Red Mountain is basically where all the old lifts getting replaced at other mountains, end up here. Can’t imagine their maintenance costs. Like only 3 of the lifts where made for Red, and 2 of them are old as hell (even though the red chair is lit)
Sounds like you’ve only skied at Red then, because its not even in the top 5 mountains in BC, let alone North America. The place is a ripoff for the product you get relative to any other medium sized resorts in BC, Washington, and Oregon
@partek1978 It’s not a ripoff. Just because a place has high speed lifts doesn’t make it have good skiing. What makes good skiing is expert terrain without crowds.
Does anyone have any insight as to their master plan timeline? The plan, which dates to several years ago now, has lifts to Mt Kirkup to the north and Mt Roberts to the south, and much more base area development. But that could be whatever the ski industry equivalent is to vaporware. Seems like one budget-oriented play (though obviously not the cheapest route) could be replacing Motherlode (as central as it is) with a detachable, and moving that Yan triple to Kirkup or Roberts.
Totally agree that the most impact would be made by replacing Motherlode (which is at 40 years of service between here and Blackcomb) with a detachable that would run right from the base area. That would get skiers to Grey and Paradise quick, while leaving the slow Silverlode chair uncrowded for beginner/intermediate turns on the lower slopes.
But this is definitely not a spendy resort, even though they keep the ticket rates as high as the rest, and Red and Paradise chairs are awesome rides but probably have less spinnage remaining than Motherlode. Even though the Topping chair is newest installed, it is not young either. There is a growing replacement deficit that might steal priority from expansion,
I heard plans to move Motherload to Mt Kirkup, but I think it is not a good idea because Motherlode will be on its alignement for at least a few more years, at that point it will be 50 and it will not be worth it to move it again.
On a real estate marketing Zoom call last night, the Red Mountain CEO said that there could be a high-speed lift out of the base “in the not too distant future” as well as expansion on to Mt. Kirkup.
Why is there no lift off the backside of red mtn down into Rossland? Wouldn’t be great skiing but would be pretty easy to build and add a lot of value to the resort/town.
While I think that would be super duper awesome, I don’t think that will ever happen… Red Mountain owns and is currently building a lot of the lodging at their base area, so they probably don’t want to make the Rossland competition any more appealing. A new lift on Kirkup would be on their list far above this one I believe, in addition to the eventual replacement needs of their not-so-young workhorse lifts.
What I would love to see that wouldn’t cost much money is cutting a ski run off the lower east side of Red Mountain that could connect into the Centennial trail somehow to enable ski-out (with some level sections) to Rossland… then just take the ski bus back to the base in the morning. This too will probably remain just a dream.
The answer to that question is relatively simple. The entire southern aspect of Red Mountain proper is littered with vertical mineshafts, random industrial debris, and much of it lies on land owned by a mining company (I believe Teck Resources). Putting runs down it would be a liability nightmare.
If they’re going to build a HSQ, I think it should be a direct replacement of Motherload instead of going all the way down to the base because that would make it harder to lap mother load terrain. I’m kinda sad about the kirkup lift; the cat skiing is great and it will get tracked out quicker with the new lift. RIP
I’m kind of thinking that they will see how popular the bike park is and where the demand for that is before making any big lift decisions (unless a big breakdown on an aging lift forces their hand)… I predict in a decade or so the bike park could be as big a component to Red as skiing/boarding.
Red Mountain has finally announced their intentions to get into the lift served biking market… about time considering Rossland’s biking reputation and their location along the Seven Summits trail. Also a smart business move, since winter seasons will continue to shorten and summers lengthen over time. Maybe this might influence lift decisions over time with revenue coming in from more than the 3-4 months of ski season the resort averages.
Yes very good news indeed, with a disastrous ski season last year, they need to find new ways of generating profit. Wonder if they will expand past the Silverlode chair.
Apparently, RED had an old POMA detachable platter on Red Mountain, the lift was built in 1960 as claimed by their history page and “from the lodge all the way up to the back trails”. This makes me think that it followed a similar path to the current day T-bar and was most likely replaced by that t-bar.
This trail map from 1965 shows the Poma lift near the Red chair
Lift Blog 
Is the new Topping Creek T Bar loading beside Silverlode and unloading beside Grey Mountain?
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Red Mountain is basically where all the old lifts getting replaced at other mountains, end up here. Can’t imagine their maintenance costs. Like only 3 of the lifts where made for Red, and 2 of them are old as hell (even though the red chair is lit)
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The place is an anachronism. Mud parking lot. Modern base facilities. Lifts dating back to the Nixon administration.
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Don’t hate on Red, It’s an amazing place, perhaps my favorite ski area anywhere.
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No hate here. I skied there in March and loved it. I’m going to trek back out there next winter. But it is quirky as hell
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Sounds like you’ve only skied at Red then, because its not even in the top 5 mountains in BC, let alone North America. The place is a ripoff for the product you get relative to any other medium sized resorts in BC, Washington, and Oregon
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Sounds a-lot like Fernie and seymour.
