Four New Chairlifts To Go Up This Summer On Washington Mountains
One of the features of heading up to ski and snowboard mountains in the summer is getting an early-bird peak at construction of new lifts that will debut next season.
In the Pacific Northwest, four mountains in Washington will replace aging chairlifts with upgraded versions this summer. Each project is aimed to increase uphill capacity -- either with speed or more seating -- and reduce stop-and-starts during operating hours.
As the state's largest ski and snowboard resort, Crystal Mountain (2,300 a., 2,472 vert.) is also one of the most popular. With limited overnight lodging, Crystal's lifts mainly serve day-trip skiers and riders from the Seattle-Tacoma metroplex. As such, weekend and holiday crowds can be daunting.
This summer, a brand-new Rainier Express high-speed quad will go in to replace a similar lift that is the oldest detachable high-speed chair in Washington (1988). The lift takes off from the mid-mountain terminal of the Chinook Express -- one of two lifts out of the base area.
Dependability is the goal here, as the lift will take about the same time -- less than five minutes -- to rise 1,600 vertical feet to the 6,872-foot summit.
To the north, Summit at Snoqualmie continues a multi-year lift upgrade at all four of its mountains. This summer at Alpental (825 a., 2,290 vert.), crews will take down the Edelweiss two-seater -- one of the oldest in the state (1967) -- and put up a fixed-grip triple in its stead.
The new chairlift will follow the same line up the expert-only shoulder of Denny Mountain (5,610) as its predecessor. Coupled with the new Internationale chair put in last year, a new Edelweiss will keep the hotshots up high on the mountain where they want to be.
Out to the east, White Pass (1,402 a., 2,052 vert.) is replacing its oldest chairlift with newer, larger fixed-grip version. Triple-seat Chair 4, aka Paradise, has been giving intermediates laps on the western shoulder of Pigtail Peak (6,000) since 1983.
Now, as a quad, it will put more folks on the upper-mountain blues as well as giving more of them access to the backside blue glades in the Basin area. It should also help shortening lines on other lifts on busy days.
And, in the Blue Mountains of Washington's far southeast corner, Bluewood (355 a., 1,125 vert.) is set to fire up its first high-speed detachable chairlift next winter. The workhorse Skyline Express, a fixed-grip triple, has been delivering eastern Washington skiers and riders from bottom to top since 1978.
The new chairlift should drastically reduce the current 11-minute ride time and 600 riders-per-hour capacity.
