Superior Tramway Co., of Spokane, has been awarded contracts totaling about $6.5 million for projects at Crystal Mountain, a ski resort near Mount Rainier in Western Washington, and at the Lookout Pass Ski & Recreation Area along Interstate 90 near the Idaho-Montana border.


Superior will do design, engineering, fabrication, and component purchasing, under a $6 million contract, for a new two-cabin, enclosed, gondola-style ski lift at Crystal Mountain, says John Kircher, Crystal Mountain Inc.s president and general manager. He says he believes the lift will be the first of its type in Washington state and one of only five or six such lifts in the U.S.


At Lookout Pass, Superior was awarded an about $500,000 contract to do engineering work and to supply and install a used chairlift that will serve five new ski runs at the ski area.


Engineering work already is under way at Crystal Mountain and will last into next summer, says Kircher. He says some construction work at the resort, which currently accommodates about 380,000 skiers annually with 10 chairlifts, will begin next year. Yet, the bulk of the construction for the new gondola-style lift will be done in 2007 and 2008, with the goal of having the cars operational for the 2008-2009 ski season.


Kircher says installation of the new lift, which will be designed to carry about 100 passengers at a time and will provide skier access to about 60 percent of the ski terrain at Crystal Mountain, will cost about an additional $800,000. The ski resort will act as general contractor on the work, and will subcontract for concrete, helicopter, steel, and other services. Superior will remain on the job as a supervisory engineer during installation, he says.


The ski lift will include about 7,000 feet of cable and will raise skierswho will carry their skis with them inside the gondolaabout 2,450 feet in elevation. Kircher says the maximum speed of the cars will be about 2,000 feet per minute, or about 23 miles an hour.


The gondola-style cars work well at moving big groups of people up steep terrain, says Kircher. He says the enclosed cabins, which likely might be built in Switzerland, will be equally well-suited for scenic summer rides, which the resort will offer.


Crystal Mountain is located along state Route 410 about 11 70 miles southeast of Seattle. Its one of six ski areas owned by Boyne Resorts Inc., of Boyne Falls, Mich., of which five are in the U.S and one is in Canada.


Superior engineers also have begun work at Lookout Pass, gathering on-site information, such as a profile of the grounds, and height and elevation data for the towers, says Phil Edholm, president and general manager of Lookout Pass. He says that will allow Superior to design a used chairlift for that resort. Edholm says after that work is done, the Spokane company will find and buy the towers, motors, and other pieces of equipment needed for that used chairlift.


The chairlift will be the third at Lookout Pass, which currently has two lifts and a rope tow. Superior provided similar engineering work and supplied a used chairlift for Lookout Pass two years ago, when the ski area added its second chairlift.


The new chairlift will provide access to new ski runs that have been logged and prepared recently for use, says Edholm.


Lookout Pass has served as many as 47,000 skiers in one year, and is owned by Lookout Associates LLC, of Lookout Pass, Idaho, Edholm says. It is the only ski resort owned by that company, he says.


Construction of Lookout Pass chairlift is expected to begin next summer and to take about four months to complete, Edholm says. He says the chairlift will serve about 100 acres of skier terrain, and will be ready for use by the 2006-2007 ski season.