Timberline Lodge ski area

Ski area in Oregon, United States

Timberline Lodge ski area is the ski and snowboarding area of Timberline Lodge, a National Historic Landmark in the U. S. state of Oregon. It is one of a few ski areas in the United States with most of the skiable terrain below the main lodge. It is located on the south face of Mount Hood, about 60 miles (95 km) east of Portland, accessible via the Mount Hood Scenic Byway.

The lodge was constructed between 1936 and 1938 as a Works Progress Administration project during the Great Depression. That year, Timberline opened as Oregon's first destination ski resort with a portable rope tow. The next year, the Magic Mile chairlift opened, as well as Silcox Hut, which sits about one thousand vertical feet (300 m) and a mile (1.6 km) above the main lodge, and was the original unloading and warming hut. Summer skiing and summer race camps began at Timberline in 1956. Before the Palmer chairlift was constructed in 1983 (which provides access above the 7000 feet (2134 m) level), the conditions at Timberline allowed skiing from the Mile November through July or August. With the Palmer, a skiable surface is available year round. Timberline is the only ski area in the states with lift accessed skiing and snowboarding all twelve months of the year. Ski and snowboard camps draw thousands of people to the slopes during the months of June, July and August.

The Magic Mile chairlift was the longest chairlift in the world, and the second chairlift, of those built to be a chairlift when it opened in 1939. Financial troubles operating the Lodge and World War II closed it for several years during the 1940s and 1950s. The ski area has successfully operated since 1956.

The original Palmer chairlift opened for 1978 summer ski season on May 8. It was a fixed double chair in basically the same location as the present chair, with the base station near Silcox Hut. The current Palmer chairlift was completed in 1996, and is built to withstand wind gusts of over and of snow. Its construction time was less than six months due to a limited building season imposed by the local weather conditions.

The Jeff Flood Express detachable high speed quad chair opened for the 2007 2008 ski season. With the new lift, Timberline added the Still Creek Basin to skiable terrain on the lower mountain which almost doubles the area below the timberline, which provides much needed capacity on days with wind or limited visibility when the Magic Mile and Palmer are unable to open. Jeff Flood also improves connectivity to Stormin' Normin and Magic Mile lifts from the lower mountain. Thanks to the added terrain accessible from Jeff Flood, if the Palmer lift is open, it is possible to ski a non stop run over 3.5 mile (6 km) in length with elevation change of about 4000 feet (1219 m). As of 2019, information has been leaked that there will eventually be a gondola that connects Summit Ski Area to Timberline Lodge. Not much is known about this project, except for the fact that it could be completed in the next 10 years. In 2020, the Pucci chairlift, which used to be a triple fixed grip lift, was replaced with a quad detachable lift.

Timberline hosts dozens of summer camps enrolling thousands of athletes throughout the summer: a busy mid week, mid season day has as many as 1,500 riders. Virtually every snow sport is offered in camps. Ski racing is the most popular, but snowboard and freeski camps are also popular. Mount Hood Summer Ski Camps have been a mainstay in the summer, hosting campers since the 1970s. The summer camps are mostly organized as week long sessions, with on snow activities in the morning and a variety of other activities in the afternoon, such as river rafting, mountain biking, hiking, trampoline, wind surfing, etc.

The Golden Rose Ski Classic is an annual race which began in 1936; World War II called off the event between 1942 and 1945. It is the oldest known organized ski race in America, and is the only USSA sanctioned summer race. It normally occurs early June as part of the Portland Rose Festival and attracts the world's top skiers. Previous winners include ski safety binding inventor Hjalmar Hvam (1937), 1948 Olympic gold medalist Gretchen Fraser (1938), John Frazer (1950), Howard Hermanson (1952), Christian Pravda (1954), Chris Ditfurth (1956), Ron Hebron (1957, 1961, 1963 and 1965), Kiki Cutter (1968), Steve Mahre (1974), Bill Johnson (1979 and 1981), Mary Mathews (1982), Phil Mahre (1983), Debbie Armstrong (1983), Eva Twardokens (1984), David Lyons (1984), Tamara McKinney, and David Lyons (1985). The Masters Summer Fun in the Sun is a ski race held mid July.