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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Angel Peak graces 49 Degrees North

The people at 49 Degrees North were busy maximizing their U.S. Forest Service permit area in the last decade. In 2006 they added about 600 acres of terrain and a quad chairlift in the east basin. In 2007 they extended Chair Two 300 vertical feet to midmountain.

Last year the ski area expanded to the summit of Angel Peak, adding 300 acres and extending the inbounds vertical in the west basin to 1,100 feet. Now at about 2,625 acres, 49 Degrees North competes neck-and-neck with Crystal Mountain as the largest ski area in Washington.

A lift to the summit may be turning by the winter of 2011-12. About 70 percent of the new terrain is accessible now via Lost Dutchman. Mountain manager Eric Bakken has spearheaded all the recent development at 49 Degrees North. He thinks the Angel Peak project is his most interesting effort.

“I’ve had a hand in some big projects around here,” Bakken said. “But Angel Peak is the coolest one because of all the facets: stimulating the local economy, working on forest health, promoting renewable energy and making skier habitat. It was just a win-win-win for everybody.”

Angel Peak was included in the master plan for 49 Degrees North that was approved by the U.S. Forest Service in 2000. The environmental impact statement for the project was approved in 2004. Bakken and Curt Bishop, the ski area’s CFO, spent a couple of summers laying out runs, dialing in fall lines and finalizing edge clearing limits. The Forest Service marked the trees at the end of 2008.

“We had it in the bag, but we weren’t sure we’d pull the trigger or not,” Bakken said. “Then the economy tanked, none of the local logging companies were working and mills were closing down right and left. Springtime last year we decided with the help of the Forest Service to get this thing going as an economic stimulus.”

The Forest Service sold the timber to 49 Degrees North. The ski area hired three crews from two local logging operations to work for about three months cutting 4.4 million board feet.

“The real challenge was finding any kind of market out there that would support the timber sale,” Bakken said. “Normally a lot of timber sales will go to one or two mills. This one ended up going to eight different mills, shipping as far away as Moyie Springs in Idaho. The Forest Service helped us find some niche markets that made sense.”

Once the runs were cleared, crews piled the slash. Instead of burning, most of the wood was chipped and shipped to Avista’s Kettle Falls Generating Station, the first power plant in the U.S. built to produce electricity from wood waste.

After the major clean up, the Angel Peak project moved into its forest health and skier habitat phase.

“If you stood down in the base area and looked in this basin two years ago, you would have seen 15 to 20 percent primed for a devastating wildfire,” Bakken said. “Glading between the runs cleared a tremendous amount of ladder fuel and protected the rest of the ski area, one of the many objectives that were met.”

Bakken said the biggest story about Angel Peak will end up being the legacy he has helped create. Skiers and riders will be having fun there for generations.

“When you’re walking through the forest trying to visualize fall lines, you think you’ve got a pretty good idea,” he said. “But you don’t really know whether you did the deal or made mistakes until the timber harvest. I thought we nailed it. Now that we’ve skied it, I’m certain we did. It’s been a pretty rewarding process.”

Bill Jennings can be reached at snoscene@comcast.net