Mont-Sainte-Anne today announced a groundbreaking order for three Doppelmayr lifts to revitalize the mountain’s aging infrastructure over the next three years. The order, signed on March 26th and among Doppelmayr Canada’s largest ever, encompasses two six place chairlifts and a 10 place gondola. The project will be funded in part with a CA$50 million loan from Investissement Québec, a government economic development agency. Mont-Sainte-Anne’s owner, Resorts of the Canadian Rockies, will fund an equal portion.
A new Express du Sud will debut first in February 2027. The bubble six pack will follow a completely new alignment, replacing both the current Express du Sud detachable and La Tortue fixed grip, both of which date back to 1986. Whistler-based Ecosign sited this lift so skiers can access North, South and East slopes from a single unload point just below the summit. Express du Sud’s 97 bubble chairs will travel at a speed of five meters per second with a trip time of 7.3 minutes, The UNI-G lift will transport 2,400 people per hour and become the first six place bubble in Eastern Canada. Tree clearing will begin this summer and both existing lifts will remain operational into next winter until the new lift is ready.
Come December 2027, Doppelmayr will complete the first 10 place gondola in Eastern Canada, replacing the mountain’s 1989 vintage gondola. This UNI-G system will include 65 CWA Omega IV level walk in cabins with individual seats and floor-to-ceiling windows. The gondola will fly a brisk six meters per second, lifting 2,600 guests per hour to the summit in just 7.4 minutes. “Designed for four-season use, this facility will also allow the transportation of mountain bikes, facilitating the development of a summer offering,” noted Mont-Sainte-Anne. “It will become much more than just a means of transportation: an experience in itself, suitable for skiers as well as visitors, groups and convention customers.” The base of the gondola will shift toward L’Express du Sud to coincide with redevelopment of the village and beginner area.
Finally a second six pack will open on the North side of the mountain in December 2028, replacing both a 1987 detachable quad and 1970s T-Bar. This UNI-G detachable will include 67 non-bubble chairs moving at five meters per second. A ride will run just 4.6 minutes with an hourly capacity of 2,600 skiers. When Express du Nord is complete, Mont-Sainte-Anne will have replaced five aging lifts with three modern machines. Mont-Sainte-Anne noted it selected Doppelmayr after a competitive bid process in part due to the Austrian company’s head office in Saint-Jérôme, Quebec, “providing superior guarantees for installation and adherence to schedules.”
Mont-Sainte-Anne also plans to install a mountain coaster and revitalize the snowmaking system together with the new lifts. “This project marks a turning point for Mont-Sainte-Anne, said Maxime Cretin, Vice President and General Manager, Eastern Region for Resort of the Canadian Rockies. “It allows us not only to modernize our infrastructure, but also to rethink the overall experience offered to our visitors starting next season, by focusing on performance, comfort and innovation.”
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Wow! Very exciting news for Sainte Anne and those who frequent that mountain. I am very impressed with how well they’ve done in keeping a detached going 40 years, a fixed grip, and their 37/38 year old gondola as well. Speaks loads to their lift team. I’ve never been here, but look forward to someday. Congrats to Doppie as well. Despite the poor season most mountains have had this year, it’s always nice for skiers and manufacturers alike to get good orders like this. Great write up, Peter.
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Unfortunately, the gondola does note have a stellar operating record. There was this accident in 2020:
https://liftblog.com/2020/02/21/gondola-riders-injured-in-incident-at-mont-sainte-anne/
Then in 2022 an (empty) cabin fell from the gondola:
https://liftblog.com/2022/12/10/cabin-falls-from-mont-sainte-anne-gondola/
And at the beginning of this season the province ordered all the detachables at the mountain closed due to “deficiencies discovered in a recent inspection”:
https://liftblog.com/2025/12/12/province-orders-mont-sainte-anne-closed-again/
Hopefully they’ll do a better job maintaining these new lifts.
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I am very happy to see bubbles on Express du Sud. I thought that the bubble lift era at RCR Resort would die with the CLDs at MSA and Stoneham, but the additional funds from the government probably made bubbles there possible. It would be good if they had bubbles on Nord too, but that’s ok, as the old lift did not have bubbles anyway. I am curious why the new Étoile filante is not D-line, as I was not aware Doppelmayr continued to offer UNI-G models for 10-place gondolas, like how now 8-packs are only D-line. With L’échappée and la Tortue being replaced, it seems the Samson era is finished at MSA, and now it will be all Doppelmayr mountains except for the remaining Mueller-built Corde raide t-bar.
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Excellent news for this place. A replacement for L’Etoile Filante cannot come soon enough!
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Peter, do you have the total cost for these projects? I can’t imagine it’s CAD $100M. Maybe CAD $50M all-in.
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I expect that all the grant money from the government will end up being used, so a minimum of 50M; the rest will be an RCR contribution. After all, remember that lifts aren’t the only thing here; summer additions and snowmaking upgrades, along with possible building renovations, are also part of that total 100M investment. Even if it isn’t all spent here, RCR pledged to spend it all in the next decade, so some of it might be used to do upgrades in the future, potentially Corde Raide; however, since that money has to stay at MSA, none of it will be used to help the 4 western Canada resorts, and with all the focus and spotlight on MSA now, it might be a while until major lift investments will be made at Fernie, KH, Nakiska, and Kimberley.
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It is incredibly exciting for Mont-Sainte-Anne to get new lifts. While the Express du Nord and gondola replacements make a ton of sense, I am scratching my head at the logic behind the Express du Sud/La Tortue replacement plan. The current set-up separates skiers by ability pretty well, and the new plan ruins the upper mountain beginner/terrain park area altogether and, frankly, makes the lift a gondola reliever rather than its own pod.
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Yes, I am perplexed at the whole Tortue area management plan. This was effectively a dedicated upper mountain beginner and park zone, and it doesn’t even end at the gondola summit. I feel like EDS should have been kept in its alignment and a HSQ replacement for Tortue or, if the resort really wants one lift, a possible angle station.
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After L’Express du Sud is retired next Feburary and the fact Lake and Lodge at YC will be retired this and next year, this will leave us with 6 remaining 1980/90s era bubble lifts in North America. Those being Sunburst at Sun Peaks, La Tempête at Stoneham, Wenatchee Express at Mission Ridge, and Andesite Ridge, American Spirit, and the Meadows Pulse Quad at YC. Not sure if Lake will keep its bubbles if it is going to a smaller resort like Red Lodge
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