When A Movie Crew Built A Fake Town At A Ski Resort For Charlie Chaplain

Early this month, September 15th, Sugarbowl Resort, California, shared a lesser-known historical factoid: in 1925, the resort was a filming location for Charlie Chaplain's film The Gold Rush.

Part of filming this movie involved constructing an entire fake town on Sugarbowl's piste.

From the caption:

"Did you know that they built a fake village at the bottom of the Palisades in 1925 for the Charlie Chaplin movie "The Gold Rush?" They set the scene as Chilkoot Pass in Alaska and hired hundreds of extras to climb up the ridge. Nowadays, that route is one of the most highly coveted ski lines at Sugar Bowl. And yowza, is it steep!"

The Palisades, not to be confused with the Lake Tahoe resort of the same name, is an incredibly steep, often closed portion of Sugarbowl's piste. It features narrow chutes -- like the one shown in this 1925 clip -- spines and massive cliff drops. To open the Palisades, Sugarbowl requires considerable snowfall.

Sugarbowl notes that this unique terrain draws professional skiers who rely on it as a training ground for trips to Alaska.

Here's professional skier Daron Rahlves tackling a line down the Palisades.

As for the Charlie Chaplain movie Gold Rush, it turns out the whole thing is online for free. I'd share it here, but putting an entire hour-long film in a short article feels silly, so I'll direct you toward Google instead.

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