Skiers, snowboarders might finally get to use new lifts this season

What’s brand spanking new in the Washington ski scene this winter?

“Not much,” said John Gifford, president of the Pacific Northwest Ski Areas Association. After an abysmal 2014-15 winter, few ski areas can bankroll capital improvements.

What’s still new?

Plenty, says Guy Lawrence, marketing director at the Summit at Snoqualmie.

The Summit’s 2015-16 marketing campaign uses duct tape and cardboard to tell skiers and snowboarders about its new chairlift. It good-naturedly covers up the 2014-15 with 2015-16 as if it wishes it could forget last season.

The Summit spend $2 million installing the Rampart lift last year, and it didn’t get to carry a single customer in the 40 days the ski area was open.

Similarly, new additions at other ski areas around the state saw little or no action during the warm winter.

“So a lot of these things are still new for a lot of people,” Gifford said.

Here’s a closer look at what you probably missed last season:

SUMMIT UPGRADES

The Summit’s Rampart lift put the finishing touches on the Silver Fir and Summit East upgrades. The seven-year project included new lifts, new terrain and the 10,000-square-foot Silver Fir Lodge.

The lodge opened during the 2013-14 and it, too, still hasn’t seen a full ski season.

The new lift includes a conveyor belt loading system that delivers skiers and boarders to their chairlift seat. The Silver Fir and Summit East is the heart of the Summit’s intermediate terrain. By improving access and accommodations in the area, the state’s most popular ski area hopes to reduce weekend congestion in other areas.

CRYSTAL’S NEW LIFTS

Crystal Mountain spent $3.8 million on two new chairlifts last season, but neither got much action.

The resort put in a new Chair 6 lift before last season, replacing the lift that was destroyed by an avalanche in March 2014. It also replaced the 49-year-old Quicksilver in an effort to upgrade its learning area.

Chair 6 services the experts-only terrain of Campbell Basin and the Southback backcountry. The new chair is similar to the predecessor, but the seats are nearly twice as heavy and could reduce the number of days the lift needs to be closed because of strong wind.

The new Quicksilver lift is a fixed-grip quad that can haul 1,800 skiers per hour. Ride time is now 7.6 minutes, about half the time of the predecessor.

THE MUSEUM

On Oct. 10, the museum near the Summit West base area finally held its grand opening party. A third of the state’s 39 Olympic skiers and snowboarder were in attendance, including gold medalists Phil Mahre and Debbie Armstrong.

Armstrong’s gold medal and one of Mahre’s three World Cup overall World Cup championship trophies are among the museum’s displays. Artifacts such as a working rope tow, wooden skis, Olympic paraphernalia and a single-seat chair are complemented by videos telling the sport’s history.

Moffett says the goal of the museum is to “honor legends of skiing, to, certainly, educate people and preserve history” and to introduce the sport to new people.

This story was originally published November 27, 2015 at 6:28 PM with the headline "Skiers, snowboarders might finally get to use new lifts this season."