A new two stage gondola and six passenger chairlift could be coming soon to Breckenridge’s popular Peak 9. The Forest Service and Breckenridge have begun scoping for the project, which would boost out-of-base capacity, better serve beginners and improve mountain circulation. A new mid-mountain learning center would be constructed, allowing Breckenridge to join the growing list of mountains moving learn-to-ski away from congested base areas.
The gondola, first proposed as a one stage gondola in the 2022 Master Plan, would load in the Peak 9 base area adjacent to the Quicksilver Super6. A whopping 43 percent of Breckenridge skiers use the Peak 9 portal and the gondola would add 2,200 seats per hour. The new lift would cross over Quicksilver and travel to the new Frontier learning center, where a cabin storage facility and two conveyors are planned. The Camelback platter would also be relocated from the base of Peak 9 to this zone. Gondola cabins would make an angle change at the learning center station and continue to an unload point near the top of the existing A-Chair. While A services excellent beginner terrain, the 1975 Riblet triple sits underutilized due to its long ride time and would be removed. The existing Eldorado platter is also slated for removal without direct replacement.
The second major component of the project is a detachable replacement for the existing C-Chair, a Riblet double that dates back to 1972. The faster six seat lift would carry 3,000 skiers per hour and follow the existing alignment, crossing under the Peak 8 SuperConnect. Both the bottom and top terminals would shift slightly higher on the mountain. The C SuperChair would rise 1,250 vertical feet become the sixth detachable lift on Peak 9.
The Forest Service and Breck plan to host an open house for the public to learn more about the project on May 22nd from 4-6 pm at the Maggie. Public comments will be accepted until June 13th and the USFS intends to reach a decision around the end of the year. If approved, construction could commence in summer 2025. The gondola learning center project is likely to be built first, followed by the C-Chair replacement in a later season.
Lift Blog 
The lower stage of the gondola is going to have to have some pretty tall towers in order to cross over Quicksilver in this section.
Certainly will do wonders at improving on-mountain access out of the Peak 9 base, since putting beginners and ski school on the gondola will mean that Quicksilver can have less misloads. Those people can use the gondola while those headed for Peak 10 or the Mercury SuperChair can stick to Quicksilver.
LikeLike
Seems weird that the bottom terminal of replacement C chair will be installed higher up the mountain. I remember getting to the C chair involving a little bit of a skate, it seems like it would make sense to put the terminal lower so that the topology would naturally make it easier to get to the lift with less effort.
LikeLike
My experience is getting to that chair isn’t a huge problem. It’s more movement on the down-mountain side, which is pretty narrow and has to handle three trails (Gold King, Sawmill, and Crosscut) coming together. Might even allow boarders to keep their momentum up on Lower Sawmill, which is pretty flat prior to the drop leading to the Beaver Run chair.
LikeLike
It’s a pretty tight space as is.
LikeLike
Just curious, would the gondola be an 8 of 10 passenger model?
LikeLike
The latest scoping documents don’t specify. The master plan says 8-MGD but 10 seems to be the new 8.
LikeLike
Maybe they mean “10 passenger cabins but we only load eight guests per cabin”. 🤔
LikeLike
Hopefully a d-line Gondy but probably not knowing vail
LikeLike
Breckenridge has only ever received Poma or Leitner-Poma chairlifts since 1985. I have no reason to believe the Frontier Gondola or whatever it’s called will be any different.
LikeLike
Fitzsimmons 8 (which was originally meant for PCMR) is a D-Line, so Vail has some appetite for newer tech. I don’t think VR is cheap, just very opposed to bubbles.
Seeing direct drive on this lift (which to Donald’s point would probably be Leitner-Poma) wouldn’t be crazy.
LikeLike
Vail didn’t got the choice for Fitz because Doppelmayr doesn’t make 8 packs Uni-G, only D-Line. Jersey Cream will be an Uni-G Six Pack.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The lower stage of the gondola is much needed. Extra capacity out of the crowded Peak 9 base and move beginner traffic up the hill, with a gondola that reduces the number of stops/slows compared to a lift. There will be some tall towers required to cross Quicksilver.
I find the upper stage alignment a little strange. It seems like it goes to a no mans land, especially if A Chair is removed and not replaced. The only way to lap the old A chair teaching terrain would be to go all the way back to the bottom of the gondola. I am a little surprised there is not a shorter, beginner focused lift in this plan to fill that gap. Maybe that will be coming down the line.
C Chair six pack will be a game changer. Should shift skier traffic to some underutilized runs on that side of the mountain, very excited for that one!
LikeLike
I know they originally had plans for a fixed grip quad replacing A running on the upper part of Eldorado, but I guess those have been scrapped.
Personally I think it’d be ideal to either keep A as is or at most shorten it to end at the mid-unload station, next to where Quicksilver ends.
LikeLike
Agreed, the out of base capacity is desperately needed to take the pressure of off Quicksilver and hopefully moving the never-evers and ski schools to gondola reduces the stoppages and misloads.
I don’t really understand the top terminal location for a few reasons.
One, its going to put a lot more traffic on run-out of Upper Lehman which is already a bit of a mess with traffic off of Peak 9 headed to Peak 10 / Ten Mile, boarders jumping out of the trees and all over the places in the natural halfpipe features, and puts a lot of skiers/riders in the crazy junction area out in front of Ten Mile Station. I’ve seen some bad collisions in that area with people straightlining off Peak 10 to carry the flats or flying through the area or coming off Quicksilver. Now add more cross traffic with begineer gondola traffic crossing through over to Frontier. Will need do some serious speed control in that area.
I would’ve thought something more on the alignment of the old / original Quicksilver alignment made more sense with a mid-station near bottom of A.
That being said, unless they were going to replace Quicksilver at the same time, there isn’t a lot of room to work with in the base of Peak 9 to get the terminals and alignments to work out
LikeLike
I agree that there is probably not enough room at the bottom of 9. I thing that the gondola would have to have a very steep lift off in the beginning in order to get over Quicksilver. Though from what it looks like, the Gondola’s top terminal is going to be a little lower than A’s, so I’m not fully sure it would increase traffic by a significant amount on Upper Lehman.
LikeLike