All three of Hyak’s older doubles have been completely removed now. One a result of a rollback and the other two after a landslide. Tough times but Hyak still lives! More history here: http://www.chairlift.org/hyak.html
The chairs stayed up until May 5th, 2009. There’s a video somewhere of when it came down. I think the mudslide at Hyak in Jan 2009 finally got Snoqualmie to tear it down, to put up a new lift in its place. They were selling many of the chairs, I wanted to buy one but was too young to drive myself up there at the time.
half of the lift towers still exist, just imagine a line through them. the base was between dodge ridge chair and little thunder. You had to sidestep up a steep ramp to get to the lift, If was a weird setup.
I have an old Snoqualmie Summit “trailmap” and brochure from sometime around 1975-77 (have to check). It has two faded-and-fuzzy photos of the Beaver Lake chair (fully loaded, no less!) and run.
Would post them here but don’t know how — happy to do so if anyone can give me guidance on that.
If they are digital, upload them to skimap.org. It usually takes a few hours for skimap.org to process new maps, but once it’s done, you can just copy the url to this page, and it will show up.
The lift isn’t there anymore; according to Peter’s database above it was removed in 1997. There’s still a run with that name, though, off the top of Wildside.
That’s true, it’s not well marked. I assume it’s the run immediately inside the rope line after you pass the abandoned building and then stick skiers’ left. Unlike most of West it’s oriented directly north and sometimes holds better snow because of it.
Ski patrol often has it all roped although much of it is skiable. On pow days there is always a lot of stashes to be found, but it is a very short run. I am old enough to have been able to ride the chair a few times, although it was rarely open. You actually rode the lift across the frozen lake and up a fairly steep pitch with some cliffs, kind of like a very short chair 17 at alpental. The whole wildside, although not hidden, remains a favorite semi forgotten area at the pass that is great with new snow.
Peter
Any word on replacement of the Holiday chair at Summit Central? Also, any word on the chair in the master plan that goes to the bowls at Alpental?
Now we know things are moving! The Summit is one of those mountains that could build a lift a year for the next ten and still not be totally caught up on infrastructure.
You are correct. The Hidden Valley double was not a simple relocation of Keechelus, it used components from both Keechelus and Easy Gold along with parts from older Riblets the Summit had in storage (with all the Riblets they’ve scrapped you’d think they have an entire warehouse full of parts).
I think it’s up for debate whether to count it as four ski areas or two. Depends on whether you count Summit Central, East, and West as separate areas or as one individual ski hill (since they all have crossover trails connecting one another).
I disagree. They were developed as four separate ski areas- Hyak, Ski Acres, Snoqualmie, and Alpental- and the crossovers were added later after they fell under common ownership. One can use those trails to get from one area to another, but especially between Hyak and Ski Acres there is some distance.
To beginners / low intermediates, it skis like 4 separate areas- people tend to pick a base area and stay there. For more competent skiers, the choice between East, Central, and West is more a matter of what’s open and where you can find convenient parking. The crossovers are no big deal- although I totally agree it wouldn’t make sense to park at East if you’re planning to ski at West, or vice versa.
I’ve been skiing at Snoqualmie a lot lately, and I came up with these upgrades as a thought experiment:
– Replace Central Express with a new CLD-6 with a capacity upgrade to 3,000pph. “Central 6” could be a signature lift, introduced with a splash like Boyne has been doing recently. It’s the main lift for intermediate terrain at the entire Summit, and it’s open 13 hours/day. A sexy new, higher-capacity lift could be an effective and timely marketing strategy in a region fed up with the traffic & parking woes at Stevens & Crystal.
– Take the existing Central Express, which is 22 years old but presumably has high hours, and move it to Pacific Crest. I’d think this would extend the chair’s life since Pac Crest is open far fewer hours- as of this year, it’s 2 full days plus 3 evenings/wk. Although it’s the same capacity-wise, I believe a detachable at Pac Crest would reduce wait times on that lift. PC is the first lift many people go to when they’re ready to move off green runs, but after teaching my kid to ski there it seems like the lift stops frequently due to mishaps on that loading carpet.
– Move the existing Pacific Crest, loading carpet & all, to elsewhere at West. This could upgrade Wildside, be the newly re-aligned Dodge Ridge, or anchor the new infill runs between Summit West & Central depending on what the terrain there requires. Another option would be to move the old Pacific Crest to Triple60 to increase capacity there (their master plan calls for a Triple60 detachable, but I’m not totally sure why).
– Add more beginner capacity. This could be Gallery, Reggie’s, Julie’s, or the proposed new ski school lift at central.
– I know there are new lifts planned for Alpental, but I don’t think a detachable on International be a net benefit to the skiing there…
Turning central express into a sixer would exceed the the terrain capacity I think. Alpine Bowl is already insane on busy weekends
It would be nice to put the removed Easy Rider chair up between central express and triple 60 to access all that easy terrain and help relieve the load on holiday.
I don’t believe that obligates them to build it as a detachable, only that they have permission to do so from the Forest Service if they want.
Nobody would complain about a detachable Triple 60, I just think there are other ways to spend all that money that’d give them a bigger bang for their buck.
