A chair became lodged sideways entering the top terminal of Lutsen Mountains’ Raptor Express yesterday, leading to a full rope evacuation. Winds were reportedly picking up at the time and made for a multi-hour evacuation. The 2023 Leitner-Poma six pack crosses several roadways, allowing a ladder truck from the local fire department to reach some of the lift’s 53 chairs. Other riders were roped down by resort staff. “We sincerely appreciate the patience and continued support of our guests,” the mountain noted on its snow report. “We are grateful to our patrol, ops and lift teams for all they do to keep us safe and having fun,” Lutsen said. I have asked Lutsen whether anyone on the affected chair fell or was injured and will update with any new information.
The impacted chair being lowered out of the terminal following the evacuation. Photo credit: Andrew Shultz
Lutsen says the Raptor Express will remain closed for several days as parts arrive for repair. The Bridge double will run in Raptor’s place, providing access to all the same terrain. “Our teams are working hard to ensure safe operations, and we look forward to delivering positive experiences on the mountain today and throughout the season,” said Lutsen.
Update 1/19: Lutsen provided the following statement to Lift Blog: “On Saturday, 1/17 at approximately 9:45 am, Lutsen Mountains experienced a mechanical failure on the Raptor Express chairlift which caused the lift to cease operating. After a thorough inspection, it was determined the guests on the lift would need to be evacuated. In total, 44 guests were evacuated by Lutsen Mountains Ski Patrol and transported to Lutsen’s Ski Patrol building and Eagle Ridge Registration building where cookies, hot drinks and guest services personnel awaited them. One guest experienced non-life threatening injuries as a result of the mechanical issue, and no guests were injured in the evacuation process.
At this time, Raptor Express remains closed until the upcoming weekend while the team awaits replacement parts. In the meantime, guests can continue to access the same terrain via Bridge Lift. Any updates will be made via our website, daily mountain report, and social media. Thank you for your patience during this time and we thank our ski patrol for their training and professionalism during the evacuation.”
Update 1/20: Lutsen confirmed to Lift Blog that “four people fell from the chair at the top terminal of Raptor Express when the mechanical failure occurred. Ski Patrol responded immediately and minor injuries were assessed on-site.”
Doppelmayr and Leitner split an order for urban gondolas in Queenstown, New Zealand.
Cannon Mountain continues structural analysis on the recently-retired aerial tram with a May target to solicit bids from manufacturers for replacement reusing tower and terminal structures (starts at 18:00.)
A new map shows where the Showcase quad will run on Blackcomb Mountain.
Early season visits to Vail Resorts North American mountains declined 20 percent through January 4th compared to a year earlier.
Update: An empty chair detached from Shedhorn 4 at Big Sky today. I’m told a grip did not attach properly leaving the bottom teminal. The empty chair ended up in the pit. Statement from Big Sky Resort: “Around 2:45pm today on Shedhorn 4 lift, a grip failed to reattach to the haul rope while exiting the bottom terminal. The chair was unoccupied at the time, and the lift’s automatic safety system immediately stopped operation. The team acted quickly to offload all remaining guests from the lift. Shedhorn 4 will remain closed while we thoroughly inspect every grip before reopening. We appreciate your patience as safety remains our top priority.“
Castle Mountain’s new map shows lift expansion on Mt. Haig.
A state evaluation following the Park City gondola mishap last week notes no mechanical malfunction but says “a gondola cabin leaving a terminal with a passenger being suspended by the foot is not acceptable and has the potential for extremely serious injuries.” During a Utah Passenger Ropeway Safety Committee Meeting, Park City’s Director of Mountain Operations Nick Dana notes “we did have a loading incident on Red Pine Gondola last week so we’re continuing to look into that and work with the manufacturer to investigate into our door monitoring switches there at top of Red Pine Gondola.”
Also from the UPRSC, the Forest Service notes several recent chair detachments on Riblet and Stadeli lifts in Montana.
