One of the smallest-gauge gondolas in North American skiing could soon be headed for retirement. The Forest Service today posted Loon Mountain Resort’s application to replace the four passenger White Mountain Express Gondola with a 10 seat D-Line model from Doppelmayr. The new flagship would follow roughtly the same alignment and be constructed in 2027 or 2028. “The current gondola is one of the oldest detachable lifts in New England and nearing the end of its life cycle,” Loon wrote in its application to the White Mountain National Forest. “Visitation at Loon has increased significantly since 1988 when the current gondola was installed. Increasing the uphill capacity of the existing lift from 1,000 people per hour to approximately 1,800 to 2,400 people per hour would better serve guests.” Ten passenger cabins aren’t required to achieve such capacity but they’ve become the gold standard globally for gondolas. With ample space, families can ride together, lessons don’t need to split up and wheelchairs or mountain bikes are easily accommodated. Loon’s parent company, Boyne Resorts, recently partnered with Doppelmayr to install a similar 10 place gondola at Big Sky Resort. Like at Big Sky, I expect the new Loon gondola will feature Omega V cabins, heated seats and a direct drive.
The bottom terminal will move uphill and out of the Octagon Lodge while the top terminal will sit near the current one. Carrier parking will be included at one or both stations. The 7,000 foot long lift line will need to be widened from 35 feet to 65 feet, resulting in up to five acres of disturbance. At last week’s National Ski Areas Association convention, Under Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and Environment Michael Boren told the industry the Forest Service plans to work expeditiously moving projects through environmental reviews. The Forest Service expects to analyze Loon’s project via a Categorical Exclusion, the lowest of three levels under the National Environmental Policy Act. A smaller pulse gondola project is also currently under review by the Town of Lincoln, which would connect Loon’s South Peak base with RiverWalk Resort at Loon Mountain. It’s possible Doppelmayr could construct both lifts at the same time.
When Loon’s existing gondola is retired, Telluride and Deer Valley will operate the only remaining four place gondolas in North American skiing.
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End of its life cycle? Amazing how a 64 Year old Von Roll VR 101 still operates and has no end of life. They dont build them like they use to
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So i do understand the towers on the Loon Gondola were built in 1966. What other parts of the Loon Gondola are original PHB Hall? and what parts were Dopplemayr 1988?
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19 towers are 1966 PHB tripods, 3 are 1988 tubular Doppelmayrs (all tower heads are 1988)
the drive and return stations are 1988 Doppelmayr.
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Not sure what you would classify the Jordanelle gondola at Deer Valley. If im not mistaken if can technically fit 6 people but they only load 4 max.
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On paper it’s a six place.
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it’s a 4 pack grip in reality
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You’re right Mike, UDOT has Jordanelle registered as a four place.
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One of the oft stated reasons that they didn’t upgrade this lift was that there wasn’t enough trail capacity on the summit to support the extra traffic. Now I’m sure they’ve done their homework on this, but I do wonder if they will do anything mitigate that potential problem? Cut or widen trails off the summit? Improve the snowmaking in the East Basin area to get those trails open reliably?
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Whether it ends up at 1,800 or 2,400 pph, that’s modest as far as gondolas go. The new Deer Valley, Steamboat and Big Sky gondolas are designed for 3,000, 3,200 and 3,270 per hour respectively.
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Blackcomb gondola is 4000pph
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One would also figure that contrary to the current gondola, which is almost always filled to capacity, outside of peak times the 10-person wouldn’t be filling every cabin.
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Easy. Fewer carriers.
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I understand all the compelling reasons for having lifts in their own standalone structures, but a lot of really interesting and unique terminals are being lost in moves like this one.
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I don’t know that it even would have been possible to squeeze a bigger gondola into the existing structure. I wonder what they plan to do with that space in the lodge now that the gondola will be out of there
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It seems like a perfect location for a dining hall that would have a great view of the slopes if they put lots of windows in the wall that would fill in the gondola opening. But I have never been there so Im not sure how well it would tie in with the kitchen, restrooms and other amenities they already have.
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Loon’s lodges are always packed on weekends. Converting it to additional dining space would probably make the most sense….
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I rode uo with an employee a few weeks ago that said it will be converted to a high end restaurant.
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The current terminal is unique but it’s inconvenient. The stairs from the parking area lead to the terminal but not to lodge or the end of the lineup. You have to walk through the terminal to get to the lodge. To get to the end of the lineup you have to exit outside again after passing through the terminal building. Converting the old terminal to lodge space and/ or a pathway to wherever they put the new lineup will be a great improvement.
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Hopefully the new terminal has a brain-teaser puzzle somewhere to entertain the people waiting in line, as a little tribute.
More practically, the current gondola terminal is not only a unique and lovely structure, but it’s also very practical given how Loon’s gondola-side base area is dense and crowded. A normal terminal moved out of the building itself is going to necessitate some type of reconfiguration of the bottom of the park trail, or the main entry point to the base area from the parking lot, or both. Curious to see how they manage that.
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The main concern with this project in the past has been people saying the trails can’t handle more capacity. Is it possible they could be pairing this project with a removal without replacement of the East Basin double? That would almost perfectly cancel out the capacity increase to Loon Peak from the gondola upgrade.
East Basin is already an extremely old lift and probably has limited time left. You can already lap anything off East Basin using the North Peak lift which is a detachable so I’d assume most people would prefer to use that or ski back to the base over using an old slow double chair. Just a thought
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You can’t reach the headwall of Angel Street from North Peak. It’s definitely the most famed part of the EB trail pod.
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In theory yes, in practice East Basin spins rarely so its uphill capacity is not really utilized much in Loon’s day-to-day. Would be a shame to lose that double, I know Loon’s bread and butter very much isn’t the expert crowd but that little trail pod and underused lift is a nice respite for expert skiers away from the family crowds on busy days.
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East Basin is not a critical part of the lift system, but it’s my go-to lapping lift on weekends at Loon since it has the shortest lines of any upper mountain lift and accesses good terrain. I’d be sad to see it go but if that’s necessary then so be it.
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