Lost ski areaWashingtonCascade RangePacific Northwest
Yodelin
Ran 1969–1974. A ski area and cabin village on the east side of Stevens Pass that opened in 1969, suffered a deadly avalanche in 1971, and lasted a few seasons.
Overview
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Imagery: USGS The National Map · Terrain: Mapzen, USGS and others
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Yodelin sat beside U.S. 2 on the east side of Stevens Pass, about a mile and a half beyond the Stevens Pass ski area.1,2,3
Read the whole historyTodayThe old Yodelin lot serves as overflow parking for Stevens Pass, which owns the lodge, and concrete lift-tower footings still climb the slope.2
Timeline
5 events · swipe
Memories
Skied Yodelin, 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 Yodelin
The closest other lost ski areas, as the crow flies.
- 1956–1978 · 40.1 mi away · WashingtonA ski area in Mount Pilchuck State Park, east of Granite Falls, Washington, that opened in the mid-1950s and had its last season in 1977–78.
- 1935–1959 · 55 mi away · WashingtonA rope tow ski bowl on the American River, 19 miles east of Chinook Pass, that ran from the 1930s until 1959 and whose day lodge still stands.
- 1936–1968 · 164.8 mi away · WashingtonThe ski area on Chewelah Peak that came before 49 Degrees North, with a rope tow from the 1930s and a double chairlift from about 1950, closed in 1968.
History
Written by aurora.ski from the 4 pages below, each sentence numbered to its sources.
Yodelin sat beside U.S. 2 on the east side of Stevens Pass, about a mile and a half beyond the Stevens Pass ski area. Nason Properties opened it on December 27, 1969, with a three-story Tyrolean-style lodge, a rope tow and an 1,800-foot double chair, and sold home sites for a village of cabins across the highway. Lost Ski Areas of Washington dates the area from 1961.1,2,3
On January 24, 1971, an avalanche crushed two cabins and killed four people. The developers had been warned of the slide danger two years earlier, and claims totaling $2 million followed against the county, the state and the developers. Yodelin kept going: a second chair, 1,600 feet long and serving intermediate terrain, was finished in 1972, and Northwest Skier reported early in 1973 that the area was still running.1,2,3
Its end is dated differently: one version of Lost Ski Areas of Washington gives 1974, another 1971. In 1976 Stevens Pass bought what remained from the mortgage holders. One chair was upgraded and flown by helicopter a mile up the valley to become the Tye Mill lift; the other went to Crystal Mountain.2,3,4
TodayThe old Yodelin lot serves as overflow parking for Stevens Pass, which owns the lodge, and concrete lift-tower footings still climb the slope.2
Timeline
- 1969Opens December 27 with a double chair, rope tow and lodge1,2
- 1971Avalanche on January 24 crushes two cabins, killing four1,2
- 1972Second chairlift, 1,600 feet long, completed1,2
- 1974Closing year given by Lost Ski Areas of Washington4
- 1976Stevens Pass buys the remains; one chair becomes Tye Mill2,4
Sources for this history (4)
- 1Alpenglow Ski Mountaineering History Project · Northwest Skier, 1970-79
- 2Hiking with my Brother · Welldigger's Ass Snowshoe via Yodelin Ski Area
- 3Lost Ski Areas of Washington · Yodelin
- 4Lost Ski Areas of Washington · Yodelin
Photos
No photographs of Yodelin 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 Yodelin, in their own words.
Facts
Location
47.7664° N · 121.0768° W · Washington · Cascade Range
OpenSkiMap lists it as abandoned.
Years operated
1969–1974
Closed after the 1974 season. It stays here as part of the record of U.S. ski areas.
No figures from its operating years are collected yet.
Terrain contours: USGS 3D Elevation Program, public domain