The world’s largest mountain operator today revealed two incremental lift projects for 2026, bringing the total to three. At Whistler Blackcomb, Vail plans to replace the Showcase T-Bar with a fixed grip chairlift, subject to government approval. Across the continent, another fixed quad will replace the Blitzen triple at Seven Springs, Pennsylvania. The two projects join the previously-announced Canyons Village gondola at Park City as part of Vail’s $234 to $239 million capital plan for ’26. By comparison, Vail built four new detachable lifts in 2025 at Perisher, Australia; Andermatt-Sedrun, Switzerland and Park City, Utah as part of a $249 million to $254 million capital plan. Vail operates just over 300 overhead cable lifts at 42 resorts as of this winter.
Opened in 1988, the Showcase T-Bar crests the upper part of Horstman Glacier near Blackcomb Peak. For much of its history, the T-Bar ran throughout winter, spring and summer; servicing a wide variety of terrain. In recent years, glacial recession caused the Doppelmayr T-Bar to operate sporadically. Three of Showcase’s towers are pinned on ice, requiring periodic maintenance and repair. When snow levels drop too low, the track becomes too steep for safe riding. Vail removed the nearby Horstman T-Bar without replacement in 2020 due to recession on the lower part of the glacier.
Now Whistler Blackcomb has a long-term plan. The new chairlift will follow a longer alignment off the ice. It will shift north and continue to service the glacier without running on top of it. The lift is expected to be in place by the beginning of the 2026-27 ski season.
A world away in western Pennsylvania, Vail plans to retire Seven Springs’ oldest lift and only remaining Thiokol called Blitzen. The classic triple dates back to 1975 and services a variety of beginner to advanced terrain. The new quad will be Vail’s first project at Seven Springs since acquiring the resort in 2021.
Manufacturer(s) have not been announced for any of Vail’s 2026 projects. Alongside today’s lift news, the company announced its fiscal first quarter results. Season pass sales declined 2 percent in units but increased 3 percent in dollars compared to a year ago. The company expects to welcome approximately 2.3 million passholders this season representing 74 percent of skier visits. Vail reaffirmed its fiscal 2026 guidance, including net income of $201 million to $276 million and Resort Reported EBITDA of $842 million to $898 million.
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I miss horseman t bar…
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I wonder if they could replace it with a high tension fixed grip so that they wouldn’t need any towers
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Is that even possbile?
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Pretty wild that Vail now operates 300 lifts. Assuming a 40-year service life (which is generous outside of fixed-grip world), that means they should be building 7-8 replacement lifts every year. But of course, they aren’t. 🧐
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when is Boyne going to announce their new projects, seems like they have been pretty silent recently
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They do have two on the board already for next summer, including a pulse gondola at Loon and a reconditioned six-pack at Sugarloaf.
I would expect to see something at Big Sky and Summit-at-Snoqualmie if the season turns around, especially given today’s rate cut.
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I don’t believe the Sugarloaf lift has been officially announced yet for next year. There’s more to that lift as they have to cut a new lift line down towards Bullwinkles. I think we would probably see that work happening this winter, if the lift is to go in this summer.
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With the midwest and east coast off to strong starts to the winter I’m anxious to see if we’ll see lift upgrades there instead of out west.
Loons 2030 plan still has the Lincoln Express upgrade soon as well as I wouldn’t be surprised to see Boyne and The Highlands see some lift upgrades there.
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Choosing to replace the park lift at 7 Springs after Vail destroyed the park scene there… seems like a complete waist of money.
It does whoever continue to show a complete lack of leadership by Fail Resorts
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Wow – did not see Showcase happening before any of the other priorities (starting to wonder if they are going to let the VG die before they replace it…). But this is probably more out of a necessity than a want to do it. I think Showcase ran for like 2 weeks last year total.
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Didn’t they just do a bunch of work on VG this summer? I feel like that’s a bit of a signal that a replacement is more than, say, five years out.
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They’re probably hesitant to replace it because of how important that lift is to the mountain all year round, but then again that’s all the more reason why it would be great for it to be replaced with a modern gondola. Maybe they wanna replace Garbanzo first, so that when they eventually have to replace VG the Garbanzo Fitzsimmons route will be able to handle more capacity.
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Showcase is a relatively short fixed grip. That’s a different scale of project than most of what is coming at Whistler-Blackcomb.
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I guess I’ll just take this and hope that it means they’re saving up to do another huge overhaul like 2022. Odds are low but I’d like to think they’re smart enough not to keep letting their entire fleet rot
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Love to see a lift replacement project by Vail at a non marque western resort. Maybe there is hope for us at Hidden Valley, MO? We’re a large gateway to beginner skiers from the south and Midwest, yet we have a very poorly designed beginner slope. Simple investments in moving carpets or moving/replacing the east mountain lift would do wonders for accessibility and user experience. We’re always going to be icy, but we don’t need to dump so many beginners onto the icy peak of our resort, and both of our beginner lifts require many to walk or do difficult movements for a new skier.
We’ve opened in December two years in a row- we’re not going anywhere, and more investment here would sell more passes.
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Don’t count on it. They’ve actively removed short lifts from some of their other eastern aquisitions. Dumbest strategy for mountain management I’ve ever seen: triple the length of your lift lines by removing lifts and pushing the remaining ones so far over capacity that they misload all the time. Make people dread coming to your hill. Turn far-away consumers off from your entire company before they even set foot at your marquee resorts. Oh well.
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Yes, it’s obvious that they don’t really want to do any CapEx at the midwestern resorts, likely for fears of climate change. It’s a shame, because there are some opportunities for them to drive more pass sales if their midwestern resorts were better run and better resourced. I know I would no longer buy the epic local pass if our local resort was not open.
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It’s obvious they don’t want to spend anything (Cap-Ex or otherwise) at their Midwest or East Coast resorts. They should be open right now from PA to MO, given how cold November and early December have been, and yet they are not. They’re finally turning on their snowmaking systems (per their unpublished-but-obvious annual “schedule” to do so in mid-December) just as the weather is about to warm up. Total incompetence to not consult the local weather forecast in a weather-dependent industry, but that’s what you get when everything is just a bean to count in Broomfield. They would have been better off doing an Epic Pass licensing deal with Peak Resorts and letting Peak run the operations at their East Coast hills. Oh well.
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Awesome!!! Maybe Horstman too can be replaced someday… Rob… Any thoughts?
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You could do a lift from Pumpkin corner (switch back on the blue road at the snow fences near to the GE lift line)) up to the top of 7th, but you need the 7th replacement to happen first.
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Heh, glacier receding… I remember when the runs near Showcase were blues…
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I’m very surprised Vail is going for a Blitzen replacement instead of North face? Blitzen never has crowds and is never down, but north face is?
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