Lost ski areaCaliforniaSan Gabriel MountainsSouthwest
Kratka Ridge
Ran 1951–2001. A small ski area on the Angeles Crest Highway in the San Gabriel Mountains, known for its single chair, that ran from the early 1950s until an avalanche in 2001.
Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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The Forest Service issued a ski area permit for Kratka Ridge, on Waterman Mountain along the Angeles Crest Highway, to 11 men in 1948. Joe Diener and the Angeles Winter Development Association, drawn from a Mount San Gorgonio ski club, developed it; Wikipedia dates that to 1950, and Skier 72 says it officially opened in 1951 with four rope tows.1,2
Read the whole historyTodayThe area stands abandoned, its single chair still in place but its base station gone. (2020)1,2
Timeline
8 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Kratka Ridge, 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 Kratka Ridge
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1945–2007 · 47.6 mi away · CaliforniaA ski hill at Green Valley Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains that opened as the Green Valley Lake Snow Bowl in 1945 and closed after the 2007 Slide Fire.
- 1938–1992 · 56.8 mi away · CaliforniaA small ski hill on the west side of Big Bear Valley, first known as Lynn Hill, home to Big Bear's first chairlift and closed for good by 1992.
- 1941–1994 · 162 mi away · CaliforniaA ski area in Wolverton Meadow in Sequoia National Park whose lifts ran every winter from 1941–42 until they were taken out in 1994.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 2 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
The Forest Service issued a ski area permit for Kratka Ridge, on Waterman Mountain along the Angeles Crest Highway, to 11 men in 1948. Joe Diener and the Angeles Winter Development Association, drawn from a Mount San Gorgonio ski club, developed it; Wikipedia dates that to 1950, and Skier 72 says it officially opened in 1951 with four rope tows. Its single chair, built in 1953 or 1954 by the sources' differing accounts, became one of the last of its kind still running in 2001. A beginner double replaced two rope tows in 1984.1,2
Ed Hensley bought the area in the late 1960s, John Steedley in 1988, and a group led by Barry Stubblefield in 1999. It went by Snowcrest from the mid-1990s until 1999. The sources put its vertical at 650 or about 750 feet, across 10 to 13 runs.1,2
A storm in February 2001 set off an avalanche that damaged several towers of the single chair, and the area never reopened. That December a fire destroyed the chair's base terminal, and the permit was revoked.1,2
TodayThe area stands abandoned, its single chair still in place but its base station gone. (2020)1,2
Timeline
- 1948Forest Service issues a ski area permit to 11 men1
- 1950Angeles Winter Development Association develops the area2
- 1951Kratka Ridge officially opens with four rope tows1
- 1953Single chairlift built (1954, per Wikipedia)1,2
- 1984Beginner double chair replaces two rope tows1
- 1999New owners take over and restore the Kratka Ridge name1
- 2001February avalanche damages the single chair; December fire burns its base1,2
- 2020Bobcat Fire damages the abandoned area further1
Sources for this history (2)
Photos
No photographs of Kratka Ridge 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 Kratka Ridge, in their own words.
Facts
Location
34.3515° N · 117.8984° W · California · San Gabriel Mountains
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1951–2001
Closed after the 2001 season. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
Its numbers
all 9all 9, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain