Big Sky Resort will cement its position as America’s leader in lift technology with the debut of Swift Current 6, the resort’s fifth major lift addition in four years. The announcement comes just 12 months after the launch of Ramcharger 8, the only eight place and first D-Line lift in North America. By December 2020, two groundbreaking bubble chairlifts will rise from Big Sky’s Mountain Village: one to Andesite Mountain and the other flanking Lone Peak. Not only will Big Sky operate the only two ski lifts in North America with Doppelmayr D-Line technology, the Boyne Resorts flagship will also feature the most lifts with heated seats (three) and the most bubble lifts (four, not counting the private Yellowstone Club which has 8.)
Swift Current 6 will span twice the distance of Ramcharger – about 8,500 feet across 24 towers – making it the fourth longest bubble lift on the continent. 126 premium upholstered chairs will yield a capacity of 3,000 passengers per hour, an increase of more than 25 percent versus the current detachable quad. “Consistent lift improvements are an essential part of Big Sky’s 2025 vision,” noted Big Sky President and COO Taylor Middleton. “We know efficiently dispersing skiers across our almost 6,000 acres of skiing is essential to our guests. Swift Current will dramatically modernize and improve the flow of skiers in the Mountain Village base area.”
Swifty’s 6 m/s line speed will mark a first for North American six place chairlifts and a flight to the heart of the alpine will last just seven minutes. Many aspects will mimic Ramcharger 8, a pioneer still unmatched in the Americas. Bubbles will come in Big Sky blue with heated seats underneath. “This technology offers guests reliability, efficiency, and a staggeringly fast, warm, and comfortable ride up to the iconic Lone Peak—America’s Matterhorn,” said Stephen Kircher, CEO and President of Boyne Resorts. “There will be no faster, safer or more comfortable chairlift in North America.”
Safety for children will again be a focus. Once the bar is lowered by riders, it will lock until the top terminal, where it will be unlocked and raise automatically. The lower station will include a height adjustable loading conveyor to make getting on the chair easier for kids. A high definition screen will display terrain status and video content before boarding. At the top terminal, guests will unload after a 90 degree turn toward Powder Seeker, a move expected to dramatically reduce mis-unloads. The upper terminal will also house a large Doppelmayr Direct Drive. Fully automated parking will be constructed at the top with bikes carriers coming in 2021.
The SC6 project only accelerates the partnership between Boyne Resorts and Doppelmayr which goes back decades. “We are proud to be part of the lift transformation happening at Big Sky,” remarked Mark Bee, President of Doppelmayr USA. “Big Sky is on a path to rival the best lift systems in the world when the 2025 vision is completed,” he continued.
The Big Sky 2025 plan will continue to evolve as the resort grows and hears from more guests. Swift Current was moved up from the original sequence but tram replacement and village gondola projects remain priorities. “We were able to bring Swift Current forward in our 2025 timeline and still keep on track with our next transformative steps of mountain improvements,” noted Middleton, who presided over the opening of the resort’s expansive new Vista Hall dining venue just two days ago.
The existing Swift Current lift, built in 1996 alongside Gondola One, will be sent to Salt Lake for refurbishment and re-installation at another Boyne resort in 2021. Construction of Swift Current 6 will commence as soon as Big Sky closes in mid-April.
Lift Blog 
Wow! I’m impressed. And that logo is sexy.
Also, whats going to happen to the current lift?
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Looks like last paragraph covers that
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Going to Sunday River
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I’ve also heard that. Word is that it would replace the White Cap Quad. It’s a good machine; if taken care of those Uni-Ms could probably run forever.
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Let’s consider that Whistler-Blackcomb reused the Emerald 4’s Spacejet terminals to build the Catskinner Express lift. And the DT-104 grip has been in constant production for 24 years.
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Not sure where the White Cap chatter is coming from, last I heard the resort had zero plans for a detach out of that base. I agree plans change but given Swifty’s design length and vertical, I’m a bit more concerned Boyne might try and replace the current Barker Yama with the refurbed Swifty. Time will tell I guess, and if they do, undoubtedly Eastern skiers will feel totally cheated.
