Mt. Hood Express).
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i believe the t-bar was just called t-bar and the 1974 riblet double above the bottom never existed.
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I believe the Riblet without a name was likely the old Yellow Chair, since I don’t see it in the removed lifts, which was a center post double.
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The vertical rise of the unnamed Riblet doesn’t match Yellow/Stadium (too high vs. actual), and the Yellow/Stadium single entry fits the 1967-2011 timeline correctly. I think it may instead be a duplicate of the old Texas chair. The install years are only one apart and the vertical/inclined length figures are near identical.
There haven’t been any lifts at Meadows that were removed without a direct replacement, so this explanation is the only one that makes sense to me after 20+ winters at MHM. Skilifts.org also listed an unnamed chair similar to this one, back when the site wasn’t broken.
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The unnamed one is definitely a duplicate of Texas except with the correct install year. Texas was installed in 1974 according to Meadows own instagram.
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New MHX has 96 chairs.
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According to an inside source, the next major project for Meadows will be a chairlift running from the Sunrise parking lot to around the bottom of the Vista Express. This would also include a new beginner terrain pod in that area as well as a small lodge at the Sunrise lot.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is consistent with what they shared at a Town Hall meeting last year. Next, after that, will be a replacement of the Heather chair (and a possible realignment).
Still waiting for the proposed “Elevator Express”, which was included in their last master plan and was supposed to run from the bottom of North Canyon to the top of outer limits/A-Zone entry. Same with a replacement and slight realignment of Daisy. Does your source know if either of those projects are still in the cards?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Also curious if anyone has mentioned a capacity upgrade/replacement (like what happened to MHX) for either HRM or Shooting Star. both are major bottlenecks when the upper mountain closes and aren’t much newer than the old MHX was. Not sure how HRM would handle the extra skier traffic, though…
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As far as I know, HRM and Star are not planned to be replaced anytime soon. The main reason for MHX being replaced was that it reached the end of it’s service life due to high hours rather than capacity. HRM and Star don’t have nearly as many hours on them because they’re not open for night skiing.
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When the new lift eventually is installed from the Sunrise lot (with the new beginner area), I’d love to see them remove Easy Rider at the same time and extend the new lift up to where Easy Rider currently unloads. Would be much easier to get to other lifts in the main base area from there…
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I think the biggest point of the new lift would be a new beginner terrain pod for lessons or first timers more mellow than Buttercup.
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