Timberline's Pucci lift got an upgrade in the summer of 2020 from the existing triple chair setup to a high-speed detachable quad. This upgrade increases uphill capacity with a user-friendly top terminal for speedy unloading.
The original Pucci Chairlift was installed in 1956 and replaced in 1987 with the current chairlift. This fixed-grip triple chairllift was designed to operate at 1,800 pph but was lowered to 1,330 pph due to loading and unloading problems. It is the oldest lift in the network. The Pucci Chairlift services beginner and novice terrain with some lower intermediate terrain. The top terminal of the Pucci Chairlift is located south of the Timberline Lodge and west of Wy’East Day Lodge
The Pucci Chairlift was replaced as a detachable quad with an hourly capacity of 1,800 pph in summer 2020. The chairlift replacement uses the existing lift corridor, resulting in the same slope length and elevation gain as the existing lift and uses eleven out of the twelve existing lift towers. The replacement adds two new towers: one adjacent to the top terminal and the other near the bottom terminal.
The replacement facilitates easier and more efficient loading and unloading, which results in fewer chairlift stoppages due to misloading. The chairlift ride will also be faster than the current lift, reducing ride time from approximately 6.5 minutes to 4.5 minutes. In addition, as the Pucci Chairlift serves as a “step up” from the beginner terrain, providing a more user-friendly chairlift will enhance the beginner and intermediate skier/snowboarder experience. Due to the slight increase in Pucci Chairlift’s hourly capacity, overall resort capacity will increase.
Thank you to everyone who purchased a Pucci chair!
We sold out in a matter of hours with 80% of the proceeds going to charity. We successfully raised $17,600 each for Friends of Timberline and the Mt. Hood Cultural Center & Museum.
The Pucci Chairlift is named for Italian fashion designer Emilio Pucci, a 1937 graduate of Reed College in Portland. He initially came to America as a representative of the Italian ski team at the 1932 Winter Olympics in New York.
Perhaps better known for the bright, swirly prints that made him famous in the 1950s and 1960s, Pucci actually got his start in fashion designing clothes for the Reed College ski team. He attended Reed on full scholarship in exchange for developing and coaching the college’s first ski team. Pucci and his team practiced and competed on Mt. Hood before Timberline Lodge was even built, forging ski trails without the convenience of chairlifts.
In 1955 the original Pucci center pole double chair was installed over those trails originally developed by Pucci and the Reed College ski team. It was built to supplement Timberline’s first and original chair, the Magic Mile single chair, which was installed in 1939, extensively rebuilt in 1955 and replaced with a double in 1962.
The Pucci triple fixed-grip chairlift replaced the original double in 1987. The Pucci chair deposits uphill skiers on the west side of the lodge near the swimming pool.
Photo courtesy of the Friends of Timberline
