Hey Peter, do you remember that Lake Louise master plan that came out a year or two ago? I’m trying to create a Google Earth overlay for it, but I can seem to locate it on the web. Do you have a link to it, by any chance?
Hi Peter, A few bits to add. Before Eagle chair there was an Eagle Poma going up the run of that name. Olympic chair should have a vertical a good chunk more than Glacier, and near about that of the Griz Gondi. I suspect the last unnamed one is the Oly chair and the stats for the Oly chair may be for Eagle Poma – just a guess. The original VonnRoll Gondi ran until about 1993 or so. I rode it in 1991 I believe.
I enjoy how Poma named all of its chairlift terminals and models, but gave abrupt alphanumeric designations to its surface lifts. Our remaining one is an F10; original Storm King was a J100, the old one at Loveland was an H90, and so on.
Only triple chair that Murray -Latta built in fact last new chairlift they built (1976). Went to Fortress Mountain in RCR days but was never installed.
it does make me wonder what happened to it. As they must have had the lift there at one point. I wonder if they switched contracts with doppelmayr to build the Canadian triple. Which was also installed in 1976. It would be interesting to see the sources of this Murray Latta triple.
The old Glacier triple chair was bought by Banff Railroad Company, who owned Fortress, in 2006. It was intended to replace the Farside chair. In 2006, Fortress re-opened limited skiing on the frontside using just the Canadian chair. After the 2006 season, the owner ran into financial difficulties, and the Murray-Latta triple was never installed. It sat in the Canadian chair parking lot until around 2010, when the current owners of Fortress bought the place. It was likely scrapped, along with the T-Bar lifts.
As for where the Murray-Latta triple came from: It was installed at Lake Louise in 1976 to provide better egress to the lower mountain. At the time, the ownership of Lake Louise was a company by the name “Lake Louise Lifts Ltd.”, which had nothing to do with the ownership of Fortress (which had just begun operations after 4 years of sitting idle).
So I have reached out to Fortress and they responded back about the two t-bars and the Triple. As for the Murray-Latta they do not know what happened to it. But the two t-bars have been scraped but the “T”s are still around.
Before the larch chair, there was a detachable pomalift running up the run (aptly named) Larch Poma. It started from the Temple Lodge up to the top of the Larch area.
I find it interesting that Lake Louise has lifts from each of the four industry leaders in detachable chairlifts (Leitner, Poma, Leitner-Poma, Doppelmayr). Also, can anyone tell me what the differences between Leitner, Poma, and Leitner-Poma are, and the differences in their current produce options. Thank you!
Poma was from France with plant in USA
Leitner was from Italy, bought out Blue Mountain Lifts from Ontario to get into North American market, built first lifts in Canada in 1998.
Leitner-Poma, Leitner bought out Poma and have slowly been combining their technologies together. Still build most parts in USA for North America.
Doppelmayr is from Austria, they bought out Garaventa from Switzerland (mostly to gain their tram and 3S technology) 3S is originally a Von Roll design. Doppelmayr has plants in Canada and the USA. Some parts still come from Austria and chairs (hanger arm and bail) have been manufactured in Thailand for years.
Really only two big manufacturers now Leitner/Poma and Doppelmayr/Garaventa.
http://www.chairlift.org/louise.html
looks like that old gondola from 1959 was called White Horn, and was removed around 1998. Street view from 2012 shows some towers still standing, and the newer one from the last couple years shows them being gone. Anyone go there frequently, and can see if there are some remaining?
Summit (not Alpine) was originally a T-bar at Louise. It was converted to a platter in 1986 (I was in Grade 11).
An sold school Poma lift used to parallel the Eagle double chair. I only rode it a few times as it only operated on weekends. It was removed in about 1985.
Lake Louise should invest in RIFID for the lifts at the base. On the juniper express there was a que of 5-10 minutes, but chairs where only being loaded with 1-2 people because they had a single guy scanning each persons pass.
Yes, on busy mornings, every cabin for the gondi and every chair on the 2 hsq needs to be filled to capacity. Even with Pipestone, Juniper never seems too crowded, I guess people would rather stay on the older chairs instead of going out of their way.
It’s worth noting that until 2010, Lake Louise had letters for the lifts, they changed a lot, but the last year that it was that way, the letters were: A, Summit, B, Glacier, C, Grizzly, D, Sunnyside, E, Paradise, F, Ptarmigan, G, Larch, H Top Of The World.
Just a small correction looking at the spreadsheet, I believe the Whitehorn gondola was a 2 passenger and not a 4. Images from the lift show minuscule cabins and 2 people.
