Lost ski areaCaliforniaSierra Nevada
Edelweiss Ski Area/ Strawberry Ski Hut
Ran 1941–1963. A ski area on Highway 50 just above Twin Bridges, at today's Camp Sacramento, that opened as the Strawberry Ski Hut in 1941 and closed in 1963.
Overview
Look around
Loading the ground…
Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
Counting who skied it…
Fred Baumhoff opened the Strawberry Ski Hut in 1941 on the long curves of Highway 50 between Twin Bridges and what is now Camp Sacramento, west of Echo Summit. It soon became the Edelweiss Ski Lodge.1,2,3,4
Read the whole historyTimeline
6 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Edelweiss Ski Area/ Strawberry Ski Hut, or worked there?
Tell us what you remember, or what this page has wrong. Memories show here, credited to you, after we read them; facts are checked against a source before they change a figure.
Lost near Edelweiss Ski Area/ Strawberry Ski Hut
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- Closed 1988 · 4.6 mi away · CaliforniaA ski area beside U.S. 50 at Echo Summit, California, first called Nebelhorn, that ran from the 1940s until 1988.
- 1971–1995 · 12.9 mi away · CaliforniaA ski area off Highway 88 near the Mormon Emigrant Trail that opened as Silver Basin in 1971 and ran on and off under four names until 1995.
- 1957–1986 · 26.9 mi away · CaliforniaA small ski area at the foot of Alpine Meadows Road off Highway 89, opened as Powder Bowl in 1957 and run as Deer Park from 1980 to 1986.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 5 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Fred Baumhoff opened the Strawberry Ski Hut in 1941 on the long curves of Highway 50 between Twin Bridges and what is now Camp Sacramento, west of Echo Summit. It soon became the Edelweiss Ski Lodge. Gary Bell's history says it started with four rope tows and added a double chairlift in 1954; SnowBrains lists a chairlift and three rope tows from the start. Lutz Aynedter, a German racer who arrived in 1950, became the chief instructor.1,2,3,4
Edelweiss was the home hill of Spider Sabich, later an Olympic racer, one of a crowd of local kids known as the Highway 50 boys. A planned widening of the highway would have cut through the base area, and then came a couple of dry winters in a row; Edelweiss shut down in 1963. The chair went to Hoodoo in Oregon, the lodge and other buildings fell apart, and Bell believes the Forest Service burned them in 1968.1,2,3
Timeline
- 1941Fred Baumhoff opens the Strawberry Ski Hut1,4
- 1950German racer Lutz Aynedter becomes chief ski instructor1
- 1952A base plan for the area is drawn5
- 1954A double chairlift is installed1
- 1963Edelweiss shuts down; its chair later goes to Hoodoo, Oregon1,3
- 1968Forest Service burns the remaining buildings, by one account1
Sources for this history (5)
- 1Sierra Ski & Cycle Works · Strawberry Ski Hut and a Skier named "Spider" (Gary Bell, March 5, 2020)
- 2Wikipedia · Twin Bridges, California
- 3The Western Nevada Historic Photo Collection · Edelweiss Ski Area
- 4SnowBrains · The History of Skiing Lake Tahoe
- 5Skimap.org · Edelweiss Ski Area/ Strawberry Ski Hut
Photos
No photographs of Edelweiss Ski Area/ Strawberry Ski Hut we may republish yet
Its old photos and trail maps live on the sites that collected them, and Google finds the rest.
Memories
What skiers remember of Edelweiss Ski Area/ Strawberry Ski Hut, in their own words.
Facts
Location
38.8026° N · 120.1185° W · California · Sierra Nevada
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1941–1963
Closed after the 1963 season. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
Its numbers
all 1all 1, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain