Mt. Ashland sells lift meant for expansion

Ski area makes profit off dismantled machinery

By Alan Panebaker
Ashland Daily Tidings

The old, dismantled chair lift at Town and Country Chevrolet on Highway 99 will no longer be a local fixture.

The Mt. Ashland Association decided to sell the lift — purchased to accomodate expansion plans — to 49 Degrees North, a small ski area in Chewelah, Wash. Mt, Ashland marketing director Rick Saul said the four-seater (quad) lift might not work as well as a triple-seater for the new expansion area. Because used lifts can be hard to find, the association was able to sell it for more than they bought it. Mount Ashland bought the chair in 1999, and it sat in the lot and garage of Town and Country Chevrolet for about five years, according to the car dealership’s owner Alan DeBoer.

DeBoer said before he was probably the only car dealership in the country with a chair lift.

“Now I’m a car dealership without a ski lift,” DeBoer said. “What can I say.”

DeBoer, a former member of the Mount Ashland Association Board, said the money made by selling the chair lift will go into a fund to buy a new one if the ski area is able to resolve pendings lawsuits and proceed with plans to add new runs and new lifts to the ski area.

The local Sierra Club and Ashland environmentalist Eric Navickas issued lawsuits against the U.S. Forest Service to block the expansion plans they approved. Defendants and plaintiffs in the case hope to hear a ruling from the judge in September.

Meanwhile, the Shooting Star chair lift that Mount Ashland bought from Mount Hood originally, traveled up to Washington on a semi-truck at the beginning of the month. While the Mt. Ashland expansion is stalled, sources from 49 Degrees North said the new chair will open up 600 new acres of expanded terrain near Chewelah.

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