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Upgrades proposed for Stevens Pass ski area

The Associated Press • Published January 27, 2009

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SKYKOMISH – New ski lifts, a mountaintop lodge and mountain biking improvements are being proposed for the Stevens Pass ski area, along with a phased environmental review process that is drawing some concern.

Mountain bikers are especially excited about the five miles of downhill trail that would be opened in the summer of 2010 under phase one of the proposal by Harbor Properties of Seattle, operator of the ski area, which is on U.S. Forest Service land along U.S. 2 about 60 miles east of Seattle.

The trails would be reached by the Hogsback chairlift and would include jumps, drops, and other special features, each with an optional bypass, designed to rival the mountain bike trails at Whistler, British Columbia. They would be the first to be reached by chairlift in Washington state.

"There is a definitely a big market for that kind of thing, and it's growing faster than there are places to ride," Adam Schaeffer, service manager at the Downhill Zone, a mountain bike shop in Seattle, told The Seattle Times.

Phase two includes a new chairlift, additional ski trails east of the summit and a new lodge at the top of the Skyline lift with hot food and year-round access by the winter of 2011.

Over the next 10 to 15 years the plan also calls for adding about 136 acres to the ski area to make boundaries more clear and improve better avalanche control, but no new development is planned on the additional land.

Overall, Harbor wants to boost the number of chairlifts to 15 from 12 and the number of trails to 237 on 938 acres from 130 on 588 acres.

"We definitely could use some more lifts and lodge capacity," said Bob Burton of Seattle, president of the board of directors of the Stevens Pass Alpine Club. "It's very crowded on the weekend, and we would look forward to some new lifts and trails to give us some additional ski areas."

Stevens Pass is the last major ski area close to Seattle area with an expansion proposal and the first the Forest Service and developer have proposed for review under a phased environmental analysis rather than a complete environmental impact statement on the complete master plan.