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I doubt it is Barker that gets swapped. They need more capacity and a six-pack will probably be in order. I have heard zero rumors, but I personally think the two best Sunday River options would be a singular detach quad from base to summit of White Cap, replacing White Heat and Little White Cap (trails can easily be cut to the skiers’ right of Shock Wave to connect the summit to the top of Little White Cap) or a Locke Mountain replacement to ease Barker (have it start a little closer to the lodge).
I think Sugarloaf has solid options as well. West Mountain is long, old, and has land available to create a nice pod. Timberline is the only way to the summit, why not push the base down farther to make it accessible from West Mountain and give it a lower ride time. Alternatively, on the other side, extend King Pine to the top of the mountain to give a second summit option.
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@Matt Caron, The White Cap chatter is circulating online, I haven’t heard anything from any inside sources about it. I first saw it on the Sugarloaf Forum, specifically this post: [ https://www.sugarloaftoday.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8952&sid=07902746bec726c3e2e53e3a8b6badb6#p75850 ]. Swifty replacing White Cap (Lift 9, 1987 Yan) is feasible, and if that were the case I wouldn’t be surprised to see Swifty’s extra chairs and towers show up on another installation with new terminals al la Red Buffalo @ Beaver Creek.
@Skitheeast Barker being swapped doesn’t make any sense, if they wanted to go that route they might as well just have L-P come in and make some more extensive modifications (not that I think that’s a good idea as the lift is getting to that age where structural integrity of major load-bearing components is more of a concern that it had been for the previous 30 years).
Also they will never install a top-to-bottom lift on White Cap. The current set-up was engineered to that experts would use the terrain off of the White Heat chair, beginners (either lapping or getting up to the hotel) would use Little White Cap, and anyone trying to get out of the White Cap Base area from the lodge or surrounding real estate would use the White Cap chair to get high enough to get the the middle of the mountain. The problem with this is that the second largest base area on the mountain is left with no detachable, making it unattractive to pretty much everyone. If they put a detachable quad on Tempest (reused Swifty or not), the White Cap base area would be better utilized and I’m sure that everyone staying slopeside in the vicinity of White Cap would appreciate the quick ride out of the White Cap base. SR would also need to do substantial work on the White Cap Lodge to make any of that feasible. Shipyard already renovated part of the building this year and they’re ready to make some noise down there on the weekends (I haven’t seen such an extensive events schedule for that building in 10+ years).
Also with all of the work they’ve done on Locke in the last 5 years (top terminal, more towers for the T-bar crossing), I don’t think that lift is going anywhere. It’s also important to early season ops because of the mid-load (has to be a fixed grip) and doesn’t serve an area anywhere as near as large as the Barker chair.
As for the Loaf, as cool as a detach would be on West Mtn, I wonder if (should they opt to replace it) if they would consider a pulse lift because of the low traffic it gets. The Loaf hasn’t made a secret that Timberline is on the list, and a King Pine extension would run right up through the snowfields, which would result in a lift that is a) over exposed and susceptible to wind closures and b) would be unable to serve the King Pine Bowl when the snowfields are closed (unless you really want to ski the spillway x-cut every time you want to ski a trail in King Pine). At best King Pine gets a loading carpet, which is all it really needs as it isn’t all that long.
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I heard that Sugarloaf is a potential buyer in order to replace Timberline. They say they want to run it down to Bullwinkles, but that seems very difficult to do after looking at a map. The only way to do this without cutting across many trails would be to put an angle station at Timberline’s current bottom terminal, but obviously, that wouldn’t work with Swift Current. I think it would better suit Sunday River as the Whitecap Express.
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@skitheeast Have you skied skier’s right of Shockwave? No way can they easily cut trails over there that connect to little White Cap pod. That terrain gets very to extremely steep and cliffy, the only trails they could possibly cut would be double diamond level (any “trails” cut over there I co Sider sacrilegious BTW). I do not see a base to summit WC chair ever. A Tempest switch to HSQ I could see, especially if they are moving MASR to White Cap Base.
As for Locke, I don’t see them spending much on a secondary lift outside of the early season. That said, you could totally do a detach with a mid station which would help enormously with the experience when it is just skiing on T2 and UP (a designed Detach for downloading would be more like 75% or higher download capacity and easier loading without slowing lift for DH foot traffic). With that said, the costs would be exceptionally high as you would have so many more grip cycles per day and again, that is a big chunk of change for what is essentially a backup lift.
