February 2006

Historic Ski Lodge Evokes Memories

It would make the perfect subject for an entire trivia game: What National Historic Landmark sits on the flanks of a dormant volcano? What mountain lodge dedicated by a President has served as a movie backdrop? Where did Olympic ski teams go for summer training in the 1950s and ‘60s? Where was the world’s second chairlift built? Where is the only resort in the world that can be skied 355 days a year on lift-served slopes?

The answer to all the above? Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood in Oregon.

The lodge was built in 1937 when the Works Progress Administration/Civilian Conservation Corps undertook a make-work project employing more than 500 local men and women struggling through the Great Depression. These artisans, craftsmen and laborers poured their hearts into their task of building a Cascadian lodge on Mt. Hood.

A hexagonal stone fireplace, 92 feet tall and 14 feet in diameter, was assembled from 400 tons of stone and capped with a 750-pound bronze and brass weathervane. Thirty-foot logs from nearby Mt. Adams were shaped into hexagonal pillars three feet in diameter. A 700-pound hunk of Ponderosa pine was hand-carved to form the main (upstairs) front door. Loaded with 400 pounds of hand-forged ironware, hinges, latch and knocker, it is so well balanced that it opens with a light touch.

Cedar newel posts on the stairways were carved in the likeness of bears, beavers, coyotes, wildcats and badgers. Handcrafted furnishings were installed in the rooms, and the spirit of Northwest Native Americans was honored in woodcarvings and wrought iron designs.

Opening Celebration
In June 1937, over 3,000 people attended the lodge’s open house and watched the Golden Rose Ski Race, which has become the longest continually run ski race in the world. President Franklin D. Roosevelt made the official dedication in September of that year.

When the Magic Mile chairlift began operation in 1938, transporting 255 passengers an hour, it was the second chairlift in the world (Sun Valley being first). It also was the first with metal towers, and the longest (4,950 feet). Sometimes the snow fell so deep that in places you ascended between snow banks as tall as your head. Two decades later the Pucci chair was installed in the location developed by future clothing designer Emilio Pucci while he was a young skier and student at Reed College in Portland.

Meanwhile, the Palmer snowfield beckoned summer skiers to upper reaches of the mountain. Permanent and stationary (unlike a glacier), it offered 450 acres covered in 30 feet of snow. A portable Poma tow was set up in 1956, and the Timberline Race Camp was under way. Eventually the site played host to national ski teams and academies from all over the United States, Canada and Japan. The summer of 1978 heralded the first lift-serviced summer skiing in the United States with the installation of the Palmer Chair.

Cherished History
I am one of a long line of skiers who have been coming to Timberline Lodge for decades.

I recall Christmas Eves when we made our way up a winding, snow-banked road to reach the great room of the lodge, where we sang carols by candlelight while fires blazed in the massive fireplace. Santa would pull up on his sleigh, bring Rudolph into the lodge, and pass out gifts to the children. It was a magical setting, with the handsome wood railings decked in fragrant evergreen garlands, a dozen ornamented fir trees reaching high into the two-story rafters, and huge snowflakes fluttering to earth outside the enormous windows.

Twenty-some winters I spent teaching on these slopes, appreciating the perfect terrain that encouraged aspiring novices. As the freestyle rage of the late 1960s arrived, I sought out trails like West Pitch on which to teach Daffys and Shoulder Rolls, and the wide forgiving slopes of the East Mile on which to perfect Royale Christies and Kahua Thumpers. When I moved up the ranks and was put in charge of instructor training, I gratefully welcomed the deep, early November snowfalls that allowed time to groom teachers, and the delightful, forgiving spring corn to help experienced instructors hone up for their certification exams.

Movie Location
Over the years, the resort has continued to expand. Always the perfect family area, Timberline offers enough challenge to tickle the fancy of the hardcore while excelling in fun, playful runs. One example is an open slope east of the Magic Mile named for Otto Lang, who taught a pre-war generation to love skiing at Timberline before he gave up instructing and headed to Hollywood to make movies.

Then Hollywood discovered Otto’s old haunt. I remember how odd it appeared, seeing my familiar ski terrain overrun with a movie crew and actors dressed as soldiers, transforming my winter playground into a World War II battlefield as they filmed All the Young Men. Besides this epic, which starred Alan Ladd and Sidney Poitier, Timberline provided the background for a number of films, including the 1972 version of James Hilton’s Lost Horizon, Bend in the River with James Stewart, and The Shining directed by Stanley Kubrick.

In 1981, the 40,000-square-foot Wy’east Day Lodge was built to accommodate the increasing numbers of visitors, now topping one million each year. Housing all skier services, it complements the structure of the original lodge and is decorated with enameled metal friezes, airbrushed and silk-screened pieces, glass sculptures and partitions, and hand woven tapestries.

Non-snowsliders can enjoy a winter visit via snowshoe trek or, weather permitting, a Magic Mile Sky Ride to soak up the panoramic view. Foothills interlaced with lakes and the frosted runs of lower-elevation ski areas unfold at your feet. On the southern horizon are snow-capped Mt. Jefferson and the mountains known as the Three Sisters. The uphill view from Timberline encompasses Crater Rock, Illumination Point, and the craggy remains of the old crater.

Whether you journey here to slide on her wintry trails, play on her sun-drenched summer slopes, or marvel at the magnificence of the lodge, visitors to Timberline will not be disappointed.

Vicki Andersen, a freelance writer from Portland, Oregon, specializes in adventure travel, skiing, snowmobiling and motorcycling. She is a member of the Society of American Travel Writers and the North American Snowsports Journalists Assn. She can be reached at skicat1@comcast.net