The latest court filing over a delayed lift project at Bluewood, Washington alleges Steelhead Systems’ “experience in the sale and delivery of used chairlifts” has “been marred by disappointing results, delays and unexplained cost overruns.”
As the world bids farewell to 2025, 49 new lifts are up and running across North America. Forty five of those rose in the United States plus four in Canada. That’s eight fewer installations than 2024 as the Covid-era outdoor travel boom waned slightly. Marquee projects in ’25 included ten passenger gondolas at Big Sky, Deer Valley and Park City – all providing new out-of-base access. Several ski areas pushed boundaries, most notably Deer Valley with six new lifts in the East Village.
Despite a shortage of snow, Loveland Ski Area became the first to open a brand new lift this season at Loveland Valley.
The Rocky Mountain region saw strong investment with 24 lifts opening in Colorado, Montana, New Mexico and Utah. The East also proved strong with 15 new lifts, up by three from 2024. The Pacific states, the Midwest and Canada fared weaker with just a handful of projects each.
Killington debuted its first Doppelmayr lift in history, a six pack servicing the famous Superstar pod.
Both fixed and detachable chairlift construction fell markedly while gondola projects increased to an impressive eight machines. Surface lifts also outperformed with four new platters and T-Bars supplied by three manufacturers. No aerial trams opened this year but that could change soon with projects on the horizon at Cannon Mountain, New Hampshire and Franklin Mountains, Texas.
The Mighty Argo Cable Car under construction in Colorado.
Expansions prevailed with more lifts breaking new ground than any year since 2019. In Alberta, Lake Louise opened Richardson’s Ridge with a Doppelmayr detachable quad and Castle Mountain built the Stagecoach Express serving hundreds of acres of alpine terrain. Stateside, Powder Mountain completed the Davenport addition for homeowners serviced by a Leitner-Poma detachable quad. Monarch Mountain, Colorado will soon debut Tomichi, a Skytrac triple ascending No Name Basin for the first time. In the east, Bryce Resort also partnered with Skytrac to debut a backside expansion with four new trails. Only 30 of 49 new lifts this year directly replaced old lifts, down by nine from last year.
Pinyon Express, one of several new D-Line detachables at Deer Valley Resort this winter.
The only gondola in South Carolina debuted at Riverbanks Zoo & Garden in August.
Doppelmayr and the HTI duo of Leitner-Poma and Skytrac continued to dominate the market in North America. LPOA won slightly more than half of projects (22) with Doppelmayr completing 20 installations. HTI paricularly excelled in the fixed-grip realm with five new Leitner-Poma Alphas and seven Skytrac Monarchs. Doppelmayr dominated the gondola and detachable spaces with six D-Lines and six UNI-Gs. By vertical transport feet per hour (VTFH), Doppelmayr edged out HTI with 46 percent of installed capacity vs. 45 percent. MND Ropeways built its first new lift in three years here, a T-Bar for Waterville Valley, New Hampshire.
The upcoming gondola at Hawks Nest State Park, West Virginia, set to open in spring 2026.
Lifts at places other than ski resorts took off in 2025. The State of West Virginia invested in two fixed grip gondolas at state parks, one of which opened this fall and the other of which will launch come spring. Riverbanks Zoo in South Carolina debuted a gorgeous river crossing gondola in partnership with Leitner-Poma, the first detachable ever built in that state. The Tennessee State Fair debuted a fixed chairlift and OZ Trails Bike Park in Arkansas is putting the finishing touches on a Leitner-Poma high-speed quad, the first detachable in that state.
Park City’s new Sunrise Gondola, a two year project which opened this month.
Nearly 90 percent of lift projects were new-from-manufacturer with just six used lifts re-installed. They represented just under eight percent of new VTFH with Castle Mountain’s high speed quad the largest followed by Alta’s relocation of the Supreme chair. The majority of used lifts were Pomas of various vintages and types.
East Street at Ski Santa Fe, a Poma Alpha reinstallation.
