Historic Mountaineer Lodge at Snoqualmie Pass burns to the ground

SNOQUALMIE PASS, Kittitas County — Late-season snow mixed with soot and smoke swirled around Lynn Hyde Friday as she and other longtime members of The Mountaineers surveyed the charred remains of the club's historic Snoqualmie Lodge, which was to be opened to the public for the first time this summer.

An early-morning blaze destroyed both the lodge and the club's plans to offer educational programs about the area's diverse ecosystems, from its indigenous plants to its Alpine wetlands and mountain forests.

A cause for the fire has not been determined.

Hyde's children, like generations before them, learned to ski on the 77-acre site that was purchased by The Mountaineers after another fire destroyed the club's first lodge at the pass in 1944.

The replacement lodge, built by an all-volunteer crew in 1948 off Interstate 90's Exit 53, closed for the ski season in mid-March. But it was to reopen in June so hikers and mountain climbers could book the lodge's spacious but rustic sleeping quarters and commercial-sized kitchen.

The lodge is one of four in the Cascade Mountains owned by The Mountaineers, the quintessential Seattle club for mountain climbers, hikers and other outdoor enthusiasts.

The club is now celebrating its centennial.

"It's the memories, but it's also the dreams we had for it as an environmental-education center for the community," said Hyde, a Mountaineers volunteer who worked to have the lodge added to the Washington State Heritage Register of Historic Places last year.

Hyde said The Mountaineers envisioned the lodge as "a gateway to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area," and had been in discussions with the Pacific Crest Trail Association to reroute the trail to the lodge site "so it could be a drop station and a way station for hikers."

Driver reported fire

A man driving nearby called 911 at 5:32 a.m. Friday to report seeing flames through the trees, said Matt Cowan, fire chief of Snoqualmie Pass Fire and Rescue. It took firefighters 40 minutes to lay 2,500 feet of hose-line up a snow-covered trail to reach the remote site, he said.

"It was pretty much to the ground when we got up here and started putting water on it," Snoqualmie Pass Fire and Rescue Lt. Judy Heyer said.

Kittitas County Sheriff's deputies were to remain at the site overnight Friday until the wreckage cooled enough for fire investigators to begin the process of determining what caused the blaze.

"It's so gut-wrenching," said Fran Troje, who had planned to celebrate her 75th birthday with a work party at the lodge in July. "It's not just the history, it's the future."

Troje, like her fellow club members who gathered at the fire site, said she hopes the lodge will be rebuilt.

"Throw money at us, please," she said. "Maybe we can organize a big work crew to come clean up this mess."

Tucked between two summits near The Summit at Snoqualmie ski area, the Snoqualmie Lodge was particularly popular in the years after World War II, when downhill skiing began to take off.

In the 1950s, dances were held in the lodge's open communal area, and it was later used for first-aid training, outdoor-skills classes and snowshoe lessons.

Tents were pitched in summer and snow caves were built in winter, expanded sleeping space for those who couldn't fit inside the lodge's bedrooms and two dorm-style sleeping rooms.

"It's been our training center for five decades and now it's been completely wiped away," Steve Costie, The Mountaineers' executive director, said from Seattle. "It's left a real hole for me. An icon is gone."

The Mountaineers did not have fire insurance because the lodge was too remote, Costie said.

He said the Mountaineers' board members, who are scheduled to meet in June, will decide the lodge's future.

Inspections passed

Mary Lynch, the lodge's volunteer manager, was the last club member to visit the lodge May 2.

"It was a rustic lodge" but had just passed inspections by the health and fire departments, she said.

A fire-alarm system had recently been installed and a club-owned snow tractor that was destroyed in the fire had been overhauled last year, Lynch said.

"So many people have grown up here with so many memories," she said. "When the snow is gone, there are Alpine wetlands with Indian paintbrush, marsh marigolds and trilliums. All year round, it's a neat place to come."

Seattle Times reporter Craig Welch contributed to this report.

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com