Sierra Stories:
Johnny Ellis: Donner Summit Ski Pioneer

By Mark McLaughlin

Johnny Ellis was a ski entrepreneur who most likely pioneered the earliest rope tow on Donner Summit, installing one in 1936-37 at Lake Mary. Ellis graduated from Dartmouth College in 1935 and soon after arrived at Donner Summit just in time to help with the completion of the Sierra Club’s new Clair Tappaan Lodge. He then became the first custodian of the lodge and built a small cabin for himself next door.

His cabin design was so innovative, utilizing south-facing glass for solar heat and light, an overhanging roof to protect against shedding snow, and a ladder leading to an entry near the roof when deep snow blocked the front door, that the Forest Service copied aspects of it for their own mountain structures.

An avid skier, Ellis began exploring the surrounding terrain in a search for the best skiable areas. He had an idea to establish a West Coast version of the Dartmouth Outing Club he remembered from school and he started a campaign to get California Dartmouth alumni involved in his project. Ellis settled on a site near today’s Sugar Bowl, but needed money to buy the land from Southern Pacific Railroad. He secured the purchase by borrowing money from his college alumni, paying Southern Pacific $3.50 an acre. In a letter to a friend, Ellis detailed his vision: “[I had] a plan to build a ski tow above Lake Mary and to sell ski cabin lots around its base…a symbiotic arrangement where each would contribute to the well-being of the other…I was reserving most of my quarter section for grandiose plans for a very high capacity series of cable lifts to get to the top of Mount Judah and Donner Peak.” Mount Judah is now part of the Sugar Bowl ski area.

Ellis recognized the economic opportunities associated with ski area development. He quickly subdivided the land and began to sell lots. “This game of buying land for ten dollars an acre and selling for a couple of hundred works,” he wrote. He sold five of the lots and earned enough money to pay for the whole quarter section that he had purchased from Southern Pacific.

Ellis realized that getting skiers to the top of the slope quickly and easily was the main obstacle inhibiting the rapid growth of alpine skiing. When Ellis installed a rope tow above Lake Mary in 1937, he claimed it was the first in the West, although the Clair Tappaan Lodge built a rope tow for their skiers about the same time. In the Sierra Nevada there were at least two other lift systems in operation that winter. There was the sketchy Up-ski sled system at Badger Pass, and a J-bar in operation for the winter of 1937-38 at Sonora Pass. Ellis again borrowed money to move forward with his dream of establishing a successful ski area on the Summit. He managed to work off the debt the following summer at a gold mine down on the west slope. Near the shoreline of Lake Mary, Ellis built a small log cabin that served as a warming hut and refreshment stand. His tow reached 1,200 feet up the mountain slope and provided access to an exhilarating downhill run. He told his customers, “Pay 50 cents. Keep your skis on. Grab a handle. Ride up and down all afternoon. We don’t count the rides.”

In the mid- to late-1930s, rope tow mania swept the nation and operations started popping up everywhere. As soon as people learned that they could grab a moving rope and be pulled quickly up the slope, instead of spending a whole day of arduous climbing for just a few runs, downhill skiing grew in popularity. Ellis described his Summit operation: “The first manila rope tow in the entire west - that I ever knew of – was my big electrically-driven rope tow [near Lake Mary] starting up the lower slopes of Mount Judah in the winter of 1937-38. In the next couple of years I added length to it, and I built two Model-A-driven tows on section 17 [Signal Hill/Donner Ski Ranch], and the Sierra Club added a rope tow of their own a mile west of the Pass. Others followed; and low cost, widely popular ‘downhill only’ skiing spread rapidly…I’d like to add…that my concept was learned from Bunny Bertram’s first rope tow at Woodstock [Vermont].” (The first mechanical rope tow in the U.S. was installed at Woodstock in 1934.)

During winter storms, the west-facing slopes of Mount Judah and Donner Peak are exposed to high wind and drifting snow, so Ellis installed two gas-powered tows on east facing Signal Hill (Donner Ski Ranch). But weather wasn’t the only risk when riding the Ellis tows. He wrote, “Normally low gear was used, but just to liven things up the operator could shift to high gear and this would spill all but the hardiest!” The winter of 1938 is the snowiest of record on Donner Summit with 69 feet tallied. Ellis noted that at one point the snowpack reached 29 feet deep, and months later he took a girl skiing by moonlight on the Fourth of July 1938.

Ellis had a dream to expand beyond his multiple rope tow system. He wrote, “…the three ski tows did a steady business. I think they served one purpose well. They started a lot of people seeing what growth skiing could have and what stimulation lifts could be to this growth.” Ellis envisioned the “first-class development of an area” and approached investors with a plan to run what he called a high speed aerial tramway from Lake Mary to the top of Mount Judah. But Ellis’ vision was not to be. Once World War II broke out, much of the Summit area was closed to public access, except for thru-traffic, to protect the transcontinental railroad. The military meant business when they said no stopping on the Summit. In May 1942, Truckee’s Sierra Sun newspaper reported that two tourists from Wyoming had pulled over at the Rainbow Bridge just east of the Summit to take some photographs until gunfire from U.S. troops sent them quickly on their way. As fate would have it, new adventures during the war period took Ellis east and he never returned to Donner Pass. On Aug. 14, 2010, the Donner Summit Historical Society honored Johnny Ellis’ efforts during their second annual Summit Pioneer Awards ceremony.

Tahoe historian Mark McLaughlin is a nationally published author and professional speaker. His award-winning books are available at local stores or at www.thestormking.com. Mark may be reached at mark@thestormking.com.