Mt Pilchuck ski resort

The Mt. Pilchuck Ski Club got state permission for a ski area in 1951, but a lack of snow closed it in 1953. In 1956 Washington State Parks took a Forest Service permit for a new area at Cedar Flats, off the Mountain Loop Highway east of Granite Falls. It began with one rope tow. Sources date the start to 1956 or 1957; one counts from 1951.^1,2,3,4,5,6

A day lodge went up at the parking lot in 1958. By 1963 there were three rope tows. A Riblet double chair opened for the 1963–64 season, and a lower chair followed in 1967, so skiers could start right from the lot. Lights on the upper run brought night skiing in the early 1970s. The lifts topped out at 4,300 feet, with about 1,800 feet of vertical. Snow came in extremes: lean winters, and winters that buried the lifts.^1,2,3,7

The 1977–78 winter gave only three weeks of skiing, and it was the last. In 1978 the Forest Service offered only a five-year extension, the state and federal agencies stalled on a lease, and the operator, Heather Recreation, gave up. The idle lifts were sold to Crystal Mountain in 1980, the year several sources give for the closing. Vandals wrecked the lodge, and it was torn down.^{1,2,3,5,6,7,8}

TodayBrush and trees cover the old runs, and hikers start the trail to the summit lookout from the former ski-area parking lot. (2026)^3,6,8