It’s right next to the lodge, so it will be easy to access. It will be bigger, maybe 3/4ths the size of central. So a high speed quad kind of makes sense
The land in between Summit West (Snoqualmie Summit) and Summit Central (Ski Acres) used to be a rope-tow ski area owned and operated by the Mountaineers Club, in connection with a lodge they had there. I believe the tows shut down years before the lodge burned.
From looking at that map, I think they should take the old Swift Current lift from Big Sky and reinstall it as a Slide Brook type lift between Alpental and the rest of the resort. Then it could all be connected.
A gondola might be more practical, as well as maybe a wildlife crossing bridge for it to cross I-90 with so that I-90 wouldn’t have to be closed during rope evacs.
I’m not confident they could get permission to cross 7 lanes of interstate highway with a chairlift. Is there any lift anywhere that does that? I know Loveland but I-70 is in a tunnel at that point.
I also don’t think the lift would get many riders. People who ski at Alpental for the steeps generally aren’t very interested in the other areas. It would probably only run on weekends and be more of a novelty than anything.
If they were looking for a novelty lift, a low-capacity top-to-bottom tram at Alpental would generate interest and could provide some summer sightseeing revenue. All in all, though, I’d rather see them invest in other needed updates from their master plan.
Cascade does that. Not a highway, though. They would need a gondola. I don’t think they will want to do that, because no one will really use the gondola. First, Alpental is only open for unlimited pass holders in the weekends. If you want to ski there, then park there. No one would want to park at west, and then take the gondola. Also, people in Alpental don’t want to go to west. They want hard terrain, and West has the exact opposite of what they want. And obviously, The Summit will have to spend a massive amount of money to build the gondola when like, no one really wants to go on it.
Central 6, Pacific Crest to re-use HS Quad and PC to Dodge Ridge Re-Alignment are all easy slam dunks. Triple 60 should be replace with Fixed Grip Quad as you get the same capacity which is only needed on busy weekends for 2mm less in cost. Triple 60 would then best be re-used for the Sessel replacement & extension at Alpental. This would actually create an intermediate zone that removes the often non-existent Cascade traverse on the lower mountain. It would also take a fair amount of line pressure off Armstrong on busy weekends while ski school is running who are mainly accessing Lower International. All in 2 new lifts and 3 existing lift moves would dramatically improve ski flow and line times on weekends.
There’re taking the old Swift Current lift and putting it where triple 60 is after the realignment. Central Express is probably not gonna get replaced, but I know Pacific Crest will be replaced with a six-place, Northwest and baby will be made with Dodge Ridge/Sessel/Beaver Creek/ Alpine/Bonanza/Edelweiss/Holiday/Gallery parts.
They should upgrade Triple 60. In the weekends, Central express and Silver Fir get too crowded. Triple 60 is not as much. But it takes a while to get up.
If you look closely at Alpental, They had some sort of International Chairlift, but it’s a double.
Also they can build Baby and Northwest with leftover Riblets from Alpine Bowl (if they aren’t used for something else).
forget replacing anything, just operate all the lifts they currently have that sit closed 90% of the time and the area would have much shorter lines. BTW don’t touch wildside, it doesn’t need any more attention brought to that little nugget of heaven that most people disregard.
Great pics of that old lift. I still can’t believe they took it out. To my knowledge it was the first true ski lift in WA. I still remember when power would go down and they would start up the v8 gas engine coupled to the original automotive transmission to keep it running.
During its first year of business, Alpental looked quite different. It only had chairs 1, 2 and 3 (then called eins, zwei and drei lift), 3 rope tows on St. Bernard, and 2 rope tows across the road at the base of Snoqualmie Mtn. Only the Alpental Lodge existed (called the “Unterhaus”), not the Denny Lodge. Facilities available included “ice skating”. It even seems that the fork in Alpental road across from the Alpenrose condos was open. The right fork (now the main road) went to the overnight lot, and lot 1, and dead ended. The left fork went past the lodge to provide access to lot 2, the last lot at the time.
The difficulties of the slopes were marked by the standard at the time: SQUARE = Easy TRIANGLE = More Difficult CIRCLE = Most Difficult. The 5 marked runs were “Edelweiss – Triangle”, “Eisfallen – Triangle”, “Internationale – Circle”, “Lower Internationale – Triangle” and “Meister – Triangle” (which included present day Debbie’s Gold). It was said that “other runs north of the summit house are planned”, indicating the backcountry potential, and that “some can be skied at present by self-sufficient experts”.
from: http://www.alpental.com/history_-_alpental.htm
Eins, zwei and drei were the ropetows, not the chairs. As far as I know chairs were only referred to by numbers (in English) until they were given names in the ‘80s. One of the tows, probably drei, survived until relatively recently.
You’re correct- what’s now called Armstrong Express was originally chair 1, Edelweiss is chair 2, and Sessel is chair 3 (St Bernard is 4, if you’re following along). Those are the German words for the numbers. I’m not seeing what your link is about though.
To reduce the lines at Central they can make a new chair or platter that only goes to the park. That way the people who ski park can ski there. Also they should keep Triple 60’s bottom terminal a little lower so people can easily access it and more people will use it. If they make it a DC-4, that will attract more people, too. Also, if they make mountaineers a blue, which they should because it’s like the easiest black and more people who want to ski blues move from central to triple 60. It can be like outback. For silver fir they should split it in two. one to get up, another for the blacks. That way you don’t have to ski all the way down where there is a huge line.
