6000 Foot Drop

Enumclaw WA: Crystal Mountain Installs Gondola for People to Watch

We heard jealous whining yesterday from pugetropolisors about our post on Whitewater BC and its new 2100 foot drop triple chair.  "Dont forget that Crystal Mountain is installing a top-to-bottom gondola this summer"... "2400 foot drop"..."only gondola in Washington or Oregon" etc. (or Texas or Missouri.)  

 

The Crystal-heads will discover this winter, however, that although the new 2400 foot drop gondola goes from the lodge to the summit house and its perfect view of Mt Rainier, real skiers will likely still use the Chinook quad (and car wash) and the Rainier Express quad (and ice-face-pelting machine) to get to the top.  Why? Because the new Crystal Gondola will only have 18 eight-person cabins and a capacity of only 450 skiers-per-hour!  Have you ever been in a Crystal Mountain liftline with fewer than 450 people?

 

Although Crystal Mountain will charge more for "gondola" lift tickets (just like they did in the early 90's with the class-warfare-inducing, pre-quad, "cut-in-line" tickets), presumably only lunch-seeking tourists will wait to ride it.   By contrast, the new Sun Valley gondola also whisks fur-clad lunch reservation beauties to the Roundhouse, but it does so with 56 eight-person cabins over a 2000 vertical foot ascent at 1800 skiers-per-hour.  The 25 year old Silver Queen Gondola at Aspen Ajax does its 3300 vertical foot ascent with 165 cabins at over 2000 skiers-per-hour.  And, the Silver Queen is self-loading. 

 

Plus, Aspen Ajax lets you partake one free nugget per ride.

 

But we're delighted that Crystal Mountain's owners are out to make it as good as any ski resort in Michigan.  No doubt Crystal Mountain has terrific slopes.  Five days a season, the snow conditions are acceptable.  Five days a season, the weather is acceptable.  One day every other season, the acceptable snow and weather come together and every cool person in Seattle can see each other in the liftlines.   6000footdrop.com found an old race-day roster from Crystal Mountain for March 12, 1974: "Weather -- monsoon.  43 degrees, raining and windy."  That part of Crystal Mountain (Mt. Hefty Bag) remains -- gondola or not.

 

See you this winter somewhere other than the Cascade Mountain Range!

Nelson BC: Ski Whitewater Master Plan Approved -- 2100 Foot Drop in 2010

Ski Whitewater, just south of Nelson in south-eastern BC, had its Master Plan approved by the Canadian bureaucrats (bureaucrats who go outside) this month. Whitewater's first new chairlift in 30 years is being installed right now.  

 

Whitewater sits at the end of a box canyon on opposing flanks of Mt Ymir (8000 feet.)  The old school Riblet double Summit and Silver King chairlifts top out at 6500 feet looking sideways at Ymir (and its ascending boot paths) and have kept Whitewater in the sub-1500 foot drop "fun but too small" club.  The new "Glory Ridge" lift under construction goes off the backside of Summit -- with a 2100 foot drop into the pow.  (This is the old High Noon triple from the Vail back bowls, moved on the tri-lateral international superhighway from Colorado to BC.)  Minus five points for not starting with a quad, but otherwise, bravo to you Whitewater! 

 

Our last visit to Whitewater in March 2009 met expectations -- nice snow, fun but short drops, kiwi lifties, no crowds, antique ski stuff, french fries and gravy, inexpensive lift tickets, vw busses in every color, people on the chair admitting to being in the cannabis business, etc.

 

Here's the Ski Whitewater website and trailmap.

The Whitewater Master Plan approved calls for at least six new chairs with over a 1000 foot drop -- including the new 2000 foot drop Glory Ridge Triple under construction and one cliff-climber "White Queen" with a 1800 foot rise in only 3500 feet of length (7th Heaven or Marta-type lift.)

Here is the very impressive mountie-approved Master Plan.  The long-delayed 6000 foot+ drops of Jumbo Glacier (BC) and Ski Bitterroot (MT) and their "ski-resort-on-the-drawing-board" plans could learn a thing or two from little WH2O and its moxie in installing the first lift even before the approval ink is dry.

 

Can Whitewater become a destination like its BC neighbors?   In order of crow-flying proximity): Red Mountain (2400 foot drop); Fernie (2800 foot drop); Apex (2000 foot drop); Panorama (4000 foot drop); Kicking Horse (4100 foot drop); Big White (2600 foot drop); Silver Star (2500 foot drop); or the new BC king Reve Reve Reve Revelstoke (5600 foot drop.) Nice neighbors! (For those geographically-inclined, ask yourself which US city is the closest to this pure skiing mecca of big drops.)

 

See you this winter at Whitewater!