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Document Type

Article

Description

In the fall of 1937, Ski Lifts, Inc., owned by James Parker, Chauncey Griggs and others, built rope tows at Snoqualmie Summit, Mount Rainier and Mount Baker, bringing the latest in ski technology to the northwest. Those lifts transformed local skiing, as skiers no longer had to hike up hills with skins on their skis for a short run down, but could ride to the top and take what seemed like unlimited runs throughout the day.

Publication Date

8-3-2020

Publisher

John W. Lundin

Keywords

downhill skiing, Pacific Northwest

Disciplines

United States History

Comments

John W. Lundin is a lawyer, historian and author with homes in Seattle and Sun Valley, and is a founding member of the Washington Statee Ski and Snowboard Museum. He has written extensively about Washington and Idaho history and is a frequent lecturer on history topics. His essays have appeared in Skiing History, Nordic Kultur, and Historylink.org, the on-line encyclopedia of Washington history (19, 14 about ski history). He is the author of Early Skiing on Snoqualmie Pass, named outstanding regional ski history book of 2018 by the International Ski History Association; Sun Valley, Ketchum and the Wood River Valley, published in June 2020; Skiing Sun Valley, a History from Union Pacific to the Holdings, to be published on November 9, 2020; and Ski Jumping in Washington - A Nordic Tradition, to be published in January 2021. He learned to ski on Snoqualmie Pass in the 1950s, using wooden skis, leather boots, cable bindings, and riding rope tows, and was a member of Sahalie Ski Club that opened on Snoqualmie Pass in 1932.

Ski Lifts, Inc. Bring Tows to the Northwest

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