I like the idea of a dedicated lift just for the park, but I’m not sure there’s enough room at the top for another lift terminal. I’d rather see them upgrade Central Express to a 6 person detachable to add capacity. Although it would be more expensive up front, it’d be cheaper to operate & maintain a single lift than building a second lift on the same alignment. Also, with the way they run the place, the second lift would probably be closed most of the time anyway (just like Gallery, Reggie’s, Easy Street, Dodge Ridge, Julie’s…)
Right now it’s a green circle over at East, but looks like that’s their placeholder name for a potential infill lift between East and Silver Fir. I’m skeptical that’ll ever happen. They should start actually utilizing the beginner terrain they already have before building more of it.
I haven’t heard anything about developing the former Mountaineers property between Summit West and Central. It is private land that Boyne acquired a few years back. Anyone heard anything?
I would think that with the amount of Riblets that they have removed and scrapped that they have the parts for Edelweiss. Yes, it’s old, but with the right parts, it shouldn’t need to be replaced. They have scrapped 6 Riblet doubles, which means that they have more than enough parts for Edelweiss. It’s also a primary lift, so it should have priority for parts.
oop nvm it does make parts
“Since 1981 Superior Tramway Company has been serving the tramway industry with quality lift parts. We stock parts for Riblet, Heron, Heron-Poma and of course Superior chair lifts at our shop in Spokane. This equipment covers many aspects of an aerial tramway including line machinery, chair assemblies, line sheaves, chair clips, derail protection systems, tension systems, drive terminals, brake systems and rigging equipment.”
They should put rope tows in some places because the climb to Triple 60 sucks. I wonder what happened to the rope tows since they used to have them. Like why did they remove them?
I went to West for the first time this season and found old lift towers and stations, including Beaver Lake. (Yes, I finally found it after asking Ski Patrol)
I don’t know how to upload images here so I put it in a website https://snoqualmieoldlifts.weebly.com/
(Original Pictures)
What was the point of the old Beaver Lake lift? It looked pretty pointless to have short a redundant lift that really only served one run. Shouldn’t it have been removed once Wildside was installed?
For some reason thats what west did so they had like 10 lifts. it was taken out. honestly i thik it was there so you can come from Pac-Crest to the top of WIldside without going all the way down and all the way back up.
Because 2 minutes of a lift ride needed to be saved? With Thunderbird running, the summit would already have had at least 2400 pph for only ~4 runs, all being advanced. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to relocate Beaver Lake after 1974 to expand closer to Ski Acres to connect the two?
Beaver Lake was removed the summer Pacific Crest was built. T-bird was already there when Beaver Lake was built (although there was a rope tow before the lift). No, Beaver Lake was its own thing and not part of any lift link-up. The terrain was just underutilised and not popular enough to warrant a lift and full operator staff, as I recall.
Hi, are you the one running that page? I appreciate the photos and it’s nicely compiled but there’s one mistake on the Ski Acres page. The towers you have listed as “Single Chair” are actually from Alpine Bowl. The Single chair was where Triple 60 is now, and it’s towers have been dispersed around the area for use as light poles. They are red metal colored lattice towers. There’s one at the top of the Parachute run.
What you call ‘Backside’ was actually called Hidden Valley. And I was disappointed- I thought you had photos of the lifts when they were running :( I remember all of them but most were removed when I was in middle school or high school so the memories are a bit fuzzy.
No it was part of Dinosaur and it was called Backside. I’m sorry I don’t have those photos, but I’m trying to do the best I can and still find those before they get completely removed or destroyed by nature.
I’m aware it was part of Dinosaur/chair 1. My dad worked there in the sixties when it was the only chairlift (the rest were Poma platters) and then again in the early eighties. I skied there a bunch and I never heard it called Backside.
On the most recent Storm Skiing Podcast episode (#63 Smuggler’s Notch), the host mentioned that Snoqualmie apparently bought all of Riblet’s machining equipment when they went out of business, so they have a full service Riblet parts shop. Mentioned around 52:10 in the episode.
I am wondering if anyone remembers a ropetow near what is now the top of Silver Fir. A few years back I noticed a small shack next to a tower with a wheel on top. I think both are gone now. Never seen a map showing a tow there but my thought was that maybe it was there before the lift was installed, so pre-1988
I was there last weekend and chairs are still on the line, checked the webcam and it doesn’t look like anything has happened since then. Maybe they are working to complete International Chair footings first?
Lift Blog 
does anyone know about dinosaur lift if it was partly removed?
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All three of Hyak’s older doubles have been completely removed now. One a result of a rollback and the other two after a landslide. Tough times but Hyak still lives! More history here: http://www.chairlift.org/hyak.html
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The Dinosaur rollback incident was in 1971, but it reopened and operated until the late 1980s
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Yup. My dad was on patrol then, If I recall his stories correctly it wasn’t closed for long. I rode it quite a bit as a kid.
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The chairs stayed up until May 5th, 2009. There’s a video somewhere of when it came down. I think the mudslide at Hyak in Jan 2009 finally got Snoqualmie to tear it down, to put up a new lift in its place. They were selling many of the chairs, I wanted to buy one but was too young to drive myself up there at the time.
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Were was thunder bird at when it was being used?
