Seventy three years after building the West Coast’s first gondola, Sugar Bowl will invest in a brand new gondola for 2026. The eight passenger, Doppelmayr D-Line system will anchor a major revitalization encompassing multiple lodges and facilities. The new gondola will run from an overhauled parking garage along Donner Pass Road to North America’s only snowbound village at the base of the Disney Express.
CTEC manufactured the current Village Gondola in 1983, carrying four passengers at a time between the parking area and village. The low angle gondola traverses over several roads, past several railroad tracks and under high voltage power lines. Historically the system ran 24 hours a day during the winter season. Recently it has operated less and become subject to frequent maintenance closures. The new lift will be more reliable and one of two new D-Line gondolas in Tahoe next year, the other being at Homewood Mountain Resort.
The new Sugar Bowl gondola is expected to be completed in November 2026.
Lift Blog 
Great article, Peter. This sounds like an exciting upgrade for them. With the amount of hours the old one has on it, I am impressed with how well it has done, given all that time. The more frequent maintenance issues is a given now. Anyone here ever ridden that thing and what were your thoughts? I like the photos Peter has of it. Cheers, Ryan G
LikeLike
It is sad to lose such a cool old gondola 😟
LikeLiked by 3 people
rode it for years, awesome times on that thing
LikeLike
Off topic but that video was really well edited!
LikeLike
That’s a bummer to see a classic lift be removed. C Tec rebuilt that ride. It was a Von Roll VR 102. One of the last ropeways that uses the VR 102 grips. What will happen to all the CWA Nova cabins? Would like to get a grip and arm
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s sad. I love how Sugar Bowl keeps hints of their lift history on display. Parts of the old Village Lift, Pony Express, Lincoln and Disney lifts are still on display. I hope they find a way to integrate part of this old Gondi
LikeLiked by 2 people
long before the CTec / Von Roll VR 102 lift there use to be a Von Roll VR 101. Have photos of it. Same towers.
LikeLike