Then and now: Echo Summit ski resort changes
There used to be a ski resort at Echo Summit. Photo/Lake Tahoe Historical Society
Historically, the wintertime recreation area atop Echo Summit on Highway 50 was a ski resort with chairlifts and a rope tow, known variously since the 1940s by names such as the early Nebelhorn or the later Echo Summit Ski Area.
The track was used for training for the 1968 Olympics. Photo/Les Wright
In 1968, it was the site of the Olympic training track to prepare athletes for Mexico City’s similar elevation at 7,300 feet.
It closed as a ski resort in 1988, later becoming home to the California Conservation Corps until 2002.
Today it is the new Adventure Mountain.
Adventure Mountain now leases the U.S. Forest Service property. Photo/Bill Kingman
— Bill Kingman
Souvenirs, above and right, from the old ski resort. Photo/Dave Wakeman
LOVE THE INFORMATION AND PICS….. A friend & I tried to check out Adventure Mountain last year, but it was full. I love the old ski patches (I have lots of them as well as old ski pins). I don’t know you Bill, but I sure do appreciate your sharing all the memories!
Bill Kingman, Fond memories of the Echo Summit Ski Area! My little brother Eric and I would go sledding there in the late 50’s. I’ve got a picture of me and my bro with Dads homemade sled standing by the sign on the hwy.
Many years later the STHS ski team trained there after the school district had a falling out with Hugh Killebrew about us training at Heavenly Valley. Echo was a small hill but good enough to run some gates. Tom Burns was our coach that year and after practice we’d go over to Little Norway for hot chocolate. That was in 1969 I believe. Thanks Bill! Old Long Skiis
Used to ski there in the late 40s and 50s. The Olympic training track was removed bye the City of South Lake Tahoe Public works Dept and re-layed at the middle school a couple of years later. I think it was the first Tartan Olympic size track ever at school anywhere in the U.S.A. and was used bye many of the local runners for many years. The track was taken up in 10 foot wide strips about 30 feet long and numbered and then stored for a couple of years before it was re-layed at the middle school.
Great memories, Thanks
My first job ( kitchen not mechanic)
Also some of the first snowboarders played here. Good times!
back when ski resorts were named with style, ski culture never dies with nebelhorn around.
MY family skied at Echo Summit Ski Area for many years when all they had were a poma lift and a couple rope tows!! Tom Burns was the coach when I was on the ski team there too!!! Wonderful memories!!! Those were really the good old days… you could ski right onto the lift with no lines, even on the weekends!!! Thanks Bill!!! :)
This has been fun and nostalgic reading about Echo Summit ski area. I was on the South Lake Tahoe High School Nordic ski team (cross country and jumping) from 1959 to 1962. At that time, Sheldon Varney was our coach. Oh yeah, and it was $4.50 to ride the chair lift all day at Heavenly Valley. I believe Jeanie Meyers and her husband were the owners of the Echo Summit ski area at that time. It was off the beaten path so to speak, not crowded, rustic, but was fun to visit. I also remember going over to Little Norway which if memory serves, had a bakery of some sort.
Dan Lochman, Yes, good memories of Echo Summit ski area! Since you were on the Nordic and jumping team , when I was just a squirt, do you remember the jumps at Heavenly Valley? They were to the left of Gunbarrel looking up from the base near the bottom of the hill. One big, one smaller and both made of wood.
Mr. Varney was a principal at one one of the schools I attended here on So. Shore back in 19???
I feel so fortunate to have grown up here and thru stuborness and determination and loving this place, I’m still here!!! Take care and “pray for snow” this winter. Old Long Skiis