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Washington Ski Area To Welcome "Game-Changing" New Chairlift

Originally posted on Powder | By Ian Greenwood | Last updated Dec 26, 2024 1:38 PM ET

Alpental, Washington, is preparing to welcome a new chairlift the ski area calls "game-changing."

The lift—named Internationale—travels up the looker’s right side of Alpental’s terrain footprint. Previously, only one lift, Edelweiss, accessed the ski area’s upper reaches. With Internationale in action, skiers will have another way to reach the famed Back Bowls area, altering Alpental’s skier flow and layout.

Internationale’s grand opening and ribbon cutting are scheduled for 1 p.m. this afternoon. The first 40 skiers and boarders in line will receive co-branded BlackStrap neck tubes. Guy Lawrence, the Summit at Snoqualmie’s president and general manager (Alpental is part of the Summit), will attend the ceremony.

There might be a catch, though. Alpental, after a slow start this season, is in the middle of a blizzard. A foot of snow has fallen in the past 24 hours, with more on the way. The stretch of I-90 that accesses Alpental—Snoqualmie Pass—was temporarily closed this morning due to multiple collisions and spinouts. Alpental, meanwhile, has temporarily delayed its daily operations for avalanche control work. It’s not clear if the avalanche control work will postpone Internationale’s opening.

(You can keep tabs on the Summit at Snoqualmie's Instagram or mountain report page for current updates.)

Regardless, once Internationale gets up and running, the skiing should be all time.

Constructed this past summer, Internationale is a fixed-grip triple manufactured by Doppelmayr. The lift will increase Alpental’s total uphill capacity by 25% and transport 1,300-plus skiers per hour, which, according to the ski area, will alleviate bottlenecking issues between the Armstrong Express and Edelweiss. On busy powder days at Alpental, the line for the two-person Edelweiss often became long. This season, that traffic will be spread between two lifts.

Internationale climbs 1,345 feet, offering skiers the longest descent at Alpental and providing access to expert runs like Knoll Zero, Snake Dance, Felson, and Lower Internationale.

The “E” at the end of the lift’s name isn’t a spelling error. Bob Mickelson and Jim Griffin, Alpental’s founders, named the Internationale run and future lift with the added “E” in honor of Tyrolean and European tradition. The original spelling appears in old maps and development plans, but at some point during Alpental’s history, the “E” disappeared, and the ski area started using “International” instead of “Internationale.” With the new lift, though, Alpental wanted to revive Mickelson and Griffin’s vision.

“Now is the time to rectify that, recognize Alpental’s history, and give a nod to the founders—it’s what they would want... we know because they asked us many years ago,” reads a blurb from the ski area’s website about the new lift.

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This article first appeared on Powder and was syndicated with permission.

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