Lower Beaver Creek Mountain Express – Beaver Creek, CO
View of the lift line from I-70.Bottom terminal with parking rail.First few towers out of the base terminal.Bottom return station.Doppelmayr Uni-G terminal.Doppelmayr Worldbook entry.This lift has a unique profile, going up, down, up, down and back up two ravines.Nearing the Ritz Carlton Bachelor Gulch.Top terminal seen from Bachelor Gulch Express.View down the lift line from the top.90-degree loading and unloading at the same platform.Riding down to Avon.Lower Beaver Creek Mountain Express is the middle of a three-lift link from Avon to the top of Strawberry Park.Breakover towers just above the base.First section of the lift line.This lift has two significant downward sections.
Different demand levels. The Lower Beaver Creek Mountain Express lift is not used for lapping. It’s solely used for bringing up skiers starting at the Beaver Creek landing or coming from Avon via the Riverfront Express Gondola. So it’s only really busy during the morning rush. It’s also used for these same people to transit back to Avon at the end of the day if they don’t want to take the Leave the Beav skiway (which, due to the 90 degree unloading caused by wedging the upper terminal between the loading terminal for the Upper Beaver Creek Mountain Express lift and the lift line for the Bachelor Gulch Express lift,
The Upper Beaver Creek Mountain Express lift, on the other hand, is a much more important lift because it’s the main method of getting from Bachelor Gulch and Arrowhead over to everywhere else on the mountain. Before it was built, the only way to get to Beaver Creek Village from the Bachelor Gulch/Arrowhead area was via the Intertwine catwalk from the Bachelor Gulch Express lift. With the Upper Beaver Creek Mountain Express, travel around the mountain was greatly improved: thanks to it, one can travel from the Bachelor Gulch/Arrowhead pods directly to Grouse Mountain and Larkspur Bowl without having to do a run down to the Strawberry Park Express lift. When used in conjunction with the Birds of Prey Express lift, one can bypass the Centennial Express lift and Beaver Creek Village when traveling to Spruce Saddle, Rose Bowl, and the Cinch Express/Red Buffalo Express pod.
So it makes sense to have two separate lifts. Not to mention their individual lengths are pretty long: the Lower Beaver Creek Mountain Express has 27 towers and 135 chairs, and the Upper Beaver Creek Mountain Express has 25 towers and 178 chairs.
*(which, due to the 90 degree unloading caused by wedging the upper terminal between the loading terminal for the Upper Beaver Creek Mountain Express lift and the lift line for the Bachelor Gulch Express lift, is a tight squeeze)
The original plan was indeed to make that lift a gondola. Originally Riverfront, Lower BC, Upper BC, and Strawberry Park were all going to be one gondola. But Avon was unwilling to pitch in so they settled on the current implementation.
Lift Blog 
Why did beaver creek just not make lower beaver creek express and upper beaver creek as just one entire lift? It saves more money.
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Different demand levels. The Lower Beaver Creek Mountain Express lift is not used for lapping. It’s solely used for bringing up skiers starting at the Beaver Creek landing or coming from Avon via the Riverfront Express Gondola. So it’s only really busy during the morning rush. It’s also used for these same people to transit back to Avon at the end of the day if they don’t want to take the Leave the Beav skiway (which, due to the 90 degree unloading caused by wedging the upper terminal between the loading terminal for the Upper Beaver Creek Mountain Express lift and the lift line for the Bachelor Gulch Express lift,
The Upper Beaver Creek Mountain Express lift, on the other hand, is a much more important lift because it’s the main method of getting from Bachelor Gulch and Arrowhead over to everywhere else on the mountain. Before it was built, the only way to get to Beaver Creek Village from the Bachelor Gulch/Arrowhead area was via the Intertwine catwalk from the Bachelor Gulch Express lift. With the Upper Beaver Creek Mountain Express, travel around the mountain was greatly improved: thanks to it, one can travel from the Bachelor Gulch/Arrowhead pods directly to Grouse Mountain and Larkspur Bowl without having to do a run down to the Strawberry Park Express lift. When used in conjunction with the Birds of Prey Express lift, one can bypass the Centennial Express lift and Beaver Creek Village when traveling to Spruce Saddle, Rose Bowl, and the Cinch Express/Red Buffalo Express pod.
So it makes sense to have two separate lifts. Not to mention their individual lengths are pretty long: the Lower Beaver Creek Mountain Express has 27 towers and 135 chairs, and the Upper Beaver Creek Mountain Express has 25 towers and 178 chairs.
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*(which, due to the 90 degree unloading caused by wedging the upper terminal between the loading terminal for the Upper Beaver Creek Mountain Express lift and the lift line for the Bachelor Gulch Express lift, is a tight squeeze)
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Why dont they make this lift a gondola?
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The original plan was indeed to make that lift a gondola. Originally Riverfront, Lower BC, Upper BC, and Strawberry Park were all going to be one gondola. But Avon was unwilling to pitch in so they settled on the current implementation.
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