According to a letter sent from the resort to passholders, RR got its haul rope spliced and chairs have now been hanged, my guess is about 13–15 towers, similar to Juniper.
whispersvirtual55977f0393December 17, 2025 / 9:33 am
Lake Louise is out with their revised trail map, reflecting the addition of Richardsons Ridge. Looks like Upper 5 has been removed, anyone know if this is now a permanent closure? The run hardly opened anyways so likely a non story
I skied RR yesterday, It someone reminds me of the Wolverine pod at Sunshine: long lift servicing relatively flat terrain. The snow conditions were very good. It definately has potential for more cut runs and glading. I wonder if the naturally gladed terrain further to the skier’s right (visible from Paradise) could ever be inbounds. It would be short and mellow but the snow would be good, The terrain above it does look avalance prone.
I question the decision not to extend the lift all of the way to Temple Lodge as it wouldn’t be far.
Can also see potential to access stepper terrain and hopefully a lift into Hidden Bowl someday
Lift Blog 
Hey Peter, do you remember that Lake Louise master plan that came out a year or two ago? I’m trying to create a Google Earth overlay for it, but I can seem to locate it on the web. Do you have a link to it, by any chance?
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Here it is https://skimap.org/data/22/1460/1558901330.png
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Hi Peter, A few bits to add. Before Eagle chair there was an Eagle Poma going up the run of that name. Olympic chair should have a vertical a good chunk more than Glacier, and near about that of the Griz Gondi. I suspect the last unnamed one is the Oly chair and the stats for the Oly chair may be for Eagle Poma – just a guess. The original VonnRoll Gondi ran until about 1993 or so. I rode it in 1991 I believe.
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It looks like the Eagle Poma was an early 60-s style detachable pomalift judging from these pictures:
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Terminal appears to be a T50 Poma terminal, which was in production from the mid 50s to the early 60s.
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I enjoy how Poma named all of its chairlift terminals and models, but gave abrupt alphanumeric designations to its surface lifts. Our remaining one is an F10; original Storm King was a J100, the old one at Loveland was an H90, and so on.
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Olympic and Eagle have had remnants removed this year. Was looking forward to it, and then they weren’t there.
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The old Ptarmigan quad went 1000 feet per minute?!
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The correct number is 450. It is fixed now. Thank you.
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The old Glacier triple was not a Yan, it Was a Murray-Latta, judging by the tower/sheave design.
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You can see the old Glacier Triple running here at 1:59
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Murray-Latta for sure. I see their unique double-pivot guide sheaves behind the Molson can.
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Only triple chair that Murray -Latta built in fact last new chairlift they built (1976). Went to Fortress Mountain in RCR days but was never installed.
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I assume it was scrapped then? Unless it’s still hanging around in pieces at fortress……
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Yeah it’s definitely scrapped, likely happened around the time the T-Bars were removed. I didn’t seen any remnants of the chair both times I went up.
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I was under the impression the motor room was still hanging somewhere at Fortress…
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it does make me wonder what happened to it. As they must have had the lift there at one point. I wonder if they switched contracts with doppelmayr to build the Canadian triple. Which was also installed in 1976. It would be interesting to see the sources of this Murray Latta triple.
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The old Glacier triple chair was bought by Banff Railroad Company, who owned Fortress, in 2006. It was intended to replace the Farside chair. In 2006, Fortress re-opened limited skiing on the frontside using just the Canadian chair. After the 2006 season, the owner ran into financial difficulties, and the Murray-Latta triple was never installed. It sat in the Canadian chair parking lot until around 2010, when the current owners of Fortress bought the place. It was likely scrapped, along with the T-Bar lifts.
As for where the Murray-Latta triple came from: It was installed at Lake Louise in 1976 to provide better egress to the lower mountain. At the time, the ownership of Lake Louise was a company by the name “Lake Louise Lifts Ltd.”, which had nothing to do with the ownership of Fortress (which had just begun operations after 4 years of sitting idle).
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Since the lift would have been sitting for now 25 years, it would most likely not be in salvageable condition…
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So I have reached out to Fortress and they responded back about the two t-bars and the Triple. As for the Murray-Latta they do not know what happened to it. But the two t-bars have been scraped but the “T”s are still around.
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Found a picture on Reddit of the new Summit quad:
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any good photos of friendly giant summer bubbles? on the line during operation??
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Here’s two photos I know of http://www.chairlift.org/pics/louise/lo1.jpg
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Lower Juniper has a bottom drive and tension, 14 towers, and 75 chairs.
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Before the larch chair, there was a detachable pomalift running up the run (aptly named) Larch Poma. It started from the Temple Lodge up to the top of the Larch area.
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are you still in banff peter?
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Back in Jackson Hole now.
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I find it interesting that Lake Louise has lifts from each of the four industry leaders in detachable chairlifts (Leitner, Poma, Leitner-Poma, Doppelmayr). Also, can anyone tell me what the differences between Leitner, Poma, and Leitner-Poma are, and the differences in their current produce options. Thank you!
