If you’ve ever been a newbie on Sun Valley’s slopes, chances are you’ve spent a day or two on Dollar Mountain. With a smooth vertical rise of just 628 ft. (191 m) compared to Baldy's 3,400 ft (1,036 m), Dollar can make the skiing easy for just about anyone, young or old.
While more seasoned skiers and snowboarders rarely waste a minute on Dollar’s ten runs, there was a time when Dollar was the place to be. There was a time, before 1939, when there was no Bald Mountain. There was a time when Dollar was one of two mountains in the world to have a working ski lift. In fact, the first chairlifts in the world were built in Sun Valley. Jim Curran, a Union Pacific engineer, invented the lifts.
Strangely, his brilliant idea came from bananas, which had been moved to and from freight cars by Union Pacific for the United Fruit Company. He turned the banana cable system into ski lifts and by 1936 the first lifts were installed on Dollar and Proctor mountains.
While Proctor’s lifts are no longer in service, Dollar Mountain is still alive and well, although the original lifts have been replaced many times. In addition to lifts, Dollar is home to two magic carpets, which gently pull up little skiers to the tops of slopes for easy learning and fun sledding.
While it can be tough for those above three feet to ride the magic carpet with the wee ones, in the end, learning how to ski a full run is quite sweet, even if you’re in your fifth decade.
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