Bad News--Silver Fir getting new chair

Excellent story, thanks.

Reading about their choice of location, I was intrigued at what "might have been."

"Bob and I met for lunch and scrutinized a topographic map. The mountain had all the attributes for
which we were looking: north-facing slopes; 2,500-foot vertical rise and a 4,000-foot base elevation.
Unfortunately, it would require a five-mile access road, and the cost to maintain and plow the road
would be prohibitive."

Silver Peak?

Also, they talk about Chair 3. I've seen the concrete from the top chair of that hiking lower Nash area in the summer. I'll bet that was a fun chair.

Oh, one more thing, the helicopter crash could have been a story in itself, but he mentioned it as an "Oh, and by the way..."
I think I might have read somewhere (here) that there is still wreckage up on the mountain?

I wondered that too. Silver at 5605 isn't tall enough. The closest mountain at 6500+ to the Pass is Thompson, which wouldn't have been any good for skiing. Wonder if they were looking at the Chickamin-Four Brothers Ridge? It's about 5 miles (maybe more) up Gold Creek. That ridge also has smatterings of mining holdings at various levels of the slopes that could be privatized for their stated real estate needs (many claims again by the Dennys), though not sure about whether the head of Gold Creek had claims enough to make a base area out of. The "north facing slopes" would have been on the other side dropping towards Glacier and Spectacle Lakes.

If I recall correctly, there was mention in the article of possible expansion onto Snoqualmie Mt./Commonwealth basin in a long-shot attempt to try to get the Winter Olympics that may have included a tram to the top of Mt. Snoqualmie and skiing into Commonwealth, which would have made Alpental into a rather large ski area.

In Harvey Manning's book "The Alpine Lakes"  there is reference to Alpental's plans to expand onto Cave ridge and Snoqualmie Mtn.   

The Alpine Lakes Wilderness boundary snakes around Snoqualmie Mtn and Cave ridge -- preventing such an expansion.

Found this "Alpental History" page -- kind of interesting

I wondered that too. Silver at 5605 isn't tall enough. The closest mountain at 6500+ to the Pass is Thompson, which wouldn't have been any good for skiing. Wonder if they were looking at the Chickamin-Four Brothers Ridge? It's about 5 miles (maybe more) up Gold Creek. That ridge also has smatterings of mining holdings at various levels of the slopes that could be privatized for their stated real estate needs (many claims again by the Dennys), though not sure about whether the head of Gold Creek had claims enough to make a base area out of. The "north facing slopes" would have been on the other side dropping towards Glacier and Spectacle Lakes.

The north side of Alta Mt might fit that description too. Not quite 2500 vertical, but close. Can you imagine what it would have been like had they developed that area? With Chickamin as side-country, and steep lines dropping back down to the Gold Creek access road. Oh the possibilities.

I rode Silver fur today and though the fast lift was great I must say that there was clearly a different demographic -- seemed like a lot more teenage/early twenties guys on snowboards (and skis too), ability level averaging low intermediate, testoterone level high. The run below the lift mildly resembled an episode of Jack Ass -- lots of dudes pointing it, hitting blind rolls and jumps, eating shit pretty hard here and there.

I'm sure at that age I was essential similar, but today Silver Fur sure didn't feel like the relatively safe family fun zone it used to, and I'm sure it is the effect of the quad.

But anyway just a subjective perception on one morning ... I think maybe the new quad will lure people away from Hyak, which would be nice.

With the high winds this afternnon - the six minute ride today on Silver Fir was much more pleasant than the 12+ minutes of the old chair. Cross-over to Hyak still closed.

The "Central Park" is still a bit limited -- they don't have enough snow yet to build a lot of big features. Once there are big table tops et al in "Central Park" the twenty somethings may head back that way -- but today the stumps and boulders that are only partially covered on Silver Fir's "Insparation" run were the best hits at Central.

But yes it is different -- just like the old "Bonanza" run at Central is really no more -- it is just part of the terrain park -- and never develops moguls due to all the heel / butt checking constantly scraping it smooth.