Even before the first eight place chairlift in the Midwest carries skiers up Boyne Mountain this month, two more lift projects are in the works. Next summer, Doppelmayr will replace both Boyneland and Superbowl, lifts which date back to 1995 and 1987, respectively. Boyneland will go from a fixed triple to a fixed quad and Superbowl from a fixed quad to a fixed triple.
The realigned Boyneland will load closer to the Mountain Express base area and become the gateway to family-friendly Disciples Ridge terrain. A height-adjustable loading conveyor will allow the replacement lift to operate twice as fast as the existing Borvig with a ride time of just four minutes.
Expert-focused Superbowl on the mountain’s south side will debut the fastest fixed grip chairlift in the Midwest. The new triple chair will spin at 2.5 meters per second or 492 feet per minute. Superbowl will also sport a loading carpet and the bottom terminal will shift downward to provide easier loading access. Additional space at the top will create an improved unloading experience.
Lifts are a major part of Renaissance 2030, an aggressive ten year capital improvement plan at Boyne Mountain. “These new lifts bring the latest in technology to Boyne Mountain and provide our guests with the absolute best skiing and riding experience in the Midwest,” said Jason Perl, general manager of Boyne Mountain Resort. “Better, faster lifts mean more time on the slopes, enjoying the exhilaration of the sports, and time with family and friends.” Both new lifts are expected to be complete in advance of the 2023-24 ski season.
Boyne Resorts now plans to build at least seven new lifts next year between Big Sky, Boyne Mountain, The Highlands, Loon Mountain, Sunday River and Sugarloaf. Projects run the gamut from fixed grip chairlifts at Boyne Mountain and Loon to a bubble six place at The Highlands and the all-new Big Sky tram.
Lift Blog 
Let’s hope Superbowl goes over to Highlands north face
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it won’t. it’s a 50+ year old lift from an extinct manufacturer, using an uncomfortable, slow, and rare design. Highlands first needs to fix its existing fleet, every single lift there needs an upgrade. when/if they do expand on North Peak, it’ll probably be a brand new triple similar to what new Superbowl looks like.
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It would be nice if these stories contained the location of the resort, and maybe the size (vertical drop) or just a little more info so we can mentally place where in the world a resort most people are not familiar with is located. Thanks :)
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He’s got the trail map included, and if you check out the tags at the bottom of every story. If you click those, you can find other news about the mountain, the lift page if Peter has one, and outside stories he has linked. As far as you questions, Boyne Mountain is in the northern part of Michigan’s LP. Its 500 vertical and one of the largest midwestern ski areas.
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Superbowl came used from Thunder Mountain when Boyne closed that right? Should be early 70s originally. Both these upgrades make a ton of sense, and address older lifts that do not have modern lifts adjacent.
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Yes, came from Thunder when Kircher closed it.
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This is a different plan from what they hinted at last Spring.
Last Spring they hinted at moving Meadows to Superbowl and putting a D-Line 6 at Meadows.
Also, they hinted at a D-Line 6 replacing Boyneland with a midstation and running that lift all the way up to Disciples. That lift would have also replaced Ramshead.
This current plan seems to make a lot of sense. I am just curious as to what changed. Still a lot of skiers and not a huge improvement in uphill capacity. I thought the Meadows plan made sense to drag skiers out of the front middle and entice them to move to the outer edges in both directions.
This more relaxed replacement plan makes me wonder if Highlands is just going to have the 2 high speeds and everything else will be fixed grip chairs.
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Boyneland was rumored to be a HSQ, but yes it was originally supposed to go to the top of Disciples. it’s a good way to get skiers up to Disciples, but this plan would leave only one run (Miller’s Time), which feeds into probably the toughest green on the mountain and a massive terrain park on Ramshead, which isn’t ideal for the primary beginners lift, even if it did have a mid.
Boyneland couldn’t replace Ramshead. Ramshead starts lower than the top of current Boyneland and replacing that lift and Boyneland 3 with a detachable would require a crazy mid load/turn station at the base of Ramshead that would render the entire Boyneland area inaccessible from the mid. currently, Ramshead is accessible from Disciples, and with night skiing expanding down to D8, Ramshead will no longer need to operate daily for the park (last season it often ran nights only midweek)
I think a D-line sixer on Meadows is still very possible, with that quad moving to Victor (the last fixed grip mentioned in the plan) or Ramshead, which needs an upgrade much more in my opinion. I also wonder if they plan on still doing the D-line 6 or 8 on Mountain Express. with Hemlock no longer operating for skiers Mountain Express could need a capacity upgrade (as crazy as it sounds, something pulling 4000 pph could be justifiable on that lift)
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I’m going to go with plans changing after additional rounds of review/planning, rethinking how the skier flows will be changing, and ultimately cost. It does show that Boyne is going to continue to invest in new fixed grips in certain places in their Michigan resorts.
The Mountain will retain is chairlift served beginner area, yet the Highlands will lose the beginner area Camelot lift with this summers lift replacement.
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I heard and read at various times throughout the last 2 years that a fixed triple, quad, hsq or hs6 for boyneland. The hs lifts would have had a mid very near the current unloading point for Boyneland and the lift continuing straight up to the top of disciples. A straight line not a turn.
