Back in the day there was a pretty fancy ski chalet at the pass. The Army built it during WWII and then the Navy maintained it until the Coast Guard took over. There is a pretty good website on all the old ski areas in Alaska if you want to read more and see lots of pictures from back in the day (Click here for website link). Anyway sometime between the 1960's and 1980s the ski chalet burned down. The Coast Guard did build a new chalet on the old spot but it is nowhere near as classy as the old one. When I started skiing up there in the mid 1990s the Coast Guard was still operating a ski tow, but they stopped operating it and now that tow is disappearing into the brush.
Anyway, yesterday the skiing was pretty bad so I went exploring in my cross country skis with the dogs. I went and checked out where the WWII rope tow went up the hill. I've known about the tow towers but had never carefully checked where the tow started up the hill. So I beat into the brush and checked it out. I was surprised to find that the rope for the rope tow is still there! As is all the old machinery that used to pull skiers up the hill. Pretty cool!
Checking out the website linked above I looked at the map they made of the area (see bottom photo) and I was struck by how they had their own names for all the little hills and lakes etc. We have our own names for these places today. They were doing the same things we do today. I must say I'd love to meet Jeanette Griswold the lady who made the map. She'd clearly have some pretty good stories, and she knew her plants too.
Patrick
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| The machinery is in the brush and you can see the tow towers going up the hill |
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| Inside the old ski chalet |
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| An old map from 1947 - it shows all their names for the places they knew and loved |
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