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They did not have Garaventa CTEC
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True. I forgot.
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Poma was from France with plant in USA
Leitner was from Italy, bought out Blue Mountain Lifts from Ontario to get into North American market, built first lifts in Canada in 1998.
Leitner-Poma, Leitner bought out Poma and have slowly been combining their technologies together. Still build most parts in USA for North America.
Doppelmayr is from Austria, they bought out Garaventa from Switzerland (mostly to gain their tram and 3S technology) 3S is originally a Von Roll design. Doppelmayr has plants in Canada and the USA. Some parts still come from Austria and chairs (hanger arm and bail) have been manufactured in Thailand for years.
Really only two big manufacturers now Leitner/Poma and Doppelmayr/Garaventa.
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http://www.chairlift.org/louise.html
looks like that old gondola from 1959 was called White Horn, and was removed around 1998. Street view from 2012 shows some towers still standing, and the newer one from the last couple years shows them being gone. Anyone go there frequently, and can see if there are some remaining?
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They’ve been gone for a while
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I don’t think there was ever an Alpine lifts T-bar at Lake Louise, only Sunny.
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Summit (not Alpine) was originally a T-bar at Louise. It was converted to a platter in 1986 (I was in Grade 11).
An sold school Poma lift used to parallel the Eagle double chair. I only rode it a few times as it only operated on weekends. It was removed in about 1985.
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Summit was Mueller, Alpine lifts is an early name for Doppelmayr, but the only T-bar they built at Louise was Sunny.
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Skier72 put together a great video on this place:
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Saw it. It was a very good video, so much history I did not know of. I hope we can get more of those!
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Apparently, Sunnyside is supposed to be a 4-CLD now instead of a quad, for 2026 of course, great news for beginers.
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It appears Pipestone is getting a parking barn for the chairs
they also spliced the rope today :)
https://www.facebook.com/reel/398337723328326
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a video with plenty of good footage of both YAN HSQs at Lake Louise: https://youtu.be/vLEf9pPO4qQ?si=KLHC1jfTWFUFnOga
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Lake Louise should invest in RIFID for the lifts at the base. On the juniper express there was a que of 5-10 minutes, but chairs where only being loaded with 1-2 people because they had a single guy scanning each persons pass.
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Yes, on busy mornings, every cabin for the gondi and every chair on the 2 hsq needs to be filled to capacity. Even with Pipestone, Juniper never seems too crowded, I guess people would rather stay on the older chairs instead of going out of their way.
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It’s worth noting that until 2010, Lake Louise had letters for the lifts, they changed a lot, but the last year that it was that way, the letters were: A, Summit, B, Glacier, C, Grizzly, D, Sunnyside, E, Paradise, F, Ptarmigan, G, Larch, H Top Of The World.
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Richardson Ridge trail cutting has begun, the lift seems to be starting right below the Ptarmigan run.
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Looking at the cams, it appears that RR towers are now in place, although I would love an update from the resort.
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Just a small correction looking at the spreadsheet, I believe the Whitehorn gondola was a 2 passenger and not a 4. Images from the lift show minuscule cabins and 2 people.
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Today, the resort finally released an article on the RR terrain expansion
https://www.skilouise.com/latest-news/richardsons-ridge-new-lift-and-ski-area/
They announced an opening for early spring 2026, but still no official name for the lift.
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Pictures of Richardson’s Ridge from Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1227569372736151&set=pcb.1227571276069294
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According to a letter sent from the resort to passholders, RR got its haul rope spliced and chairs have now been hanged, my guess is about 13–15 towers, similar to Juniper.
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Lake Louise just announced that RRE is opening on Wednesday, December 17 ! Hope you can get its pictures soon!
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Lake Louise is out with their revised trail map, reflecting the addition of Richardsons Ridge. Looks like Upper 5 has been removed, anyone know if this is now a permanent closure? The run hardly opened anyways so likely a non story
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It was removed last year too, but I don’t think it’s a closure. Very excited to finally ski RR in the new year.
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Really? I thought it was on there but I could be wrong. Weird they renamed Upper Kiddies as well.
I’m excited to try out Richardsons and see what they have in store for that zone in the future
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Yeah, I have the trail map. I assume they will add glade runs and even potential hike-to terrain in the near future, but who knows.
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I skied RR yesterday, It someone reminds me of the Wolverine pod at Sunshine: long lift servicing relatively flat terrain. The snow conditions were very good. It definately has potential for more cut runs and glading. I wonder if the naturally gladed terrain further to the skier’s right (visible from Paradise) could ever be inbounds. It would be short and mellow but the snow would be good, The terrain above it does look avalance prone.
I question the decision not to extend the lift all of the way to Temple Lodge as it wouldn’t be far.
Can also see potential to access stepper terrain and hopefully a lift into Hidden Bowl someday
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