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It ran from near the bottom of the current Little Thunder lift to the top of the knob above Beaver Lake and Wild Side. It was a cool old lift.
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half of the lift towers still exist, just imagine a line through them. the base was between dodge ridge chair and little thunder. You had to sidestep up a steep ramp to get to the lift, If was a weird setup.
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Does anybody have any pictures of the old beaver lake chairlift? Not including skilifts.org one. Thanks.
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I have an old Snoqualmie Summit “trailmap” and brochure from sometime around 1975-77 (have to check). It has two faded-and-fuzzy photos of the Beaver Lake chair (fully loaded, no less!) and run.
Would post them here but don’t know how — happy to do so if anyone can give me guidance on that.
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If they are digital, upload them to skimap.org. It usually takes a few hours for skimap.org to process new maps, but once it’s done, you can just copy the url to this page, and it will show up.
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How do you even visit beaver lake. I just can’t find it >:(
Is it closed?
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The lift isn’t there anymore; according to Peter’s database above it was removed in 1997. There’s still a run with that name, though, off the top of Wildside.
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I meant the run. It said go straight, and I went straight. I just saw a rope they put. Also, I can’t seem to find the trail on the map.
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That’s true, it’s not well marked. I assume it’s the run immediately inside the rope line after you pass the abandoned building and then stick skiers’ left. Unlike most of West it’s oriented directly north and sometimes holds better snow because of it.
https://goo.gl/maps/tH3xYmpq2fffKRbh9
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Ski patrol often has it all roped although much of it is skiable. On pow days there is always a lot of stashes to be found, but it is a very short run. I am old enough to have been able to ride the chair a few times, although it was rarely open. You actually rode the lift across the frozen lake and up a fairly steep pitch with some cliffs, kind of like a very short chair 17 at alpental. The whole wildside, although not hidden, remains a favorite semi forgotten area at the pass that is great with new snow.
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Yep! Check here: https://snoqualmieoldlifts.weebly.com/
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Peter
Any word on replacement of the Holiday chair at Summit Central? Also, any word on the chair in the master plan that goes to the bowls at Alpental?
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Now we know things are moving! The Summit is one of those mountains that could build a lift a year for the next ten and still not be totally caught up on infrastructure.
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The new Holiday Detachable Quad is now operating in 2020
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It’s a fixed grip.
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I can confirm that Easy Rider has been removed. The upper and lower stations, and the towers remain, but that’s it.
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Much of Easy Rider was moved to the “back side” called Hidden Valley.
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Hidden valley is a frankenlift. Built from the two Riblets taken out by the landslide.
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Which two? There was one, to my knowledge, which was the old Chair 3 at Hyak.
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one was easy rider, idk about the other one. maybe keechelus?
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There doesn’t appear to be any Thiokol on Hidden Valley.
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Sorry, old guy remembering things. Chair 3 and Keechelus were the same lift. Snoqualmie changed the terminology after they took ownership of Hyak.
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You mean EASY GOLD
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Guess so. I knew it as chair 2.
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You are correct. The Hidden Valley double was not a simple relocation of Keechelus, it used components from both Keechelus and Easy Gold along with parts from older Riblets the Summit had in storage (with all the Riblets they’ve scrapped you’d think they have an entire warehouse full of parts).
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i find this the best way to understand the CRAZY layout of tSaS
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It also helps to remember that there are four separate ski areas. Not really all that crazy when you think of it that way.
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I think it’s up for debate whether to count it as four ski areas or two. Depends on whether you count Summit Central, East, and West as separate areas or as one individual ski hill (since they all have crossover trails connecting one another).
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I disagree. They were developed as four separate ski areas- Hyak, Ski Acres, Snoqualmie, and Alpental- and the crossovers were added later after they fell under common ownership. One can use those trails to get from one area to another, but especially between Hyak and Ski Acres there is some distance.
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To beginners / low intermediates, it skis like 4 separate areas- people tend to pick a base area and stay there. For more competent skiers, the choice between East, Central, and West is more a matter of what’s open and where you can find convenient parking. The crossovers are no big deal- although I totally agree it wouldn’t make sense to park at East if you’re planning to ski at West, or vice versa.
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I’ve been skiing at Snoqualmie a lot lately, and I came up with these upgrades as a thought experiment:
– Replace Central Express with a new CLD-6 with a capacity upgrade to 3,000pph. “Central 6” could be a signature lift, introduced with a splash like Boyne has been doing recently. It’s the main lift for intermediate terrain at the entire Summit, and it’s open 13 hours/day. A sexy new, higher-capacity lift could be an effective and timely marketing strategy in a region fed up with the traffic & parking woes at Stevens & Crystal.
– Take the existing Central Express, which is 22 years old but presumably has high hours, and move it to Pacific Crest. I’d think this would extend the chair’s life since Pac Crest is open far fewer hours- as of this year, it’s 2 full days plus 3 evenings/wk. Although it’s the same capacity-wise, I believe a detachable at Pac Crest would reduce wait times on that lift. PC is the first lift many people go to when they’re ready to move off green runs, but after teaching my kid to ski there it seems like the lift stops frequently due to mishaps on that loading carpet.