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Why doesn’t loaf supplement Timberline with a chair running up gondola line? It would allow better summit access from the King Pine area, and if it started low enough could allow you to get from Whiffletree to the summit in one lift. It could be something like this (orange is the longer option/extension)
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@somebody. Never going to have a lift in that alignment again IMHO. Too much wind , especially above spillway x-cut to make any sense in spending money there. Where Timberline is now is the most protected wind line available. The only type of lift that would have any reasonable chance of running often over Gondola Line would be a 3S gondola. And that is just too big a pricetag for one lift at Sugarloaf to recoup the investment.
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This why Places such as Hunter Mtn, Windham Mtn, All NYS Ski Resorts Just Cannot Compete Aginist Big Sky Resort. 2025 Beyond Looks like Big Sky Resort is Gonna Replace it’s Entire Fleet of Old Lifts With All High Speed Bubble Six Packs. No More Standing In Long Lines.
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Hi, Big Sky shill!😂
No, we haven’t missed you. 😂
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Did you know that Big Sky has the most high tech lifts anywhere? We totally didn’t know that thanks Caption Obvious 🙄
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For the plan to actually come into fruition, they needed to build two new lifts each year. That didn’t happen. Real estate lifts don’t count. That plan will probably be delayed to 2030.
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Hopefully they finish Ramchargers chair barn next summer too, currently it has no finished exterior skin, just some sort of wrap that’s only slightly better then last years shrink wrap skin.
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the 1996 Poma “Chile Express” in Angel Fire does 1200 ft/min.
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It is a hs4 not hs6
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If I were Boyne I would be extremely careful with my next move as they’ve just pissed off all of their eastern skiers. Literally everyone (who isn’t into lifts) just rolled their eyes and said, “not this sh!t again.” I would have hoped that they would have learned from Powdr.
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You do realize Big Sky pays for the lifts and upgrades themselves? It’s not like Boyne is using money from Sunday River to pay for this.
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That’s not my point. My point is that not every eastern skier knows (or cares) that Big Sky is funding its own projects. All that most people see is 3 major installations at Big Sky in the last four years, seven lifts total, and a massive new lodge, meanwhile the east has gotten diddly squat (unless of course the lift gets totaled and ends up taking 16 months to replace or is funded by Gould Academy). Loon’s lift system is overwhelmed entirely, and the lift serving the heart of Sunday River is notoriously unreliable, slow, and lacks the capacity for the area that it serves.
Change my mind.
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What exactly do you expect Boyne to do? Big Sky clearly makes more money than the east coast resorts and thus can afford to do these projects. The eastern resorts have only been under Boyne’s direct control for a couple years and honestly this summer would be the earliest I would expect them to have the capital to invest in big lifts like Ramcharger or Swift Current. And I would assume that is the plan based on the Forrest service filing at Loon.
So is Big Sky suppose to just not improve and wait for the other resorts to be able to at the same time or do you want BS to give its money to those resorts and sacrifice its own projects, because you clearly see that as an issue for Big Sky to do to the east.
I fully agree that the eastern resorts need investments and the sooner that happens the better. But that’s not exactly relevant to anything Big Sky Builds.
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My expectations are very low. Boyne’s eastern mountains don’t need a lot; at Loon you can’t do all that much in terms of lifts without raising the skier density to an unsafe level (the skier density:skier skill ratio at that mountain is already very high). Sugarloaf has some aging lifts that should be addressed, none of which are primary lifts (Whiffletree, Superquad, Skyline, King Pine, and Timberline are all that that mountain needs 80% of the time). Of those five lifts, the ride time on some could the decreased and the comfort level increased, but that’s not something Sugarloaf needs. It’s a skier’s mountain first and not a “resort.” Sunday River needs a replacement for Barker, but that’s all that it needs immediately. As good as a bubble-six would look, all that needs to go in is a reliable lift that can achieve the existing quad’s design capacity of 3000 riders/hr.
