The world's first chairlift was built at Sun Valley in 1936, and it was designed by a railway engineer who had previously worked out how to load bananas onto ships.
Averell Harriman, chairman of the Union Pacific, wanted a destination resort in the American West that would fill his passenger trains. He sent an Austrian count, Felix Schaffgotsch, to spend a winter looking for the right valley, and Schaffgotsch found this one in Idaho after rejecting Aspen, Jackson Hole and most of Colorado. Harriman then asked his engineers to replace the rope tows that everyone else used with something better.
James Curran had built conveyor systems that lifted bunches of bananas onto United Fruit ships using hooks on a moving cable. He swapped the hooks for chairs. The first one ran on Proctor Mountain in December 1936 at a dollar a ride, and every chairlift on earth descends from it.
Sun Valley opened that winter with a publicity campaign that brought Hemingway, Gary Cooper and a long run of Hollywood, and American destination skiing starts there.
The valley now
Sun Valley is the resort — a purpose-built village with the original 1936 lodge, a skating rink and Bald Mountain rising behind it. Baldy has a vertical drop of about 1,036 metres and uninterrupted fall-line pitches that are regularly described as the best in America.
Ketchum, a mile down the valley, is the actual town: a former mining and sheep-ranching settlement with restaurants, galleries and the bars. Hemingway spent his last years here and is buried in the cemetery.
The Wood River valley runs south past Hailey to Bellevue, with the Sawtooths and the Pioneers on either side and some of the best fly fishing in the country on Silver Creek.
It is remote. That is why it is not busier, and it is most of the appeal.
The five below are split between the resort and the town.
Sun Valley village
The resort.
Sun Valley Lodge occupies the original 1936 building, reworked, with a spa, the outdoor rink and a corridor of photographs from the resort's first decades that is worth the walk on its own.
Sun Valley Lodge
Sun Valley village · 4★ · $$$$
The original 1936 building with the outdoor rink outside
Search hotels in Sun ValleySun Valley Inn sits beside it as the lower-priced sister property with a pool, family rooms and the same village facilities.
Sun Valley Inn
Sun Valley village · 4★ · $$$
The lower-priced sister with the same village facilities
Check availabilityKetchum
The town, a mile down.
Limelight Hotel Ketchum occupies a position at the base of Bald Mountain with a rooftop hot tub, ski storage and the restaurants a short walk away.
Limelight Hotel Ketchum
Ketchum, Baldy base · 4★ · $$$
A rooftop hot tub with the restaurants on foot
Check availabilityKnob Hill Inn sits on the edge of Ketchum in a small European-styled inn with a fireplace, a garden and a long-standing kitchen.
Knob Hill Inn
Ketchum · 4★ · $$$
A small European-styled inn with a long-standing kitchen
Check availabilityHotel Ketchum occupies a reworked property in Ketchum with contemporary rooms and the best value in the valley.
Hotel Ketchum
Ketchum · 4★ · $$
Reworked contemporary rooms at the valley's best value
Check availabilityWhat we have left off
The condominium and house rentals across Ketchum and Sun Valley are excluded, and in a single-resort valley they are a large share of the beds. They are houses rather than hotels.
What to do
Ski Baldy, and note that the mountain has no flat runouts — the pitch is continuous from top to bottom, which is why racers train here and why it is tiring.
Walk up Proctor Mountain to the remains of the original 1936 lift, where the towers still stand.
Fish Silver Creek, a spring creek of famously difficult, selective trout that has been a fly-fishing pilgrimage since Hemingway's time.
Go into the Sawtooths. Redfish Lake is about an hour north over Galena Summit and the range behind it is genuine wilderness.
Visit Hemingway's grave in the Ketchum cemetery and the memorial above Trail Creek, which carries a eulogy he wrote for a friend and which reads differently knowing he is buried below it.
Practical notes
Friedman Memorial at Hailey is fifteen minutes from Ketchum with connections from several western hubs, though it is fog-prone and diversions to Twin Falls happen. Boise is two and a half hours by road.
The ski season runs late November to mid April. Summer runs June to September with hiking, fishing and the Sun Valley music festival. April, May and November are the quiet months.
The valley sits at around 1,800 metres and Baldy tops out at 2,789.
Every hotel bookable in Sun Valley
Was the first chairlift really here?
Yes, in December 1936, designed by an engineer who had built banana-loading conveyors for United Fruit and swapped the hooks for chairs.
Why is the mountain good?
Baldy has about 1,036 metres of vertical with continuous fall-line pitch and no flat runouts.
Sun Valley or Ketchum?
Sun Valley for the historic village and the rink, Ketchum for restaurants and the mountain base. A mile apart.
How many nights?
Five. The travel is long enough that a short trip is poor value.