[Fred B]

OK, time to change the subject to a real history question.  Today Helmy and I did a 5273’ peak that rises just above what used to be the Yodelin Ski Area, just east of Stevens Pass.  A deadly avalanche wiped out a part of the operation and some houses in the area, sounding its death knell.  Today this climb is a very nice half day winter workout from a huge, friendly, no-fee parking lot on east bound HW2 a couple miles down from the Pass.  As you climb up the old cat track roads, the old open ski slopes give great views.  There is still a concrete ski lift footing just before you hit the ridge.  The Back Court peak list

http://howbert.netherweb.com/mountains/back_court/back_court_list.html

seems to call this Welldiggers Ass, but Yodelin Mountain might work too.

Question:  Anybody ever ski this area before it died?  What’s the story here?  Anybody got an old ski area map they can scan in?

[Brian Curtis]

I never skied Yodelin. I skied Pilchuck once, but I guess that's not the same. Anyway, the slide that wiped out the Yodelin ski area was in 1971. It killed 4 people. Not much information here beyond what FredB already gave, but these sites are dedicated to lost ski areas in WA:

http://www.hyak.net/lost/lostski.html
http://www.geocities.com/lostskiareas/lostski.html

[salish]

Fred B: I skied Yodelin a few times between 65'-68'. To be quite honest with you, I don't recall all that much about the runs. Like Stevens, it was definitely better than Snoqualmie and Hyak/Ski Acres.  I can't remember if they had T-Bars & palmas there - they did at Snocrummy back in the 60's.  I had forgotten all about Yodelin....
Cliff

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Our songs come from those mountains. Our dreams, our hopes are taken there in the hope that we will get guidance and support from wilderness.
—Tony Incashola, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes

[Fred B]

Found this poking around Google:

Between 1900 and 1995, over 180 people have been killed by avalanches in Washington state. This total far exceeds deaths from any other natural cause.

History of Severe Avalanches in Washington State

1910 Wellington, Stevens Pass, 96 dead
1939 Mt. Baker, 6 dead
1953 Source Lake, 1 dead
1958 Silver Creek, 4 buried
1962 Granite Mountain, 2 dead
1962 Stevens Pass, 2 buried
1966 Mt. Baker, 1 dead
1966 Snoqualmie Pass, 1 buried
[[1971 Yodelin, 4 dead, several buried]]
1971 Snoqualmie Pass Highway, 1 dead
1974 Source Lake, 2 dead
1975 Mt. St. Helens, 5 dead
1981 Mt. Rainier, 11 dead, 18 injured
1988 Mt. Rainier, 3 dead
1992 Mt. Rainier, 2 dead
1993 Snoqualmie Pass, 5 injured
1994 Mission Ridge, 1 dead
1994 Stevens Pass, 11 injured
1995 McClellan Butte, 1 injured
1996 Snoqualmie Pass, 2 buried
1996 Alpental, Snoqualmie Pass, 2 dead
1996 Mt Index, 2 dead

[Histerical Hystorian]

The story of how Yodelin was named is not well chronicalled in the journals of academics. However, using some creative research I was able to extract the story from two extremely frightened sasquatches near Lake Val Haul-a.

It seems that some internet entrepreneurs had consorted to nab some computers from a business that used to operate in the back of the 59er Diner. They absconded with the Dell machines and were driving up to the pass, when suddenly, out of nowhere, and without warning (as suddenly usually is), there appeared a certain Boston cab driver who looked suspiciously like Sylvester Stillstoned. He managed to stop our antiheros right there near Yodelin, and in no uncertain terms told the young ruffians "Hey punks. Put yo' Dell in..."

Well, this is a family oriented website, so I can't continue what the cabbie said, but you probably know what the hole he stated. Ever since then, the place has been known to local yetis as "Yodelin". They chuckle and laugh over this while roasting chess nuts over an open fire, which will be our next installment: How The Geeks got Rooked By Two Queens.

[Fred B]

Back to real life:

Avalanches in the Cascades

by Mary Ann Gwinn
Seattle Times book editor

Western Washington, with its combination of heavy snow, mountains and slide-triggering winds, is avalanche country. Here are some of the deadlier avalanches in our state's history:

The worst avalanche in U.S. history occurred on Stevens Pass near the town of Wellington in 1910. After days of being stalled on the tracks by avalanches and heavy snowfall, two Great Northern trains were swept off the tracks by a giant avalanche, killing 96 men, women and children. Only 22 passengers survived.

In January 1971, an avalanche struck two cabins in the Yodelin development on Stevens Pass. Killed were K. Barton Edgers Jr., a Seattle stockbroker, and his wife, Nancy. Two children from other families, Kenneth Earl Lewis, 10, and Peggy Dean, 12, were also killed.

In April 1975, five University of Puget Sound students were killed when a group of 29 UPS students in a mountain-climbing class, camped out at the 6,000-foot level of Mount St. Helens, was struck by an avalanche.

[Wilbur Spork]

The only Yodelin I knew of was the constant "yodelin music" blarring over the loudspeakers, at the then two chair Schwietzer Basin in the '60's.

But for 4 bucks, who could complain.

Cool credentials Ibex.

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dumber than Joe the plumber

[Fred B]

Great historical nuggets, Jerry!  And thanks for the input, Brian and Cliff.

[Wilbur Spork]

Yes.  Do tell.

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dumber than Joe the plumber

[Fred B]

Pappy, there you go baiting again.  You must be a fisherman.

As you know, Helmy is the brother of Brown, Green, and Red Fred (see Mox Peaks, Crooked Thumb, or The Needles), but is only a handle as used above.

[Wilbur Spork]

Sorry Fred B, but I'm a lousy fisherman.  Glad to hear you and your bro are still going strong.

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dumber than Joe the plumber

[Malachai Constant]

I was in college when the slide occured and a group of us were going to ski there that day.  They were giving away free wax with Yodlin imprinted on it. We then heard Stevens Pass was closed and went to Snoq. instead, where it had snowed about six feet the night before and was topped off with a couple of inches of rain. We did not get back untin 2 in the morning because of slides at the pass and had a generally lousey time but considerd ourselves bessed none the less.

[mpaul_hansen]

RE:  Yodelin avalanche deaths
Stretching my memory as a Stevens Pass volunteer Ski Patroller from 1971 or so.  Trying the best I can...  Some of my buddies pulled out the buried, deceased bodies.  One had also purchased land there but had not built, fortunately.

The newspaper accounts were not entirely accurate.  Some of the old-timers still alive in 1971 clearly remember the area being swept by slides in the 1940's and 1950's.  They tried to verbally warn others.  Believe the State knew of the situation but resources/communication/will may have been lacking to take action, which would have been difficult w/ the legal climate at that time.
Following the deadly incident, believe there was an out-of-court settlement.  Then the Yodelin ski area went out of business at a later time.
The chairlift[s] were purchased by other interests and were removed.

[Mike Collins]

The chronicle of avalanche mass-fatalities did not include 50-60 shovelers killed in an avalanche near Stevens Pass on Jan 12, 1913. Most of those killed were recent immigrants from Japan, Italy, and Austria so the documentation of the numbers is less than accurate.  The author JoAnn Roe writes of their deaths in her book "Stevens Pass."