New Hoodoo lodge taking shape

Hoodoo's massive new lodge is taking shape.

Last week, the first flakes of a new snow season began to appear in the Central Oregon mountains. At the same time, something new and quite different was also making an appearance at the top of Santiam Pass.

To say that Hoodoo Ski Area is building a new ski lodge is something of an understatement. The new lodge is so big that it looks like it could contain a dozen or so of the old lodges. In fact, it's so big that it's difficult to take in from one spot.

Approaching from the usual parking lot vantage point, the viewer is struck by the sight of a huge new lodge, but only about half of it is even visible from there. To see all of the grand edifice in one glance, it's necessary to park on the downslope just after the Big Lake turnoff and peer through the strip of trees separating the road from the lodge below.

What you see is a really big lodge.

Hoodoo President Chuck Shepard said that the roof is going on right now.

"We're hoping to have the first floor open by at least the day after Christmas," he said.

"Everything will be so much larger," said Tasha McFarland, Hoodoo's General Manager.

Peering out from behind piles of boxes filling her office, she added, "There will be room for a thousand people to sit down and eat lunch at one time."

With the old north lodge long gone, storage space is at a premium and McFarland wedges herself into a tiny office full of stored plans, files and what amounts to a library of Hoodoo history. She pointed to a spot on the second floor of the new lodge.

"That's where my new office will be," she said with a smile.

The new lodge will mean more than just additional space.

"A service that we'll be adding with the new lodge is day care," said McFarland. The day care facility will be in addition to the existing "Mountain Cubs" program for little skiers aged four to seven.

The Mountain Cubs will have their own special room and "staging area."

Also new this year will be a rope tow to add to the beginners' ski options and instructional opportunities. Last year, a beginners' quad chair was installed.

Still more improvements are on tap for the future.

The green (summit) chair was already scheduled for upgrading to a quad next season, but upgrading of the red chair has been moved up to coincide with that of the green chair.

Hoodoo is already the only ski area in Central Oregon that offers night skiing, and next season's red chair quad upgrade will include lights on that side of the mountain.

Not only will significant additional areas be open to night skiing, but the new lights will add more challenging slopes to the nighttime skiing menu.

McFarland also announced a new rental "ski fleet." for this year. All nordic and downhill rentals will be brand new Rossignol equipment.

Shepard said that the new lodge facilities will also mean no lines for rentals and tickets.

"Another important thing," said Shepard, "is that while prices are going up everywhere, our lift tickets and parking for an individual adult skiing will actually be cheaper than three years ago."

Hoodoo has withdrawn from the snow park pass program, and parking will be included in the price of tickets.

McFarland, meanwhile, has been active in looking for ways to expand Hoodoo's appeal and customer base.

"We don't have lodging here," she said, "so we're trying to promote Sisters lodging so we can bring in destination visitors."

Hoodoo already lists local lodging in its promotional brochures and on its website, hoodoo.com.

Some local lodging facilities offer Hoodoo ski packages, as well.

She said she has been meeting with the Sisters Chamber of Commerce to put together programs of mutual benefit.

She points out that a lot of Sisters businesses have to scale back or even shut down during the winter -- which, of course, is Hoodoo's peak season.

"We'd like to see Sisters as a winter ski town like Park City or Jackson Hole," she said.

Hoodoo is also building its summer programs, which includes management contracts at most local Forest Service campgrounds.

Next year, the ski area is also looking into staging a forest trail mountain bike race from Hoodoo to Sisters.