– Move the existing Pacific Crest, loading carpet & all, to elsewhere at West. This could upgrade Wildside, be the newly re-aligned Dodge Ridge, or anchor the new infill runs between Summit West & Central depending on what the terrain there requires. Another option would be to move the old Pacific Crest to Triple60 to increase capacity there (their master plan calls for a Triple60 detachable, but I’m not totally sure why).
– Add more beginner capacity. This could be Gallery, Reggie’s, Julie’s, or the proposed new ski school lift at central.
– I know there are new lifts planned for Alpental, but I don’t think a detachable on International be a net benefit to the skiing there…
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Turning central express into a sixer would exceed the the terrain capacity I think. Alpine Bowl is already insane on busy weekends
It would be nice to put the removed Easy Rider chair up between central express and triple 60 to access all that easy terrain and help relieve the load on holiday.
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it says “This planned project will provide easier access to the chair, plus increased uphill capacity by replacing with a quad chair, and better flow on-mountain.” it didnt say a thing about detachable quad. am i missing something? i saw it from here https://summitatsnoqualmie.com/master-development-plan
also whats the back bowls lift? international?
last question what’s this http://skilifts.org/old/images/resort_images/wa-snoqualmie/mountaineers/mountaineers.htm
private lift?
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Their master plan “summary map” has Triple 60 labeled as a detachable quad (DC-4) https://summitatsnoqualmie.com/Documents/Summit/general/summit-mdp_map.pdf
I don’t believe that obligates them to build it as a detachable, only that they have permission to do so from the Forest Service if they want.
Nobody would complain about a detachable Triple 60, I just think there are other ways to spend all that money that’d give them a bigger bang for their buck.
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It’s right next to the lodge, so it will be easy to access. It will be bigger, maybe 3/4ths the size of central. So a high speed quad kind of makes sense
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The land in between Summit West (Snoqualmie Summit) and Summit Central (Ski Acres) used to be a rope-tow ski area owned and operated by the Mountaineers Club, in connection with a lodge they had there. I believe the tows shut down years before the lodge burned.
https://www.mountaineers.org/blog/former-mountaineers-snoqualmie-lodge-property-to-be-sold
They still have lodges at Stevens and Baker, and one with their own tows near Stampede Pass (Meany Lodge).
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They should move Pac Crest into the new realigned dodge ridge, and take dodge ridge to make Baby/Northwest
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THAT’S LITERALLY WHAT THEY’RE DOING
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From looking at that map, I think they should take the old Swift Current lift from Big Sky and reinstall it as a Slide Brook type lift between Alpental and the rest of the resort. Then it could all be connected.
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They’d have to potentially rope evacuate skiers onto an interstate freeway in that scenario
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A gondola might be more practical, as well as maybe a wildlife crossing bridge for it to cross I-90 with so that I-90 wouldn’t have to be closed during rope evacs.
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I’m not confident they could get permission to cross 7 lanes of interstate highway with a chairlift. Is there any lift anywhere that does that? I know Loveland but I-70 is in a tunnel at that point.
I also don’t think the lift would get many riders. People who ski at Alpental for the steeps generally aren’t very interested in the other areas. It would probably only run on weekends and be more of a novelty than anything.
If they were looking for a novelty lift, a low-capacity top-to-bottom tram at Alpental would generate interest and could provide some summer sightseeing revenue. All in all, though, I’d rather see them invest in other needed updates from their master plan.
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Cascade does that. Not a highway, though. They would need a gondola. I don’t think they will want to do that, because no one will really use the gondola. First, Alpental is only open for unlimited pass holders in the weekends. If you want to ski there, then park there. No one would want to park at west, and then take the gondola. Also, people in Alpental don’t want to go to west. They want hard terrain, and West has the exact opposite of what they want. And obviously, The Summit will have to spend a massive amount of money to build the gondola when like, no one really wants to go on it.
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Central 6, Pacific Crest to re-use HS Quad and PC to Dodge Ridge Re-Alignment are all easy slam dunks. Triple 60 should be replace with Fixed Grip Quad as you get the same capacity which is only needed on busy weekends for 2mm less in cost. Triple 60 would then best be re-used for the Sessel replacement & extension at Alpental. This would actually create an intermediate zone that removes the often non-existent Cascade traverse on the lower mountain. It would also take a fair amount of line pressure off Armstrong on busy weekends while ski school is running who are mainly accessing Lower International. All in 2 new lifts and 3 existing lift moves would dramatically improve ski flow and line times on weekends.
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There’re taking the old Swift Current lift and putting it where triple 60 is after the realignment. Central Express is probably not gonna get replaced, but I know Pacific Crest will be replaced with a six-place, Northwest and baby will be made with Dodge Ridge/Sessel/Beaver Creek/ Alpine/Bonanza/Edelweiss/Holiday/Gallery parts.
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They should upgrade Triple 60. In the weekends, Central express and Silver Fir get too crowded. Triple 60 is not as much. But it takes a while to get up.
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If you look closely at Alpental, They had some sort of International Chairlift, but it’s a double.
Also they can build Baby and Northwest with leftover Riblets from Alpine Bowl (if they aren’t used for something else).
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The lift you’re referring to was a platter serving the blue section of Lower Internationale. It rarely ran and was removed in the 90s.
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Thunderbird pics
http://www.chairlift.org/pics/snoqsummit/sno11jpg
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forget replacing anything, just operate all the lifts they currently have that sit closed 90% of the time and the area would have much shorter lines. BTW don’t touch wildside, it doesn’t need any more attention brought to that little nugget of heaven that most people disregard.
