National Park Service records from 1965-1975 on Downhill skiing at Paradise.
From about 1965 to 1975, the predominant recreational winter use of Mount Rainier National Park changed from downhill to crosscountry skiing. If these two forms of winter recreation had once been quite similar, in the decade 1965-1975 they became very different from one another. As the sport of downhill skiing became increasingly commercialized, more and more downhill enthusiasts came to shun Paradise in favor of more developed ski areas in the national forests. Crosscountry skiing, conversely, enjoyed a growing appeal as outdoor recreationists sought an alternative to the crowds and commercialism that were becoming so much a part of downhill skiing. Not surprisingly, there was a rapid turnover of winter use concessions in Mount Rainier National Park during this time of transition. Winter use concessions not only contended with the old problems of bad weather, road closures, and a weekend-only clientele; they also faced a changing public demand.

To a certain extent, decisions by the park administration helped to reshape winter use of the park. Park officials felt a natural affinity for crosscountry skiers and snowshoers while they came to see downhill skiing as an inappropriate use. Park officials had a more ambivalent response to two additional winter uses, snowmobiling and sliding (snowplay). In managing most of these winter uses, the park administration sought help from new concessioners and volunteer associations.

Downhill Skiing. Even after the development of new ski areas at Crystal Mountain and White Pass in the early 1960s, a few thousand downhill skiers continued to use the slopes above Paradise. Superintendent Rutter, like his predecessor Preston Macy, wanted the concessioner to keep rope tows and a snack bar operating at Paradise to accommodate this winter use of the park. Reluctantly, the RNPC maintained a winter snack bar service in the Paradise Lodge until the old building was slated for demolition. Winter snack bar operations were confined to the National Park Inn at Longmire in the winter of 1965-66, and were introduced in the new Paradise Visitor Center beginning in the winter of 1966-67. Paul Sceva restricted the RNPC's winter operation to weekends and holidays, grumbling to the company's stockholders that the winter season would never amount to much "as long as rope tows are the only means of up-hill ski transportation." Proposals for a permanent chair lift at Paradise resurfaced for the last time in 1968.

In the fall of 1966, the RNPC turned over the coming winter operation at Paradise, together with the following summer's guide service, to a subcontractor by the name of the Kendall Corporation. This was not a success. The Kendall Corporation made a marginal profit on the winter operations but lost money on its climbing equipment rentals and guided trips to the summit, glaciers, and Paradise ice caves. The Kendall Corporation filed for bankruptcy, the RNPC sued, and the rope tow equipment was turned over to the RNPC in a final settlement. At this point Lou Whittaker and Jerry Lynch took over the guide service, while a separate subcontractor, John R. Anderson of Mt. Rainier Ski & Guide Service, Inc., purchased the ski tow operation. The guide service began to flourish, while the ski tow operation remained a marginal enterprise. The Park Service considered recombining the two in 1972, but decided against it. 

With the advantage of hindsight this was undoubtedly the correct decision, for the public's interest in summit climbs grew while its desire for downhill skiing at Paradise diminished. Despite a forty-year tradition of downhill skiing at Paradise, there was no strong sentiment for keeping the tradition alive. Indeed, there was a growing sentiment that the rope tow operation was an inappropriate use of the area. Although the four rope tows were taken down after each winter season, there remained the necessity of putting up pole markers each fall. Park officials noted that the equipment used in transporting the poles up the hill damaged the meadows. 

The last years of the rope tow operation may be quickly summarized. When GSI bought Fred Harvey's interests in the RNPC in 1972, it requested elimination of the ski tow operations from its concession contract. The Park Service obliged, issuing a one-year concession permit to Dick Vanderflute of Paradise Ski Tows, Inc.  The Park Service delayed preparation of a new prospectus for the winter concession for the same reason that it postponed issuing a prospectus for the guide service concession: it did not want to confound the public review process for Mount Rainier's master plan and wilderness recommendations. Three years after the winter concession had been divorced from the main park concession, on September 5, 1975, the NPS issued a prospectus for a five-year contract to operate the ski tow. It received one response, which did not meet the terms of the prospectus.  Paradise Ski Tows, Inc., meanwhile, operated under a year to year permit from 1972 to 1975 and then folded. This marked the end of Mount Rainier's tradition of downhill ski use.