The Ramshead lift is essentially being replaced by the D8 at Disciples. The Ramshead lift is essentially now setup as a lappers lift as it reaches the top but starts short of the bottom and eliminates the need to ski the slow grade to the bottom of Disciples. It was mentioned by Boyne before that likely Ramshead will be removed and not replaced. If Boyne decides to make that area a bigger terrain park area I could see a replacement fixed grip lift there just for lapping purposes however, from the top of Ramshead the only run you can access is Ramshead and 2 other greens. It just doesn’t make sense to have a lift there when all of those runs can be accessed from D8. When Boyne eliminated the Thunder triple they abandoned a small amount of terrain at the top of the line for the sake of a more efficient lift arrangement. This would be similar in that eliminating the Ramshead quad only eliminates a small amount of the very top. The rest is still easily accessed either via the Mountain Express or the D8.
I can’t see how Mountain Express isn’t replaced with an HS8. That 6 pack has a ton of hours on it and is critical to normal operation. The current 6 will either be scrapped or moved somewhere else on the property, less critical, or to another Boyne Resort. I think the current 6 would be awesome at the Highlands on the North Peak.
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Ramshead isn’t essential but Mountain Express and likely D8 are going to be really busy this year, especially with Hemlock no longer open for skiers. a park specific lift will help relieve both those lifts while making it easier to lap the park without the flat run into D8. I see it like the Red chair at Nubs, it’s not essential but it makes things on the workhorse lifts much better. detachable is definitely not needed, but a fixed triple or quad (old Meadows?) would be great.
If Mountain Express moves, I’d agree that the only logical place would be North Peak at Highlands. It could go to Meadows, but then you’d be replacing a 15 year old lift with a 30 year old lift. if/when Highlands replaces Heather, they’ll want something new there too. D-line sixers on both are best, maybe 8 on Heather. can’t think of anything else Boyne owns that could use a 2,000 ft six pack either. Maybe it could sell elsewhere in the Midwest, possibly Shanty Creek, a southern MI resort, or Snowriver.
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I may just be nitpicking, but the render showed Mountain Express with a Uni-G terminal? probably overthinking this, but Mountain Express is listed for upgrade and considering that it’s a high speed six, Boyne could decide to give it an overhaul similar to Shedhorn/Seven Bros, rather than the rumored D-line 6/8 replacement.
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On any non Boyne resort, i’d assume it was an animation mistake, but it’s Boyne, and they invest and put a lot of effort into marketing and rendering its new lifts. especially D-lines, so I feel like it was intentional. Im also curious if Doppelmayr will start to offer an alternative D-line enclosure for the current Alpen-Starr fixed grip lifts for customers like Boyne, in addition to the current miniature Uni-G enclosures
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I actually made those renderings, Mountain express is a Uni-G because I didn’t have access to a high quality model of an original Uni terminal. But it was important to show to show the new Boyneland in relation to it since the bottom terminal is moving significantly.
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I need to start off, unless Billy Joel is calling to collect royalties, admiring all the “old junk” on Boynes’ hills that is headed to scrap. It’s still rock-n-roll to me and I miss Top Notch, even though these new lifts are definitely going to be helpful for skier traffic flow.
I guess I’m curious about the regrading at the bottom of the hill, in addition to the new lifts’ details. My understanding is that the Disciples 8 involved moving some earth, including make it easier to access from the bottom of Ramshead. Having a longer runout for Superbowl would definitely help my calf muscles, too. Maybe Everett or someone could explain why the current bottom terminal of Boyneland is so far away from the skier day lodge. Is it right around where the North Boyne lift had its bottom terminal? The new location will be convenient but there’s also a risk of too many skiers being in the same area trying to navigate around the lift terminals.
I’m confused about the claim that the new Doppy Superbowl triple will be the fastest fixed grip chair. The current Meadows lift is pretty dang fast and you need to be very awake when getting off at the top. How much faster will Superbowl be running?!
Other than noting that the Heather Express is aging rapidly, I’ll save my Highlands comments for another post either here or on that page. I am curious how much longer the current Victor and Ramshead lifts will be around. I was unaware that Hemlock will be (or apparently already has been?) pulled out of service as far as skiers are concerned, although it doesn’t surprise me given the age and how Boyne wants to keep it around for both its history as well as scenic and top-of-hill access services. Given that the new lift on Superbowl is NOT a relocation from Meadows and that skiers won’t be using Hemlock … it sounds to me like Victor COULD go high-speed or that Meadows will go high speed and Boyne may choose to relocate the current Meadows lift to Victor. I think I’d rather see Meadows go high-speed and Boyne spend more time grooming Thunder. I guess while I’m daydreaming, I’d like to see more grooming on North Boyne too. I’d like some smooth cruisers to go with longer/faster lifts.
I’d like to thank both the community here for all of the recent assistance in digging up Boyne lift history, helping me with my research, as well as to briefly muse that we’re all old enough now to finally see these new lifts go in!
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Interesting to see the use of faster HSQ/HST carpet load lifts. These are somewhat common in Europe, and to me make sense in something like a 500′ vert environment. A ride time of 4.5 mins is nbd on a ski day of laps.
It ran slower, but I found the now replaced Rip’s Ride carpet load to be a breeze.
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These lifts bring the latest in technology to Boyne Mountain and provide the guests with the absolute best skiing and riding experience in the Midwest. Better, faster lifts mean more time on the slopes, enjoying the exhilaration of the sports, and time with family and friends. Look forward to seeing all these lifts in action this winter!
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