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Great pics of that old lift. I still can’t believe they took it out. To my knowledge it was the first true ski lift in WA. I still remember when power would go down and they would start up the v8 gas engine coupled to the original automotive transmission to keep it running.
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https://www.fs.usda.gov/nfs/11558/www/nepa/5617_FSPLT1_018229.pdf in chapter 2.6 phasing, what’s the pulse gondola?
there is a gondola is here https://www.fs.usda.gov/nfs/11558/www/nepa/5617_FSPLT1_018217.pdf and https://www.fs.usda.gov/nfs/11558/www/nepa/5617_FSPLT1_018216.pdf
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It was one of “alternatives considered but eliminated from future study”. https://www.fs.usda.gov/nfs/11558/www/nepa/5617_FSPLT1_018223.pdf
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I think the unnamed platter is called “Vier” because it says https://www.fs.usda.gov/nfs/11558/www/nepa/5617_FSPLT1_018223.pdf 1.2.1
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also what is “drei” https://www.fs.usda.gov/nfs/11558/www/nepa/5617_FSPLT1_018079.pdf 4.1
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Well, it’s German for “three”, and they seem to have a faux-German theme..
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That is true, because it had eins, zwei, and drei
During its first year of business, Alpental looked quite different. It only had chairs 1, 2 and 3 (then called eins, zwei and drei lift), 3 rope tows on St. Bernard, and 2 rope tows across the road at the base of Snoqualmie Mtn. Only the Alpental Lodge existed (called the “Unterhaus”), not the Denny Lodge. Facilities available included “ice skating”. It even seems that the fork in Alpental road across from the Alpenrose condos was open. The right fork (now the main road) went to the overnight lot, and lot 1, and dead ended. The left fork went past the lodge to provide access to lot 2, the last lot at the time.
The difficulties of the slopes were marked by the standard at the time: SQUARE = Easy TRIANGLE = More Difficult CIRCLE = Most Difficult. The 5 marked runs were “Edelweiss – Triangle”, “Eisfallen – Triangle”, “Internationale – Circle”, “Lower Internationale – Triangle” and “Meister – Triangle” (which included present day Debbie’s Gold). It was said that “other runs north of the summit house are planned”, indicating the backcountry potential, and that “some can be skied at present by self-sufficient experts”.
from: http://www.alpental.com/history_-_alpental.htm
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Maybe they called
Debbie Armstrong -> Eins
Edelweiss -> Zwei
Sessel -> Drei
Because that’s the number here https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=dbxHJUQ2&id=F782DC875DB385EC47BD322818429A3E2AC4AF7C&thid=OIP.dbxHJUQ2HeakmRkU0bGJWwHaEP&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2fth.bing.com%2fth%2fid%2fR75bc472544361de6a4991914d1b1895b%3frik%3dfK%252fEKj6aQhgoMg%26riu%3dhttp%253a%252f%252fs3.onthesnow.com%252fimages%252ftrailmaps%252fwashington%252falpental%252f20140916164255%252fxlarge.jpg%26ehk%3diRHDIvXo%252bRbzlAWDgpKV3A%252f%252fVCVjo7ScgDgztkUjpX0%253d%26risl%3d%26pid%3dImgRaw&exph=1432&expw=2500&q=alpental+map&simid=608035372596331003&ck=3ACF8A62C18B6F7E04008720747C9586&selectedIndex=0&adlt=strict&FORM=IRPRST
also what is this? https://tse1.mm.bing.net/th/id/OIP._OptxtXK-Uo-P_BpMsFw7gHaFj?w=248&h=186&c=7&o=5&dpr=1.5&pid=1.7
I can’t understand it.
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Drei is the MC at alpental
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Eins, zwei and drei were the ropetows, not the chairs. As far as I know chairs were only referred to by numbers (in English) until they were given names in the ‘80s. One of the tows, probably drei, survived until relatively recently.
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Correct.
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You’re correct- what’s now called Armstrong Express was originally chair 1, Edelweiss is chair 2, and Sessel is chair 3 (St Bernard is 4, if you’re following along). Those are the German words for the numbers. I’m not seeing what your link is about though.
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which one?
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The second one where you say you ‘can’t understand it’.
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https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=%2fOptxtXK&id=99CFBDD85D88D6AB8394D299F509A6C78C546A19&thid=OIP._OptxtXK-Uo-P_BpMsFw7gHaFj&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2fskimap.org%2fdata%2f194%2f232%2f1274796244.jpg&exph=375&expw=500&q=alpental+old+maps&simid=608046616808785873&ck=D57293268F8DA7E0A5D9EE4FC94897AE&selectedIndex=0&adlt=strict&FORM=IRPRST&ajaxhist=0
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To reduce the lines at Central they can make a new chair or platter that only goes to the park. That way the people who ski park can ski there. Also they should keep Triple 60’s bottom terminal a little lower so people can easily access it and more people will use it. If they make it a DC-4, that will attract more people, too. Also, if they make mountaineers a blue, which they should because it’s like the easiest black and more people who want to ski blues move from central to triple 60. It can be like outback. For silver fir they should split it in two. one to get up, another for the blacks. That way you don’t have to ski all the way down where there is a huge line.
