A 4,600-foot triple chairlift and seven new runs have opened as part of a $4.4 million terrain expansion on the backside of Mt. Spokane, says Brad McQuarrie, general manager of Mt. Spokane Ski & Snowboard Park.

The expansion includes 279 acres of terrain and 79 acres of groomed trails, says McQuarrie. The new chairlift is the longest on the mountain and can carry 1,200 people an hour.

McQuarrie says the expansion has been in the works for 15 years and was part of a master plan developed for the resort in 2003. 

The Washington Parks and Recreation Committee voted in 2014 to allow for the installation of a new chairlift and seven new runs on the northwest side of the mountain, the Journal previously reported. The Spokane Tribe of Indians, The Lands Council, the Spokane Audubon Society, and the Spokane Mountaineers appealed a Nov. 2015 ruling by the Spokane County Superior Court that denied their request for reconsideration after the expansion had been approved. In January 2016, the opposing groups unsuccessfully appealed to Gov. Jay Inslee to stop the planned expansion.

Mt. Spokane 2000, the Spokane-based nonprofit that manages the park, hopes to receive nearly half of the chairlift construction cost back from the Washington state Legislature. 

According to the Greater Spokane Incorporated 2019 state legislative priority agenda, GSI lists $2 million in funding for a new chairlift for Mt. Spokane Ski & Snowboard Park as a community project priority it supports.