American Express was the first of four six-packs built at Stratton in the 1990s and early 2000s.It is a bottom drive lift with queuing gates.Leaving the base terminal.All of Stratton’s detachable lifts feature 100 percent parking.View down at tower 4.Side view of the base station.Top unloading area and parking rail.Side view of the early model UNI “Spacejet” design.Tower 13.Upper part of the lift line with the gondola in the background.Middle lift line section.Lift overview.Doppelmayr Worldbook entry.
Interesting how stratton can’t seem to decide on a tower color. On opening day in 1961 (from pics I’ve seen online) they were red, at some point they were blue, In the 90s (also from what I’ve seen online), they were red, somewhere along the way Kidderbrook and Snowbowl ended up a different shade of blue than before, and then they finally decided to just settle with a normal gray with this lift apparently (first time I’ve seen this worldbook entry), but then in the early 2000s (or late 90s??) they decided to paint all the lifts except kidderbrook and snowbowl the current “ugly green” (as I like to call it). Really curious how many different colors the towers on Tamarack have been over the years. Hoping Stratton can take a hint from almost every other resort and just chose a normal tower color on their new lift. The green gets ugly and boring fast.
I think the lifts were actually red until 1995, where they repainted everything green. In 1999 when Ursa was installed lifts were repainted grey and the quads were painted blue. Then once the sunbowl sixes were installed they changed it AGAIN to the current green and I don’t think the towers have been repainted since
This lift just started running in the summer/fall for the bike park. They have Deasonbuilt center pole racks on every third chair that each fit 4 bikes, and the lift is run at 2.6 m/sec or about 510 fpm. There are a couple gaps with 4 or 5 regular chairs between bike carriers which is kind of annoying. Hopefully they’ll get more racks as the trail system is expanded.
They have also upped security around both of the terminals since this is now a full time lift. Controls and lift shacks are locked up, and I believe there is a camera at the top.
Also just a note, the chair bails are currently being stored in the secondary parking lot along with the shuttle busses and groomers.
This lift replaced three doubles (Betwixt, Standard, and Suntanner) and followed the alignment of the middle of the three, Betwixt. It really cleared up the base area to consolidate three lifts into one with the same capacity and improved comfort.
This summer Stratton repainted the terminals on this lift and multiple lower terminal windows but the top terminal still has a broken window or two from some sort of weather. It probably should be replaced in the near future.
So wait, they named this “American Express” because it got you to North American, except they then renamed both the run and the lift, and now people think this is some sort of credit card company tie-in? Plus they added a lift called South American for no apparent reason other than I guess as a reference to North American after the lift was gone but the trail remained?
Yes, I noticed the logo at the top terminal was removed this year. I thought it was there last year, but it was definitely in the past year or two that the AMEX logo was removed.
American Express, the credit card company, paid for the naming rights to this lift.
South American was installed in ’01, and the name was a play on the fact that the lift ended right below the North American trail. North American was renamed to Frank’s Fall Line after one of Stratton’s founders in the late 2000s.
Heard that AMEX is supposed to get overhauled this spring with at least a new Low Voltage system, with also a possibility of new UNI-G terminal skins to match Snowbowl’s.
AMEX is being shutdown as of 3/31/25 for the ‘modernization’ project which will be similar to what they did to Ursa last year. They won’t open it for MTB till 7/3/25 according to the website.
I don’t know why they announce these things at the last minute when it was definitely planned months in advance. While they will be running South American in its place, if they get even a moderate crowd on the weekends, it will quickly overwhelm it especially if the Gondola goes on wind hold.
Lift Blog 
Interesting how stratton can’t seem to decide on a tower color. On opening day in 1961 (from pics I’ve seen online) they were red, at some point they were blue, In the 90s (also from what I’ve seen online), they were red, somewhere along the way Kidderbrook and Snowbowl ended up a different shade of blue than before, and then they finally decided to just settle with a normal gray with this lift apparently (first time I’ve seen this worldbook entry), but then in the early 2000s (or late 90s??) they decided to paint all the lifts except kidderbrook and snowbowl the current “ugly green” (as I like to call it). Really curious how many different colors the towers on Tamarack have been over the years. Hoping Stratton can take a hint from almost every other resort and just chose a normal tower color on their new lift. The green gets ugly and boring fast.
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I actually like the color, it gives it a unique “Stratton” feel.
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I think the lifts were actually red until 1995, where they repainted everything green. In 1999 when Ursa was installed lifts were repainted grey and the quads were painted blue. Then once the sunbowl sixes were installed they changed it AGAIN to the current green and I don’t think the towers have been repainted since
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This lift just started running in the summer/fall for the bike park. They have Deasonbuilt center pole racks on every third chair that each fit 4 bikes, and the lift is run at 2.6 m/sec or about 510 fpm. There are a couple gaps with 4 or 5 regular chairs between bike carriers which is kind of annoying. Hopefully they’ll get more racks as the trail system is expanded.
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They have also upped security around both of the terminals since this is now a full time lift. Controls and lift shacks are locked up, and I believe there is a camera at the top.
Also just a note, the chair bails are currently being stored in the secondary parking lot along with the shuttle busses and groomers.
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Collin, do you have any pictures of the bike racks?
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This lift replaced three doubles (Betwixt, Standard, and Suntanner) and followed the alignment of the middle of the three, Betwixt. It really cleared up the base area to consolidate three lifts into one with the same capacity and improved comfort.
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This summer Stratton repainted the terminals on this lift and multiple lower terminal windows but the top terminal still has a broken window or two from some sort of weather. It probably should be replaced in the near future.
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Does anyone have pictures from when the terminals were painted silver (late 2000s early 2010s)?
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OK they did name it after the credit card company.
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New paint scheme on Amex to match Snowbowl’s:
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Now they just need to do something about those towers…strip ’em to bare steel!
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So wait, they named this “American Express” because it got you to North American, except they then renamed both the run and the lift, and now people think this is some sort of credit card company tie-in? Plus they added a lift called South American for no apparent reason other than I guess as a reference to North American after the lift was gone but the trail remained?
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The credit card company’s logo was all over it for at least a decade.
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Yes, I noticed the logo at the top terminal was removed this year. I thought it was there last year, but it was definitely in the past year or two that the AMEX logo was removed.
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American Express, the credit card company, paid for the naming rights to this lift.
South American was installed in ’01, and the name was a play on the fact that the lift ended right below the North American trail. North American was renamed to Frank’s Fall Line after one of Stratton’s founders in the late 2000s.
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Heard that AMEX is supposed to get overhauled this spring with at least a new Low Voltage system, with also a possibility of new UNI-G terminal skins to match Snowbowl’s.
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AMEX is being shutdown as of 3/31/25 for the ‘modernization’ project which will be similar to what they did to Ursa last year. They won’t open it for MTB till 7/3/25 according to the website.
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I don’t know why they announce these things at the last minute when it was definitely planned months in advance. While they will be running South American in its place, if they get even a moderate crowd on the weekends, it will quickly overwhelm it especially if the Gondola goes on wind hold.
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