With four major lift replacements completed over the last 15 years, North Idaho’s Schweitzer Mountain Resort is looking beyond its boundary for the next phase of on-mountain development.  Completed just last summer, phase one of the resort’s 2018 master plan included two key lifts in the North Bowl replacing an outdated double.  The mountain also recently completed a gorgeous summit lodge called Sky House and two more chairlifts above its village.  Looking ahead, Schweitzer’s two longest lifts to date are planned for opposite ends of the resort.

Privately-held Schweitzer will proceed carefully as growth makes sense.  The resort does not participate in a multi-resort pass product but skier visits have grown almost 35 percent over the last 15 years.  Current development focuses on the village, including a $35 million boutique hotel under construction.  “We have a pretty conservative approach,” notes President and CEO Tom Chasse. “Our business is growing but we want to make sure that we are financially sound and don’t get ahead of ourselves.  We also want to maintain a razor sharp focus on improving the overall customer experience with everything that we do.”

Phase three will see the launch of a dedicated day use and ski school portal away from the overnight village.  “Growth has been huge the last few years and we need to find solutions for our parking issues and ease the burden on our existing village,” notes Mountain Operations Director Rob Batchelder.  “I’m very excited about solving those problems with this third phase of development in the Mid-Mountain area.  Physically, we need room to grow and Mid-Mountain does that for us.”  The $50 million project will include a day lodge, three dedicated beginner lifts and 6,400 foot detachable chairlift.  The latter will include a half mid-station with access to six new intermediate trails.  Riders staying on board will gain access to North Bowl without the need to transit the village or ride the busy Great Escape quad.

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Pacific Northwest favorite Schweitzer Mountain Resort will replace one long double with two new chairlifts in 2019, says CEO Tom Chasse.  The first lift will service the lower two thirds of the current Snow Ghost double, a 1971 Riblet with a 13-minute ride time.  The second one will replace Snow Ghost’s upper segment, servicing the Lakeside Chutes in a new alignment topping out near the new Sky House restaurant.  “We don’t have enough lift capacity right now,” Chasse told the Spokane Spokesman-Review.  “We think it’s going to be a draw and will bring in more people.”  The Bonner County Daily reported Schweitzer wanted to replace the nearly 2,000′ vertical lift a year ago but the $6-8 million project depended on financing becoming available.  Schweitzer completed a project very similar to this one in 2007, replacing the lower section of Chair 1 with a high-speed quad and the upper section with a realigned Doppelmayr CTEC triple.

Outback Bowl has a cool lift history.  The current Snow Ghost lift used to be called Chair 6 and went from the very bottom of the bowl to the Siberia Runout.  You can still see the old lift line in person and on the trail map.  In 1987, the entire machine was moved to start and end higher with a mid-station added, leaving the lower part of Outback serviced only by Chair 5.  That lift was replaced by a uniquely-themed six-pack called Stella in 2000.  Schweitzer skiers can enjoy another season and a half of Snow Ghost but 2019 can’t come soon enough!  No word yet on specific models or a manufacturer for the new lifts.