One week after Sunshine Village announced a new bubble chair with heated seats, Lake Louise says it will build one too. Foundation work is already underway for the Upper Juniper detachable quad, which will connect the top of the two year old Juniper Express with the Top of the World. Upper Juniper Express will be constructed by Doppelmayr Canada and open for the 2024-25 ski season. “This new lift should not only enhance accessibility to the upper mountain, but substantially alleviate base area congestion even during peak days,” said Lake Louise.
Two additional chairlifts will debut for the 2025-26 season, one a beginner lift called Sunny Side and the other an expansion behind Paradise Bowl. Richardson’s Ridge Express will service a “vast expanse of intermediate and advanced terrain,” said the ski area. Construction of the second new high speed quad will take two years with foundations installed in 2024 and steel following in 2025. The Sunny Side beginner chairlift will also be constructed in the summer of ’25. “This new chair will provide comfortable and quick access to our superb beginner terrain,” noted Lake Louise.
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So happy to see an announcement regarding Richardson’s. They had us on a cliff hanger for a while.
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The Richardson’s lift has been talked about since the early 80s. I hope LL is eventually able to open up Hidden Bowl
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The new upper Juniper chair will be an instrumental addition to Lake Louise. The only two options out of the base are either Glacier –> Top of the World or Grizzly. Having a 3rd option that directly accesses Summit will cut down crowds, and make for a more enjoyable experience lapping West Bowl.
Sunny Side is definitely needed for the true first time beginner, and this is one area in which Lake Louise lacks. It will be interesting to see if that chair services any new terrain, or simply accesses existing runs.
Richardson’s Ridge is also needed on the backside, and aside from being in one of the most stunning mountain locations in Canada, should provide a needed intermediate pod. My one concern here is that most of the blue runs filter back onto Pika. I’m also wondering what the timeline is for the proposed Prunepicker lift, as having that chair would really create ease of access from Larch (or the Temple lodge) to the backside.
My one wish is that Louise would re-install a lift on the Eagle alignment from somewhere around Glacier’s ending to the Gondola. I believe this lift would be instrumental for Louise, as it would provide redundancy for the gondola, and create a more direct way to access Ptarmigan/Larch.
Overall though, I’m impressed with both Lake Louise and Sunshine’s commitment to improving their lift networks and modernizing all around.
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Louise gave up the Eagle Chair to gain Parks approval for the gondola. That was my favorite lift on the mountain, in the snow zone and not above the tree line. The expansion plan is generally great but you are right, the Eagle lift is sadly missed.
You must have better legs than I to be doing laps in West Bowl. Once and maybe twice on a good day is all the egress that I can take. 😆
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Eagle needs to start at Whitehorn Bistro to return to upper mtn areas, as well as ending at the top of the Eagle Poma run to serve underutilised mid-mtn advanced terrain that is hard to access. It should be a HSQ.
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All three of these upgrades make a ton of sense. I’m glad this is what Louise prioritized, although I don’t know that they needed to go bubble on Upper Juniper.
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the top portion of the lift will be higher up and more exposed than Top of the World (which can get quite cold and windy near the top.) The heat and cover will be a welcome addition
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Possibly for marketing since Sunshine is building Angel 6 this summer, they will have two bubble lifts, so Lake Louise wanted a bubble lift of their own. Also quite exposed at the top.
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Paradise Bowl chair needs to be replaced. It is dog slow.
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Ptarmigan is the slow one. Paradise is just fine as it is, it keeps the character to the Paradise bowl area.
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I’d say that after this, some welcome upgrades would be a six-pack Glacier, an upgraded Gondola because it’s getting old, and a high-speed Ptarmigan. Maybe a replacement of Larch?
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1 Yes, add bubbles to it as well
2 good point, 8 PAX gondola or chondola next
3 definitively, that thing is soooo slow and the downloads
4 Larch is too new, it still has some life left, Glacier does summer ops, so it has more hours, but not Larch, it never gets crowded.
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is meadowlark even a lift? Or is it just a soon to come lift.
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In the master plan but not currently installed or ordered.
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