Lost ski areaCaliforniaCascade RangePacific Northwest
Mt. Shasta Ski Bowl
Ran 1958–1978. A 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.
Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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The Ski Bowl sat in a broad open cirque on the volcano's southern flank, on land leased from the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. Its lodge stood at 7,800 feet and its lifts climbed above timberline to 9,200 feet, and its advertising claimed the largest ski bowl in the country.1,2
Read the whole historyTodayThe old service roads are hiking routes from the Old Ski Bowl trailhead at 7,840 feet, with ruins of the ski facilities near 9,500 feet. (2026)3
Timeline
7 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Mt. Shasta Ski Bowl, 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 Mt. Shasta Ski Bowl
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- Closed 1994 · 72.1 mi away · CaliforniaThe 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.
- Years not yet collected · 75.1 mi away · OregonA small, low-elevation ski hill on Tomahawk Mountain near Rocky Point in Klamath County, whose slopes now carry a zipline course.
- Years not yet collected · 86.4 mi away · CaliforniaHumboldt County's rope-tow ski hill on Horse Mountain, near Berry Summit on Highway 299, used from the late 1930s until it shut in the early 1980s.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 4 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
The Ski Bowl sat in a broad open cirque on the volcano's southern flank, on land leased from the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. Its lodge stood at 7,800 feet and its lifts climbed above timberline to 9,200 feet, and its advertising claimed the largest ski bowl in the country. Wikipedia says it was built in 1958; Active NorCal dates the opening of its double chair to 1959. Six thousand people came in one weekend of its first month, and 1962–63, with more than 40,000 visitors, was its only recorded profitable season.1,2
Money troubles followed it for two decades. A fire destroyed the lodge in 1971, and new owners put up a much smaller one. In January 1978 an avalanche wrecked the Green Butte chairlift, and the Ski Bowl never reopened. Lift-served skiing returned to the mountain only in 1985, with a new area built lower down, below timberline.1,2,3
TodayThe old service roads are hiking routes from the Old Ski Bowl trailhead at 7,840 feet, with ruins of the ski facilities near 9,500 feet. (2026)3
Timeline
- 1957Development plan drawn, with an aerial tram4
- 1958The Ski Bowl is built high on the south flank1
- 1959Its two-person chairlift opens to skiers2
- 19621962–63 brings over 40,000 visitors, its only profitable season2
- 1971Fire destroys the lodge; a smaller one replaces it2
- 1978January avalanche destroys the Green Butte chair, ending lift skiing1,2
- 1985Construction starts on a new ski area lower on the mountain1
Sources for this history (4)
- 1Wikipedia · Mount Shasta Ski Park
- 2Active NorCal · How Skiing Down Volcanoes Became a Time-Honored Tradition in Northern California (March 1, 2024)
- 3USDA Forest Service · Old Ski Bowl — Shasta-Trinity National Forest
- 4Skimap.org · Mt. Shasta Ski Bowl
Photos
No photographs of Mt. Shasta Ski Bowl 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 Mt. Shasta Ski Bowl, in their own words.
Facts
Location
41.3620° N · 122.2021° W · California · Cascade Range
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1958–1978
Closed after the 1978 season. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
Its numbers
all 3all 3, in one list
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain