At least four new lifts will be constructed in New Hampshire this summer following the state tramway board’s approval for Bretton Woods to begin construction on a new high speed quad. The new lift will replace the Bethlehem Express, the oldest of five detachables on the mountain. Doppelmayr constructed the current lift in 1989 but the new one will be built by Leitner-Poma. It will be the first Poma lift constructed at Bretton Woods since 1973, when three Heron-Poma lifts debuted for the resort’s inaugural season. In addition to retiring Bethlehem Express, Bretton Woods is also retiring the nearby Fayban’s Express triple and auctioning the chairs.
Bretton Woods is part of the Omni Mountain Washington Resort, itself a subsidiary of Omni Hotels & Resorts. The company has invested heavily in its New Hampshire ski area over the past decade including building an eight passenger gondola and expansive summit lodge. Bretton Woods and Leitner-Poma plan to start construction on Bethlehem in April and the new lift should be substantially completed in October.
Lift Blog 
Looks like the Fayban’s auction is for one singular chair. Makes sense as this lift might have some more life in it somewhere else.
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Surprised they picked Leitner Poma. Hope they run this up the Fabyan’s lifeline and eliminate the crossover with the gondola.
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Fabyan’s has not run all year, so I am not surprised to see it removed.
I believe it is a miscalculation on Omni’s part to replace Bethlehem instead of completing the full-build of Mt. Stickney with a high speed lift. The biggest drawback of Bretton Woods is its lack of terrain diversity, and continuing to push skiers to Rosebrook with redundant lifts only makes this problem worse.
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This is an old lift that is due for replacement – I get that. Bretton Woods’ niche as a higher-end family destination depends on crowd management, and this lift is a workhouse for out-of-base capacity. Even on the busiest days this year, we’ve never waited more than 5-10 minutes at this lift and for us that is certainly valuable.
Adding to another commenter’s point, I’d love to see Omni figure out a way to get more advanced/expert terrain on the map, something this hill is lacking. If Bretton added some sustained steeps, it would propel itself upwards on my list of best mountains in the east – it’s the last piece of the puzzle missing at this place. I’ll keep my fingers crossed, although I’ve heard some gossip that Omni has been quite successful with the current strategy.
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