Deer Valley’s new gondola earned largest new lift of the year followed by Big Sky’s Explorer Gondola then Elk Camp Express at Snowmass. Both Doppelmayr and Leitner-Poma engineered lifts across the VTFH spectrum while Skytrac and MND lifts skewed smaller.
Omigosh, a Doppelmayr Alpenstar addition at Cataloochee, North Carolina.
There’s a narrative that only conglomerates can afford new lifts. While lifts have certainly become costlier, this year showed that isn’t the whole story with dozens of independent operators buying really nice machines for their customers to ride. From Wachusett to White Pass and Welch Village, independent ski areas are thriving. Setting aside the Deer Valley megaproject funded by Extell Development Company, Alterra only added one new lift to its existing portfolio at Crystal Mountain, Washington. Same story with Vail Resorts, which built the Sunrise Gondola at Park City in partnership with the Canyons Village Management Association. More than half of all new lifts this year went to what I would consider mom-and-pop, family-owned single mountains.
The industry also retired 53 lifts in 2025, three more than last year, at an average age of 42 years. Eight Halls, six Riblets and four Borvigs went to scrap as resorts modernized fleets. Some 211 Halls, 213 Riblets and 118 Borvigs still spin across the continent, however, with more to be replaced in 2026.
Next year is shaping up to be similar to 2025. Announced new lifts are pacing just slightly behind this time a year ago with 41 installations on my list of likely projects. Several installs initially intended for 2025 were pushed to ’26 including Purgatory’s Gelande triple, Powder Mountain’s DMI and Halfpint lifts, Homewood’s gondola and Bluewood’s summit lift. Several ski areas already announced fresh investments for 2026 including two replacements at Sun Valley, two lifts at Little Switzerland and a new gondola at Sugar Bowl. Independent mountains are poised to continue out-investing conglomerates despite accounting for less than half of skier visits. Vail announced three new lifts for next year and Alterra has several in the pipeline.
As these projects unfold, I hope you’ll continue to read Lift Blog in 2026. 2025 was another record year for the site with 841,000 unique visitors reading nearly 4.7 million pages. Thank you for your support, think snow and Happy New Year.
One of four Canadian projects this year at a Mont-Tremblant real estate developmentcalled L’Hymne des Trembles.
Nearly all of Telluride’s unionized ski patrollers voted to strike last night after weeks working without a contract. In response, Telluride Ski Resort says it plans to close entirely as of Saturday. “Due to the Ski Patrol’s unfortunate choice to strike, we have made the difficult decision to dose the resort on Saturday, December 27th,” the resort said on its website. “Currently, we have no idea how long their strike will last so we will continue to work on a plan that allows us to safely open again as soon as possible.” In recent weeks, the ski resort has been advertising for temporary ski patrol positions in the event of a strike. It also tried recruiting healthcare workers from Montrose with an offer of free season passes.
The United Mountain Workers union says it opted to strike only after months of negotiations reached an impasse. The previous contract with Telluride expired on August 31st. “Tonight, after painful consideration, the Telluride Professional Ski Patrol has authorized a work stoppage to begin Dec 27 with a 99% yes vote,” the union said on Instagram. “Despite extensive effort and movement from TPSPA to avoid this outcome, the company continues to push a 2.5 week old Last, Best and Final Offer that does not address our concerns. The $65,000 gap between 3 year proposals reflects unwillingness from the company to fix a broken wage structure. We need a pathway to attract and retain, and the current proposal from Telski is simply a bandaid, not a long term solution.” Telluride Ski Resort says it offered an immediate 13 percent wage increase for the 2025/26 season and a guaranteed minimum Cost of Living Increase of 5 percent in the 2026/27 and 2027/28 seasons.
Seven chairlifts were operating at Telluride as of this morning. The Telluride-Mountain Village Gondola is operated by the Town of Mountain Village and not expected to close. Telluride says all lift ticket and lesson products will be automatically refunded during the closure. Season passholders will also receive prorated refunds based on the number of days impacted. “We are actively working with our partners at Vail Resorts to develop a solution for guests who purchased Epic Pass products for their Telluride visit,” Telski noted.
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