Lost ski areaCaliforniaCascade RangePacific Northwest
Lassen
Closed after the 1994 season. The ski area inside Lassen Volcanic National Park, near the southwest entrance and Sulphur Works, which grew from 1930s rope tows to a triple chair and closed in 1994.
Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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The Supan family, who held private land near today's southwest entrance, opened a small ski area in the late 1920s and added a rope tow and warming hut in 1935, once Highway 36 made the park easier to reach. The Mt.1,2
Read the whole historyTodayThe Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center stands at the old base, and backcountry skiers and snowshoers still climb the former runs. (2025)1,2
Timeline
8 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Lassen, 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 Lassen
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- Opened 1955 · 64.6 mi away · CaliforniaThe Plumas Ski Club's small ski hill above Johnsville in Plumas-Eureka State Park, run since the 1950s, its old Poma lifts now out of service.
- 1958–1978 · 72.1 mi away · CaliforniaA ski area on Mount Shasta's south side, at the end of the Everitt Memorial Highway, that opened in 1958–59 and ended when an avalanche wrecked its chair in 1978.
- 1957–1986 · 112.4 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 3 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
The Supan family, who held private land near today's southwest entrance, opened a small ski area in the late 1920s and added a rope tow and warming hut in 1935, once Highway 36 made the park easier to reach. The Mt. Lassen Ski Club held competitions from 1932, and in the 1940s the park and a private landholder ran rival ski areas at Sulphur Works. The park bought the Supan land in 1952.1,2
By the mid-1960s the area had been rebuilt around the Lassen Chalet, an A-frame with a tall glass wall facing the slope. In 1978 it ran a Poma, two rope tows and six marked runs. A triple chair, Bumpass Heaven, arrived in 1982 and brought three record seasons.1,2
Mt. Shasta Ski Park opened in 1985, snow grew thin, and the concessioner, California Guest Services, lost money eight years in a row. The Park Service dates its decision not to reopen to 1994; Active NorCal and Tim Purdy say 1993. The chalet was demolished in 2005 (2003 by one account), and the Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center opened in 2008.1,2,3
TodayThe Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center stands at the old base, and backcountry skiers and snowshoers still climb the former runs. (2025)1,2
Timeline
- 1932Mt. Lassen Ski Club competitions begin1
- 1935Supans add a rope tow and warming hut2
- 1952The park acquires the Supan land2
- 1956A Poma tow is added at the top of the slope1
- 1982Bumpass Heaven triple chair installed; three record seasons follow1
- 1994Concessioner announces the area will not open again1
- 2005The condemned chalet is demolished1,3
- 2008Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center opens1
Sources for this history (3)
- 1National Park Service · Lassen Park Ski Area (February 3, 2022)
- 2Active NorCal · Ski A Volcano: The History of the Lassen Ski Area (December 15, 2025)
- 3Exploring Lassen County's Past (Tim Purdy) · Ski a Volcano (Tim Purdy, January 13, 2017)
Photos
No photographs of Lassen 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 Lassen, in their own words.
Facts
Location
40.4487° N · 121.5360° W · California · Cascade Range
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
until 1994 · the year it opened is not yet collected
Closed after the 1994 season. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
Its numbers
all 2all 2, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain