Crystal Mountain (Last Mountain)
The West Kelowna ski hill that opened in 1967 as Last Mountain, and has been shut since its red double chair failed in March 2014 and injured several skiers.
- Region
- British Columbia
- Country
- Canada
- Status
- abandoned
- Year opened
- 1967
- Year closed
- 2014
- Reason for closure
- A malfunction of the red double chairlift in March 2014, which injured around half a dozen people, two of them critically. Investigators attributed the failure to rope tension. The resort has not operated since.
History
Crystal Mountain sits above West Kelowna in the Okanagan, a small hill of 212 m vertical between a 1,228 m base and a 1,440 m top, with 30 groomed runs plus tree lines and glades. It opened on 9 December 1967 as Last Mountain Ski Resort, built by Pat and Allan McLeod, passed later to John Barley, and was bought in 1992 by the Tschanz family from Lenzerheide in Switzerland, who renamed it Crystal Mountain. Three lifts served it: a GMD Mueller double, a Poma triple and a Doppelmayr T-bar. In March 2014 the red double chair failed, injuring around half a dozen people, two of them critically; the subsequent investigation put the cause down to rope tension. The resort has not run since. Being close to Kelowna and comparatively recently closed, it is regarded as one of the more plausible candidates for revival among British Columbia lost hills, and there have been local efforts to bring back at least part of it. A note on the name: some coverage of BC ghost resorts renders the original name as Lost Mountain, but the contemporary record and the resort own history give it as Last Mountain.
Lifts
| Name | Type | Manufacturer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift - Double | GMD Mueller | The red double chair, whose malfunction in March 2014 closed the resort |
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift - Triple | Poma | One of the two chairlifts serving the hill |
| Unnamed lift | T-Bar | Doppelmayr | The surface lift on the lower slopes |
Sources and further reading
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Mountain_(British_Columbia)
- https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/crystal-mountain-b-c-chairlift-falls-4-injured-2-critical-1.2556492
- https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/crystal-mountain-ski-resort-chairlift-accident-blamed-on-rope-tension-1.3133170
- https://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/cover-stories/whistler-dead-season-tales-of-abandoned-bc-ski-resorts-6951989
- https://westknews.com/2021/06/16/history-in-photos-last-mountain-ski-resort-2/
More in Canada
Location
49.8813, -119.7112