The Nordic miners who came to work in Rossland brought with them a love of skiing that they shared with the community of Rossland. Before the chairlift was built, skiers used a small rope tow to pull them up the mountain. And before that, they had to hike up for every run!
The chairlift would be the second in Canada, with Mount Tremblant in Quebec being the first. Construction of the chairlift began in the summer of 1947 with only one small obstacle: the volunteers constructing the lift had never even seen a chairlift in person - let alone built one from scratch! On December 26th, 1947, the chairlift opened and was well used by skiers until its replacement in 1973. The Club continued to operate the ski area for 42 years. Watch more from the Red Chair diaries.
