10 replies to this topic

[highonprairiemtn]

I have (HAD) a dream of bringing skiing to small town Darrington, Washington. There is what I percieve to be a great location for skiing 15 minutes (or less) up a forest service road out of Darrington. Darrington is 30 miles from a growing population base (Arlington). I have started by inquiring with the forest service about a special use permit for cat serviced ski guiding. Their reply is simple, we have no funding to even consider any new use permits. I expected a lot of red tape, not a brick wall. The only outfitters around here are fishing guides. My real big dream was for lift service, but I thought a small buisness to get the special use going with the forest service would be a good way to start. I'm so fustrated by this, I guess you really do have to be a mega rich land devloper these days to get anything going. With the proposed land sales (Bush is selling off America) the forest service is looking at maybe I can find some investors in Seattle and just buy the ground! Well it feels better to have vented, but my view of the forest circus has changed forever!

[ccslider]

Yeah, unfortunately for you, the developer is supposed to bear all the costs of development including all the prerequisite environmental studies. Even if you had the $$ and a solid plan with no significant environmental impacts, the timeframe to get those studies completed and a decision notice recorded is more than just a cpouple years.

[Lift Dinosaur]

Unfortunately, as "ccslider" has stated the Forest Circus, a government entity, is indudated with "dreams". You need to show up with a business plan, funding for an E.I.S., a time frame, area usage, parking plan, development plan, etc etc etc. If and when you have your "ducks in a row", you can get put on their schedule ( shotgun) which will decimate your ducks.
And then after spending this time, money, and energy you will find, sadly, that the people of Darrington are happy the way they are and don't want your snowcat skiing / lift served area in their back yard!
Sad, but true.
My $0.02

[tcs]

Wasn't there a ski area in Darrington at one time?

TCS

[hyak.net]

tcs, on Feb 27 2006, 06:52 PM, said:

Wasn't there a ski area in Darrington at one time?

TCS

I was going to say, tell them you just want to re-open an are that already served skiing......(though I don't know exactly where that chunk of land is).

Darrington used to have a ski jump and ski runs cut, along with a warming hut/small lodge sometime in the 1940s.

[highonprairiemtn]

hyak.net, on Feb 27 2006, 08:31 PM, said:

I was going to say, tell them you just want to re-open an are that already served skiing......(though I don't know exactly where that chunk of land is).

Darrington used to have a ski jump and ski runs cut, along with a warming hut/small lodge sometime in the 1940s.

I think your thinking of Mt Pilchuck down near Lake Stevens. It shut down in the late seventys, I think it is at a low elevation which makes things difficult during warmer years.
The Forest and Park Service had various proposals for recreation sites when the state put in the North Cascades Highway. I have been researching old ski sites and haven't heard of anything in this area. I'll keep looking into it though. I think even a hike up ski jump would be great fun. Ski Jumping was really popular back in the day, I'd like to see it come back.
I fully realize I'll have to pay for EIS and I know its not a low start up type of business, and there is always opposition from someone. I just think there's no business like snow business, I love it! There are pros and cons to a ski town but I think for the most part its a positive thing for the community, that is until older residents get taxed out of homes they have had for fifty years. Thats not what I'm talking about though, I just want a small one cat to start business that will provide a few extra customers for the only motel in town.
The Darrington Ranger district has no cross country ski trails and one groomed snow mobile trail, not much to offer in the way of winter recreation for a town that says recreation is the second biggest income for the town (the mill is #1). Hunting and fishing are the money makers I guess, but I want to ski. I'll just keep going else where, but I'll never completly give up on doing my own thing some day.

[Peter]

These days it is much more feasable to buy a small area and upgrade/expand than to try and start from scratch.

[tcs]

Well, I can't speak for HYAK, but I certainly wasn't thinking of Mt. Pilchuck which is on a different highway. My data is very very sketchy but I have a ski guide reference (with no data) for 1960 on hiway 1E??? and a 1970 map shows "Darrington Winter Sports Area". Might have been x-country or snowplay.

TCS

[liftmech]

I believe highway 1E was the old designation for the North Cascades Highway, now state route 20. Darrington lies south of that road via highway 530, not sure of the old designation. There was a place called the Big Four Inn at one time- anyone remember if that's near Darrington or more south on the Pilchuck road?

[tcs]

Just checked my old maps. Hiway 20 used to be 17A. Hiway 530 to Darrington used to be 1E. I wonder how many more hiway number changes I could find in WA (if I cared to).

TCS

[hyak.net]

The information on Darrington is from the late 30s or 40s and had the base elevation listed as 550' with the ski jump, ski runs, small lodge, etc. (no indication how high up the slope went)... There were many ski areas created in the 30s and 40s that didn't last more then a couple seasons due to lack of snow. My guess is an area might have had plenty of snow one year, gave folks the idea to build a ski area not realizing it didn't have consistant snow.

This post has been edited by hyak.net: 05 March 2006 - 04:53 PM