We like to talk about lifts here, but that’s not 100% of the problem with Loon, SR, and the Loaf. Loon has to be run well, as there is a lot of competition in terms of good ski areas in central New Hampshire. Sugarloaf is also run fairly well, as its Maine’s mountain and the sheer size and passion for skiing of the community around it is rivaled only by that of Killington. Then there’s Sunday River, which has been run increasingly poorly in recent years from a management standpoint. SR’s PR has sucked and the community around that mountain no longer trusts Boyne.
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Especially Barker. Barker Mountain really needs a new lift as the Yama HSQ is plagued with mechanical problems.
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Boyne is rumored to be replacing Barker with a six-pack this summer at Sunday River. Swift Current’s new home is rumored to be Sunday River as well. Combine that with the Kanc/Seven Brothers replacements scheduled at Loon and Boyne committing to lift replacements at Sugarloaf during their 2019 annual meeting, I think the east will be happy.
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It would be very surprising to see anything new at Sugarloaf for several years. It hardly never gets crowded and the lift system is pretty reliable, wind-wise, with skyline. Money should go where money is generated, in the East, it’s Loon and Sunday River, not Sugarloaf.
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SR has been really shady about Barker (and pretty much everything) lately, especially since they’ve been caught with their fly open (everyone knows that Barker’s line was surveyed twice in the last 3 months).
White Mtn Nat. Forest also pushed back the decision date for Loon’s lifts on the Schedule of Proposed Actions to April; there’s little chance that those lifts get installed in 2020 even if WMNF approves the lifts in April.
Sugarloaf hasn’t been shady like SR has, but there’s no evidence that anything is in the immediate pipeline up there.
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I don’t think the Loon proposals were necessarily meant for next year. Boyne knows they have to navigate the NFS process, so likely this was for a couple years down the road. Remember too that Boyne is still sitting on the South Peak learning complex and full base area at Loon. That is a large and desperately needed addition. Heck, Riverwalk planned to have a pulse Gondola across the river to that base for a connection. That lift went on hold given the lack of South Peak being completed.
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I do think the Northeast will see a project this year, but I agree about the announcement timeline. Whether it happens or not, in the court of public opinion, Boyne is directing the income from their eastern properties into Big Sky. Powdr knew that was the same case with Killington vs Copper, so they announced Killington’s 2018 project first.
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Glad to see that they are going ahead with this before the gondola. It’s a necessary improvement with all the ikon pass traffic. (I had to wait in line for 5 minutes when I was there last March!) And it definitely answers to the local sentiment of why wasn’t this done first.
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FIVE MINUTES!!?? That’s inexcusable! And the poster child for first world problems. You’re also showing your age. Thirty years ago, half hour to one hour waits were the norm for popular lifts at big resorts.
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By Big Sky standards, five minutes is a long wait. For a resort on the I-70 corridor, that’s moderately busy.
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I’m guessing you meant I-90 corridor…
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At a ski area on the I-70 corridor, a five minute wait would be “moderately busy”.
At a ski area on the I-90 corridor, where daily numbers are lower, a five minute wait is “very busy”.
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And at a ski area on the I-91 corridor, a five minute wait is “empty”.
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Two D-lines in one resort!? Man, Big Sky is really stepping up these years.
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This is an awesome announcement, although I am surprised this is happening before the gondola. Also surprised they are moving the lift out east and not just over to Moonlight Basin as a second out of base lift, but I guess they want an all-new, modern lift fleet at Big Sky.
They also updated their Big Sky 2025 timeline/list of improvements. Next lift upgrades are the tram, Explorer gondola, Iron Horse, and Headwaters. Iron Horse will also be extended (probably to the top of Six Shooter, although I would love to see it go all the way down to the base of Pony Express as well). Southern Comfort, Lone Moose, and the second out of base lift from Moonlight are the upgrades that will be last, closer to 2025. Thunder Wolf 2.0, Dakota 2.0, and a Liberty Bowl lift/tram are all out of the picture.
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It may be that none of the possible Moonlight lifts need one the same length as Swifty, so perhaps better to deploy it elsewhere.
As for gondola, my speculation is that the hotel plans have been delayed and the gondola is designed to integrate with a new luxury hotel, so it may make sense to switch order.
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My contacts at BS have said that they looked at moving Swiftly over to moonlight to anchor a development by the moonlight golf course but decided against due to age; for what would be a critical access lift it was considered unacceptably unreliable.
