, The Magic Mile is an aerial

chairlift An elevated passenger ropeway, or chairlift, is a type of aerial lift, which consists of a continuously circulating steel wire rope loop strung between two end terminals and usually over intermediate towers, carrying a series of chairs. They ...

Timberline Lodge ski area Timberline Lodge ski area is the ski and snowboarding area of Timberline Lodge, a National Historic Landmark in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is one of a few ski areas in the United States with most of the skiable terrain below the main lodge. I ...

Mount Hood Mount Hood is a potentially active stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc. It was formed by a subduction zone on the Pacific coast and rests in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located about east-southeast of Portlan ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

It was named for its unique location above the

tree line The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snowp ...

and for its original length. When constructed by Byron

Riblet The Riblet Tramway Company of Spokane, Washington, which operated from 1908 to 2003, was once the largest ski chairlift manufacturer in the world. The company was founded by Byron Christian Riblet, who was born in Osage, Iowa, in 1865 and earned ...

in 1938, it was the longest chairlift in existence, the second in the world to be built as a passenger chairlift, and the first to use metal towers. The chairlift has been replaced twice, in 1962 and 1992. Like its predecessors, the current chairlift loads near the lodge at 5,950 feet (1829 m) and unloads at 7,000 foot (2134 m), up an average

gradient In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p is the "direction and rate of fastest increase". If the gradi ...

of 20%. Except for the very lowest part of the route, the lift is not protected by trees or land features and faces the full force of snow storms. Heavy winds frequently produce huge

snowdrift A snowdrift is a deposit of snow sculpted by wind into a mound during a snowstorm. Snowdrifts resemble sand dunes and are formed in a similar manner, namely, by wind moving light snow and depositing it when the wind has virtually stopped, u ...

s and copious and dense snow challenge lift crews to keep the lift open. The lift is generally closed when winds exceed or dense fog reduces visibility below about — in all, about 40% of winter days.

First chairlift, 1938–1962

Construction of the original Magic Mile began in mid-1938, a few months after

Timberline Lodge Timberline Lodge is a mountain lodge on the south side of Mount Hood in Clackamas County, Oregon, about east of Portland. Constructed from 1936 to 1938 by the Works Progress Administration, it was built and furnished by local artisans during the ...

opened for business with a portable rope tow. (The tow remained in operation for at least several years.) The chairlift was the first built by the Riblet company, which drew heavily on its designs for aerial trams for mining companies. Completed in late 1939, it loaded its first passengers on November 17, 1939, and was dedicated by the Crown Prince and Princess of Norway (later King Olaf). The original chairlift was a ''single'' — each chair held one rider. The ride took 11 minutes and carried 225 passengers per hour. It was as popular a summer tourist attraction then as it is now. The lift line was slightly east of the present chair. The upper

bullwheel A bullwheel or bull wheel is a large wheel on which a rope turns, such as in a chairlift or other ropeway. In this application, the bullwheel that is attached to the prime mover is called the drive bullwheel, and the other is the return bullwhe ...

was inside

Silcox Hut The Silcox Hut is a small rustic mid-mountain lodge located at elevation on Mount Hood, Oregon, United States. It is approximately vertical above Timberline Lodge and roughly one mile distance directly up the mountain. Silcox Hut was built by t ...

, which is 212 m (700 ft) ESE and lower in elevation. The bottom was east of the lodge about 377 m (1236 ft, one quarter mile) ENE at essentially the same elevation as the present chair. Timberline Lodge shut down for

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and struggled financially through the 1940s and early 1950s. Mounting disrepair, vandalism, neglect and unpaid taxes closed it February 17, 1955, at which time the Magic Mile was nonfunctional. The lodge reopened late that year under the management of Richard Kohnstamm, whose family still manages the resort. The Mile was made functional again, and in the following summer, ski racing camps began.

1950 Sky Riding Bus Tramway

In 1950, a cable car system began operation between and the Timberline Lodge at , a trip that took 10 minutes. Each 36-person "bus" pulled itself up the mountain along the cable.

Second chairlift, 1962–1992

By 1962, the Magic Mile had long been a challenge to maintain, so the Timberline's operator replaced it with a double

lift. The new lift had a midway station for loading and unloading, which allowed the lower mountain to remain open when harsh winter weather closed the upper mountain, and the upper mountain to remain open for mid-to-late summer skiing when little snow remained on the lower mountain. The full ride up this second Magic Mile ride took about the same time as the original, 10 to 12 minutes, but tighter chair spacing and two riders per chair increased the capacity about 800 to 1,000 per hour. The bottom of the Mile was placed at the west side of the lodge for easy access, and for skier convenience from the top of the Pucci chairlift, which was installed in 1956. The Palmer chairlift, which opened July 1, 1980, was situated for convenient skier and snowboard transport from the top of the Mile. The Palmer was upgraded to a high-speed quad in 1996.

Third chairlift, 1992–present

In 1992, the Magic Mile chairlift was upgraded from a fixed grip double to a detachable high speed quad. The midway station was removed, and a new top station built slightly higher than its predecessor, lengthening its run to . This

Poma Poma, incorporated as Pomagalski S.A., and sometimes referred to as the Poma Group, is a French company which manufactures cable-driven lift systems, including fixed and detachable chairlifts, gondola lifts, funiculars, aerial tramways, people ...

-built chair can move 3,000 passengers per hour, but is operated at 1,600 passengers per hour, with a ride time of just under 6 minutes.Calculated from ''Appendix G: Mountain Statistics'' figures of 5,359 feet / 950 ft/min = 5:38.5 The use of a detachable chairlift reduces maintenance needed to clear the haul rope. When bad weather is expected, the chairs are removed and stored in the lower lift house. The rope runs at low speed to prevent the buildup of snow and ice. The chairs are redeployed in an automatic operation which takes about 30 minutes.

First chairlift, 1938–1962

1950 Sky Riding Bus Tramway

Second chairlift, 1962–1992

Third chairlift, 1992–present

See also