“This was our dream 30 years ago; to get a lift that would go clear to the top of the mountain, and where you didn’t have to hold onto a rope all the way.” Those were the sentiments expressed by Maurice Hertzig, Westwood’s Fire Chief and Harold Powell, Lassen College professor in December 1976 when nearing the completion of the Pomo lift at Coppervale. The new lift powered by a 60 horsepower electric motor, will rise 1,560 vertical feet up the mountain and have a capacity to move 550 people per hour. The three month construction project cost $29,000.
This was a great improvement over the rope tow. It was hard work for a kid to hold on all the way to the top, though our wrench-like “grippers” were a big help. (I think the spelling is Poma, by the way. It’s a French company, though I don’t know if Coppervale’s system was made by them or a competitor.) More Coppervale history, at least as I remember it: The original rope tow was powered by a Buick V8. My dad missed a lot of time on his skis while he was in the shed keeping it running for the rest of us; the woodstove in the lodge (it was still there a few years ago), came from my grandparents’ barn on Richmond Road, and the “rug” is an old tow rope nailed to the floor; The rope would sometimes break. A gang of men would pull the ends together and make a splice; There was no snow-grooming equipment, so skiers would have to “sidestep” all the way down the hill at least once to pack down wet, heavy snow (powdery snow didn’t need this, of course); the Coppervale Ski Club used to do improvements during the summer. Everyone who was there on one particular day in the ’60s had their name painted on the main beam inside the lodge. The names were still there well into the 1980s.