I have also heard through the same grapevine that there is a chance that if extra chairs are not able to be procured for Six Shooter in the next few years that it will be replaced with a mostly new lift (reusing some tower equipment) and the existing DoppelmayrCTEC lift will be used elsewhere on a shorter alignment where higher capacity can be achieved with the existing equipment.
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Will the bar come down automatically, or does it have to be lowered by the riders first? And are the bar and bubble the same thing, or are they separate?
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They are separate and neither come down automatically unless the chair is empty.
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I hate this decision. It’s a very expensive lift that doesn’t improve my ski experience significantly. I would have much rather they did something about the tram line. And it doesn’t have to be expensive, put an old triple or even a T bar in on the backside.
Someone has to pay for this lift, I foresee higher lift prices too.
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Doesn’t improve your experience? This is one of two lifts at Big Sky that do need a capacity upgrade. It’s also among the coldest lifts on the mountain, and it’s impossible to avoid. Not to mention it’s a critical lift for summer ops.
The only surprise for me is that the Gondola didn’t come first. This is a very logical upgrade.
Source, BS passholder.
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The problem is the amount of money being spent on one pod of runs while another set in much worse shape gets nothing. Arguably the tram runs are most impressive runs and have the longest lift line in the whole US.
Would you really have rather had the lift as is or would you have rather they had announced a non-bubbled, non-heated, non-upholstered, simple high speed six and used those savings to put in a used triple from say the top of Shedhorn to near the summit. It’s a no brainier in my book but it’s ok if some disagree.
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I agree that the tram needs a capacity upgrade solution, but if you think those lift lines are even close to being the longest in the country, there are a ton of northeast, Summit County, Tahoe, and even Utah resorts I would love to show you…
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Don’t upgrade the tram. I don’t want to ski 2000vert of moguls.
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Exciting news for Big Sky! A fully automated chair parking system on a lift of this size and scale will be pretty cool. Interesting that they went with an six pack on Swifty after going eight on Ramcharger.
It seems like they have a plan for the tram replacement and will be implementing it sometime soon. I will be very interested to see what they come up with for that new lift given all of the unique requirements (moving bottom terminal, inaccessible liftline, small space on the peak, limited skier capacity of the terrain it serves, etc.).
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This can’t come soon enough. The Swift Current lift is the one lift that really needs bubbles as heated seats (which I think are generally overrated), as it is one cold and windy alignment for a very, very long lift. I rarely feel cold on lifts, and I think this is only first high speed chair I’ve felt like I’m freezing.
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Sigh….. New lifts tend to suffer during the break in period. This new lift will still be the only way out of the base area other than a 50 year old fixed grip.
When it malfunctions, what then?
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I mean, every new year new lifts replace old ones because they are suffering from mechanical problems. Nowadays its about skiers comfort on lifts and getting to the top faster.
This all so creates a bigger problem with them. More people tend to crowd newer lifts. Plus new HSQ ‘s or HS6’s tend to attract Groomers which also add more to the crowd.
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Swift Current has a fair number of groomers on its pod.
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Will they need to increase capacity on Powder Seeker?
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Powder Seeker currently has 1,800 pph; and I think that through the addition of more chairs, they can bump it up to 3,200 pph tops. I don’t imagine there being any difference in the design of Swift Current 6’s chairs from Powder Seeker’s aside from different grips.
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The Ramcharger and Seeker chairs are very different.
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This decision made me curious about the longest eight place chairlift. Looks like it is the Spacejet 3 at Snow Space Flachau at ~7,300 feet. Still quite a bit shorter than Swift Current. There must be a reason so many eight packs are relatively short and I’m thinking they get prohibitively expensive after about 2,000 meters.
https://www.remontees-mecaniques.net/bdd/reportage-tsd8b-spacejet-iii-doppelmayr-1401.html
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Eights only make sense when you want to move a lot of people a distance too short to justify ski removal. Over long distances, you might as well get in a gondola.
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Wow, this like the only North American resort that resembles Austria, where lift technology is the shit! We skied there 4 years ago and every area was amazing with their lifts, put it in your “bucket list” if you are a lift nerd.