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@partek1978 It’s not a ripoff. Just because a place has high speed lifts doesn’t make it have good skiing. What makes good skiing is expert terrain without crowds.
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Older, more interesting lifts = better
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The new topping chair and runs are gonna be epic
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The new Topping Chair is looking almost complete.
https://www.redresort.com/news/2019-chairlift-expansion/
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Red used to have an old single chairlift that predated the old Granite Mueller double.
https://basininstitute.org/home/image.html?zn=7&id=824d73ab9ddd62dbae2546f7f706e5cd
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Does anyone have any insight as to their master plan timeline? The plan, which dates to several years ago now, has lifts to Mt Kirkup to the north and Mt Roberts to the south, and much more base area development. But that could be whatever the ski industry equivalent is to vaporware. Seems like one budget-oriented play (though obviously not the cheapest route) could be replacing Motherlode (as central as it is) with a detachable, and moving that Yan triple to Kirkup or Roberts.
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Totally agree that the most impact would be made by replacing Motherlode (which is at 40 years of service between here and Blackcomb) with a detachable that would run right from the base area. That would get skiers to Grey and Paradise quick, while leaving the slow Silverlode chair uncrowded for beginner/intermediate turns on the lower slopes.
But this is definitely not a spendy resort, even though they keep the ticket rates as high as the rest, and Red and Paradise chairs are awesome rides but probably have less spinnage remaining than Motherlode. Even though the Topping chair is newest installed, it is not young either. There is a growing replacement deficit that might steal priority from expansion,
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I heard plans to move Motherload to Mt Kirkup, but I think it is not a good idea because Motherlode will be on its alignement for at least a few more years, at that point it will be 50 and it will not be worth it to move it again.
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On a real estate marketing Zoom call last night, the Red Mountain CEO said that there could be a high-speed lift out of the base “in the not too distant future” as well as expansion on to Mt. Kirkup.
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Why is there no lift off the backside of red mtn down into Rossland? Wouldn’t be great skiing but would be pretty easy to build and add a lot of value to the resort/town.
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While I think that would be super duper awesome, I don’t think that will ever happen… Red Mountain owns and is currently building a lot of the lodging at their base area, so they probably don’t want to make the Rossland competition any more appealing. A new lift on Kirkup would be on their list far above this one I believe, in addition to the eventual replacement needs of their not-so-young workhorse lifts.
What I would love to see that wouldn’t cost much money is cutting a ski run off the lower east side of Red Mountain that could connect into the Centennial trail somehow to enable ski-out (with some level sections) to Rossland… then just take the ski bus back to the base in the morning. This too will probably remain just a dream.
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The answer to that question is relatively simple. The entire southern aspect of Red Mountain proper is littered with vertical mineshafts, random industrial debris, and much of it lies on land owned by a mining company (I believe Teck Resources). Putting runs down it would be a liability nightmare.
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The elevation is way too low, they are already struggling with a base at 1200 m, Rossland is at 1000, snow would be bad.
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*not to mention southern exposure.
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If they’re going to build a HSQ, I think it should be a direct replacement of Motherload instead of going all the way down to the base because that would make it harder to lap mother load terrain. I’m kinda sad about the kirkup lift; the cat skiing is great and it will get tracked out quicker with the new lift. RIP
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For anyone that wants to know, here’s the vertical for the lifts: Gray Mountain, 1984ft, Granite Mountain, 2302ft, and Topping Creek, 944ft.
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Which lift is going to be replaced first, Red, Paradise or T-bar
Paradise because it is old and it gets long lines mabye a quad
Red is very old, but it does not get lines mabye a triple
T-bar probably last longer, another t-bar as replacement??
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I’m kind of thinking that they will see how popular the bike park is and where the demand for that is before making any big lift decisions (unless a big breakdown on an aging lift forces their hand)… I predict in a decade or so the bike park could be as big a component to Red as skiing/boarding.
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Their next move should be making Red a triple or replacing Paradise with a Quad.
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Red Mountain has finally announced their intentions to get into the lift served biking market… about time considering Rossland’s biking reputation and their location along the Seven Summits trail. Also a smart business move, since winter seasons will continue to shorten and summers lengthen over time. Maybe this might influence lift decisions over time with revenue coming in from more than the 3-4 months of ski season the resort averages.
https://www.redresort.com/bikepark/
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Yes very good news indeed, with a disastrous ski season last year, they need to find new ways of generating profit. Wonder if they will expand past the Silverlode chair.
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Apparently, RED had an old POMA detachable platter on Red Mountain, the lift was built in 1960 as claimed by their history page and “from the lodge all the way up to the back trails”. This makes me think that it followed a similar path to the current day T-bar and was most likely replaced by that t-bar.
This trail map from 1965 shows the Poma lift near the Red chair
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There seems to be only one image of this Poma
https://www.redresort.com/history/ (scroll down to the 1970s section of the history page)
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