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I like the idea of a dedicated lift just for the park, but I’m not sure there’s enough room at the top for another lift terminal. I’d rather see them upgrade Central Express to a 6 person detachable to add capacity. Although it would be more expensive up front, it’d be cheaper to operate & maintain a single lift than building a second lift on the same alignment. Also, with the way they run the place, the second lift would probably be closed most of the time anyway (just like Gallery, Reggie’s, Easy Street, Dodge Ridge, Julie’s…)
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That is true, so they will probably have to make it High Speed Six
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Also what is Creek Run? https://www.fs.usda.gov/nfs/11558/www/nepa/5617_FSPLT1_018106.pdf
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Right now it’s a green circle over at East, but looks like that’s their placeholder name for a potential infill lift between East and Silver Fir. I’m skeptical that’ll ever happen. They should start actually utilizing the beginner terrain they already have before building more of it.
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I think it got rejected because it’s not in this:https://summitatsnoqualmie.com/Documents/Summit/general/summit-mdp_map.pdf
It’s just in the documents.
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I haven’t heard anything about developing the former Mountaineers property between Summit West and Central. It is private land that Boyne acquired a few years back. Anyone heard anything?
https://www.thenewstribune.com/outdoors/article68914322.html
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I’ve heard that they are going to build a chair, but that was a lift attendant. It’s a nice run with a lot of pow and jumps.
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Old ski jumping image at beaver lake https://th.bing.com/th/id/Rf7fdafd396de3b5f295db279c8eabd2f?rik=fdudrppN8tIaDA&riu=http%3a%2f%2fwww.skisprungschanzen.com%2fphotos%2fusa%2fsnoqualmiepass_summit%2f08.jpg&ehk=C9yIro8QNzg55jVIUtpoZCBzcWdBKYb1lz0u9Ymldd4%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw (my pfp is also a ski jumping image) and a old lift https://www.historylink.org/Content/Media/Photos/Large/snoqlift.JPG
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Are they going to replace Edelweiss soon? It will be hard, but I mean they have to do it at some point.
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I would think that with the amount of Riblets that they have removed and scrapped that they have the parts for Edelweiss. Yes, it’s old, but with the right parts, it shouldn’t need to be replaced. They have scrapped 6 Riblet doubles, which means that they have more than enough parts for Edelweiss. It’s also a primary lift, so it should have priority for parts.
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That’s true, but the demand for the chair is pretty big. Good thing Snoqualmie made Alpental for unlimited pass holders
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Also doesn’t superior tramway still make parts for riblets?
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I don’t think so
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http://www.superiortramway.com/
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The main page still exists but all the things on the side where you can see parts appear to have error codes when you click on them.
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They’re still in business:
https://liftblog.com/2021/01/01/news-roundup-new-year/
Or they were earlier this year.
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oop nvm it does make parts
“Since 1981 Superior Tramway Company has been serving the tramway industry with quality lift parts. We stock parts for Riblet, Heron, Heron-Poma and of course Superior chair lifts at our shop in Spokane. This equipment covers many aspects of an aerial tramway including line machinery, chair assemblies, line sheaves, chair clips, derail protection systems, tension systems, drive terminals, brake systems and rigging equipment.”
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Found an old Seattle Times about Single Chair:
https://seattletimes.newsbank.com/doc/image/v2%3A127D718D1E33F961%40NGPA-WAST-12AF3CE01B2CBE87%402433341-12A50F8EECA6308A%4023-12A50F8EECA6308A%40?search_terms=chairlift&text=chairlift&content_added=&date_from=&date_to=&pub%255B0%255D=127D718D1E33F961&sort=old&pdate=1950-02-28
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Looks like a Riblet to me. Specifically a reuse of their design from the Magic Mile lift. Also, I believe the install date for this one was 1949.
(Pictures linked from this Flickr account: https://flickr.com/photos/24557522@N07)
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Nice find!
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What lift was the Hall T-bar in the 2nd pic?
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pretty sure they had a j bar, idk about the t bar
heres a video: https://summitatsnoqualmie.com/history
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Looks like it. Here’s a closer up picture
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If you look closely, you can see two people riding the lift in the 2nd pic above.
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I’m guessing that’s near Holiday, maybe Greenhorn Acres, because there are a lot of skiers skiing pizza. How come there are no trees?
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The j-bar was replaced by gallery in 1967.
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Did anyone notice that the backrests looked newer
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They should put rope tows in some places because the climb to Triple 60 sucks. I wonder what happened to the rope tows since they used to have them. Like why did they remove them?
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Jaded perspective, maybe, but modern skiers find them too difficult.
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I went to West for the first time this season and found old lift towers and stations, including Beaver Lake. (Yes, I finally found it after asking Ski Patrol)
I don’t know how to upload images here so I put it in a website https://snoqualmieoldlifts.weebly.com/
(Original Pictures)
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Peter you are missing “backside” lift http://hyak.net/lifts.html
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and here are photos: http://hyak.net/pics/hyak_old.html
http://www.hyak.net/pics/pic2.html
http://hyak.net/pics/pic1.html
http://hyak.net/hyak/pics/vintage/vintage.html
http://www.hyak.net/pics/pic4.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hyak/sets/72157607435016651/detail/
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It was part of Donosaur. Up and over lift.