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Same with Switzerland. Bubbles, cable cars, multi-stage gondolas, old detachables, etc. If a lift needs to be replaced, the minimum seems to be a bubble six-pack. These resorts see lifts as a priority in the skier’s eye, while most North American resorts just want to provide fast transportation uphill, and that’s about it.
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About the “North American resorts just want to provide fast transportation and uphill”. I feel like that newer detachables in the U.S. (At least) are only at 1000 FPM.
And most of them only run like 800 to 950 FPM. (Idk if this is right.)
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In the eyes of the public though, that is still “fast”. Sure they will like it if a lift runs 1,000, but it’s not necessarily a deal-breaker.
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Despite the rumors otherwise, I’m surprised no one has mentioned Timberline at Sugarloaf as the destination for Swift Current. Seems like the similar profile and long distance (down to Bullwinkle’s) would be a good fit.
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I thought they’d end up putting the Superquad there, but the CTEC AK-4 grips do very poorly in ice.
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They should ship that exciting lift to cypress, only 5 hours away from BS (unless you take the canadian route). The Lions chair needs some more capacity and twinning the lift would be lit from me and whistler tourists ironically complaining about the lines at cypress.
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But this whole project could of costed alot less if they just used normal detach tech. I mean corporate dominance mainly has to do with this, but its still a large amount of money for a single lift.
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Milan, I think you have to understand that this “normal detach technology” will soon become a thing of the past. Just like anything, if no advancements are made, nothing will change. Big Sky (Boyne) has chosen to make these investments. Just wait 10 years, and D Line technology will be normal. It may be an expensive initial investment, but it will likely pay off in the long run, and improve guest satisfaction.
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What exactly does “normal detach technology” mean? I assume you mean “just an ordinary lift with none of these extra bells and whistles like heated seats or bubbles or loading carpets”?
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Lions does get long lines but twinning as in 2 detach quads side by side? Would be better off getting a six pack.
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What is the fastest speed you can have on a d line lift?
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7 m/s.
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6 for a chair, 7 for a gondola
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Screw chairs let’s see some improvements with runs. As usual big Sky’s small mans complex is driving these un warranted chairs when their mountain still sucks. They need some d10 dozers to make the skiing better, clean some glads and put in snowmaking. The new lodge is also a joke. Just like crystal, they are way to small. I have skied big sky since 1990 and live at the base of the mountain. Why? Because of the real estate. It’s a real estate mountain and some day I’ll cash out.
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That’s interesting to hear. I’ve never been to big sky, but I to me the mountain looks amazing. Sunshine Village in Banff doesn’t have snowmaking but there’s still enough snow.
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The resort is a joke when it comes to creating a safe place to ski. The amount of rocks and trees that hurt people is crazy. I agree with Kevin the resort needs to do a better job with cleaning the mountain up. I hate blowing ski edges on green runs.
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True that bob. I think an effort to recreate the lay of the mountain and more fall line runs would make it much more like Colorado ski areas which are the gold standard. They also need to take into consideration the quality of the snow. You have champagne, worlds greatest, and cold smoke. What’s big sky, wind blown peppered with rocks pulled up by the snow cats. I have watched the new 8 pack chair and have never seen 8 people lined up since we can’t count anymore and there is still a line. At some point the new car smell will wear off and bs will be in the rear view mirror as folks drive south. I still believe in the vision, just think quality not quantity.
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Whoever said eight-packs are best for moving large quantities of people distances too short to warrant a gondola might have a point.
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Yes thats because Sunshine village is in the rocky mountains, famous for snow. Its a different climate, despite its decently close proximity.
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You’re completely off base. Big Sky is also part of the Rocky Mountains – that Gallatin Range is just part of the broader Rockies which do extend into Canada, encompassing Sunshine Village.
The issue here is the ubiquitous, jagged Andesite (the mountain’s name is no coincidence) that threatens ski edges in far too many places on the mountain.
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I will be going to Big Sky soon, so I will finally get to ride Ramcharger! I will film Swift Current as “final documentation” before it leaves. It looks like it’s been going close to 1,000 recently.
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New Swifty will likely have the same size terminals as this lift: https://www.remontees-mecaniques.net/bdd/reportage-tsd6b-bendolla-col-du-pouce-garaventa-7097.html
It will also likely have the same D3000 grips and similar chairs.
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