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and alpine bowl! http://hyak.net/cam9899/82398.html
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What was the point of the old Beaver Lake lift? It looked pretty pointless to have short a redundant lift that really only served one run. Shouldn’t it have been removed once Wildside was installed?
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For some reason thats what west did so they had like 10 lifts. it was taken out. honestly i thik it was there so you can come from Pac-Crest to the top of WIldside without going all the way down and all the way back up.
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Because 2 minutes of a lift ride needed to be saved? With Thunderbird running, the summit would already have had at least 2400 pph for only ~4 runs, all being advanced. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to relocate Beaver Lake after 1974 to expand closer to Ski Acres to connect the two?
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Back then Mountaineers was in the way. It was still private property.
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Beaver Lake was removed the summer Pacific Crest was built. T-bird was already there when Beaver Lake was built (although there was a rope tow before the lift). No, Beaver Lake was its own thing and not part of any lift link-up. The terrain was just underutilised and not popular enough to warrant a lift and full operator staff, as I recall.
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Does anyone have any photos of the beaver lake lift or the 360 bowl one, I have been honestly looking for yrs, thanks!
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Yes! https://Old-Snoqualmie-Lifts.storymaster.repl.co
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Hi, are you the one running that page? I appreciate the photos and it’s nicely compiled but there’s one mistake on the Ski Acres page. The towers you have listed as “Single Chair” are actually from Alpine Bowl. The Single chair was where Triple 60 is now, and it’s towers have been dispersed around the area for use as light poles. They are red metal colored lattice towers. There’s one at the top of the Parachute run.
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the link doesnt work
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It’s working for me. Try pasting it into your browser.
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Is Central going to be open this weekend?
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There are now 17 pictures here https://snoqualmie-old-lifts.storymaster.repl.co/
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What you call ‘Backside’ was actually called Hidden Valley. And I was disappointed- I thought you had photos of the lifts when they were running :( I remember all of them but most were removed when I was in middle school or high school so the memories are a bit fuzzy.
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No it was part of Dinosaur and it was called Backside. I’m sorry I don’t have those photos, but I’m trying to do the best I can and still find those before they get completely removed or destroyed by nature.
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I’m aware it was part of Dinosaur/chair 1. My dad worked there in the sixties when it was the only chairlift (the rest were Poma platters) and then again in the early eighties. I skied there a bunch and I never heard it called Backside.
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The Summit at Snoqualmie calls it Backside: https://www.fs.usda.gov/nfs/11558/www/nepa/5617_FSPLT1_018078.pdf
I also remember there being a rope tow.
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They must have changed the name at some point. I also remember the rope tow- it was between the bottom of chairs 1 and 2 (Dinosaur and Easy Gold).
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Also- https://skimap.org/data/194/2200/1444083937.jpeg shows it called Hidden Valley. I’m guessing it was after Snoqualmie bought Hyak that the name was changed.
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Nice map. The tow I remembered was a tow near Keechelus and Dinosaur at the top of Mt. Hyak.
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The map for the mtb park is here: https://www.evergreenmtb.org/trails/projects/the-summit-at-snoqualmie-project (click on the project brochure and it will download a pdf version of the map.
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On the most recent Storm Skiing Podcast episode (#63 Smuggler’s Notch), the host mentioned that Snoqualmie apparently bought all of Riblet’s machining equipment when they went out of business, so they have a full service Riblet parts shop. Mentioned around 52:10 in the episode.
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lol, such a Chad move.
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One of the lifts that was at alpental https://mountainscholar.org/bitstream/handle/11124/9239/R1063.jpg?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
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Bottom of old chair 1.
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I am wondering if anyone remembers a ropetow near what is now the top of Silver Fir. A few years back I noticed a small shack next to a tower with a wheel on top. I think both are gone now. Never seen a map showing a tow there but my thought was that maybe it was there before the lift was installed, so pre-1988
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mayyyyyybe it was the pre-silver fir tow because silver fir terrain was added in 1986 but the chair was 1988.
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hi peter, single chair was constructed in 1949
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Peter please post some images of hidden valley
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Found a cool piece in the Seattle Times about the opening of Alpental in 1967:
https://seattletimessubs.newsbank.com/doc/image/v2:127D718D1E33F961@NGPA-WASTS-12D5CC01544A8C33@2439688-12D576D4DDD840D7@152?pdate=1967-07-16
Pages 153-157
Not sure if this is a paywall or not – I can print PDF if people any unable to view
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Yup, appears to be a paywall. Shame, I’d be very interested to read that as my pa was on the lift construction crew that summer.
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Here you go:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fWfdFPXNQkIxI–ZnlzEClsubrV8CNgK/view?usp=share_link
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Original alpine lift on page 2: https://www.ancientskiers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Fall-Newsletter-2015.pdf
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Any news about the new Sessel triple? Heard that it might have a mid-station for St. Bernard beginners.
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I was there last weekend and chairs are still on the line, checked the webcam and it doesn’t look like anything has happened since then. Maybe they are working to complete International Chair footings first?
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they’ve announced that Edelweiss will stay for one more season, and Wildside will be replaced this summer instead.
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Do you guys know what this “Hidden Valley” chair is? Was it just the back side of Dinosaur?
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Yes.
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