Top station from above.This lift is from the Riblet-SLI merger era and contains components from both.Top breakover.View down the line.Lower part of the line.Lower terminal overview.Maze area and loading.This lift replaced Aspen’s original single chair that started a few hundred yards lower.Drive/tension carriage.SLI towers, Riblet sheaves, SLI chairs, Riblet insert clips.
Odd this one doesn’t have safety bars. Most other lifts in the Aspen merger have them, the only other one that doesn’t is Panda Peak over at Buttermilk.
Because it’s a perfect lift and “progress” often leads to a lesser experience for people who actually ski rather than preen at the local hip après bar.
It is so perfect that the vast majority of skiers choose to utilize Gondola Plaza as their portal to the mountain, resulting in an incredible imbalance among liftlines and crowds…
Shadow Mountain needs to be replaced, as Aspen needs a better second portal. There are absolutely legitimate questions over how to do it, but denying that something needs to be done is denying that Aspen has grown and changed in the past 30 years.
It’s a 50 year old lift built by a company that went out of businesses 45 years ago, and how would replacing a slow double with a newer faster lift make the experience worse for people who actually want to ski?
Ah, that didn’t happen. They should keep this thing open and add a high speed triple, quad, or six-pack next to it. It is too iconic to remove at this point until maintenance becomes virtually impossible.
There is nothing iconic about it. It’s just a 1971 SLI modified. Might as well be a 1971 Riblet or 1971 Hall. It’s just a fixed grip lift, modified. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take a fixed grip over a high speed any day, but when everything is said and done, to the general public it’s a 52/53 year old slow lift destined for the recycle bin.
I was wondering about that too. A quad chair would make sense, considering all of the development planned around Lift 1, oops, Shadow Mtn. Really need more capacity to access Ajax. How about we quad the chairs, and forget the development of all those time shares!
It’s tied to the greater Lift One Corridor project. The latest is:
“If the contemplated timeline is met, it would suggest Lift 1A will be removed after the 2025-26 season and the new lift would be operational for the 2028-29 season.”
look 4 comments above yours. Not coming out until summer ’26 at the earliest. I don’t know if that timeline is still valid, but it certainly won’t be any sooner
I believe it is due in part to land/property disputes. The land around the base of the lift is not owned by Aspen Mountain and has been built up with real estate, so there have been delays because of negotiations over a new lift between the resort and the landowners. Aspen has been saying they’ll replace 1A forever, kind of cool that it has survived this long when the rest of the lift fleet is largely modernized.
There is a restaurant at the top of this lift. Is currently is not open/being used except for special events like when hosting ski races. They hope to use it for night dining/events in the future.
They are limited on the amount of night events per year that can be held at the top of the Gondola at the sundeck restaurant by Pitkin county gov’t regulations. Using Ruthies restaurant at the top of the Shadow Mtn lift will give them more opportunies to host night events.
Lift Blog 
Odd this one doesn’t have safety bars. Most other lifts in the Aspen merger have them, the only other one that doesn’t is Panda Peak over at Buttermilk.
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Why is the replacement of this lift so controversial?
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Because it’s a perfect lift and “progress” often leads to a lesser experience for people who actually ski rather than preen at the local hip après bar.
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Ehhhh eventually old stuff and low capacity needs replacing, even for those of us who shred. I’d be fine if it was a new fixed grip triple.
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It is so perfect that the vast majority of skiers choose to utilize Gondola Plaza as their portal to the mountain, resulting in an incredible imbalance among liftlines and crowds…
Shadow Mountain needs to be replaced, as Aspen needs a better second portal. There are absolutely legitimate questions over how to do it, but denying that something needs to be done is denying that Aspen has grown and changed in the past 30 years.
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It’s a 50 year old lift built by a company that went out of businesses 45 years ago, and how would replacing a slow double with a newer faster lift make the experience worse for people who actually want to ski?
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Because it has so much history as it was the longest lift in the world when built.
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Squaw one was built in 1947 by heron and it was 8200 feet long
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Still short of the Thredbo-Charlottes chair in Australia. Half of it was ~11000 ft when it ran from ’64-65
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Weird towers for being sli and riblet
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Have they decided on a plan to replace this lift yet?
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Yes, they have decided to make it a 6 gondola, 4 chairlift chondola and will open for the 2022 ski season
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Ah, that didn’t happen. They should keep this thing open and add a high speed triple, quad, or six-pack next to it. It is too iconic to remove at this point until maintenance becomes virtually impossible.
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There is nothing iconic about it. It’s just a 1971 SLI modified. Might as well be a 1971 Riblet or 1971 Hall. It’s just a fixed grip lift, modified. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take a fixed grip over a high speed any day, but when everything is said and done, to the general public it’s a 52/53 year old slow lift destined for the recycle bin.
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As of High Alpine’s upgrade, I believe Shadow Mountain is the only lift in all of Aspen-Snowmass that doesn’t have any Poma or Leitner-Poma parts.
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Sad. Bell Mountain is a Riblet, but I imagine that it has Poma or Leitner-Poma parts.
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I love the SLI chairs.
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Does anyone know the progress on this lift replacement? I thought that they were going to replace this but now they are holding back?
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I was wondering about that too. A quad chair would make sense, considering all of the development planned around Lift 1, oops, Shadow Mtn. Really need more capacity to access Ajax. How about we quad the chairs, and forget the development of all those time shares!
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It’s tied to the greater Lift One Corridor project. The latest is:
“If the contemplated timeline is met, it would suggest Lift 1A will be removed after the 2025-26 season and the new lift would be operational for the 2028-29 season.”
https://www.aspendailynews.com/news/signs-of-life-for-aspen-s-lift-one-corridor-project/article_cf881a6a-ea4e-11ed-ad3e-dbe854675358.html
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Is it true that this lift is getting removed this summer?
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rumor on the streets is that it is coming up to Montana…
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No, not true
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So when, what, and why hasn’t this lift been replaced?
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look 4 comments above yours. Not coming out until summer ’26 at the earliest. I don’t know if that timeline is still valid, but it certainly won’t be any sooner
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I believe it is due in part to land/property disputes. The land around the base of the lift is not owned by Aspen Mountain and has been built up with real estate, so there have been delays because of negotiations over a new lift between the resort and the landowners. Aspen has been saying they’ll replace 1A forever, kind of cool that it has survived this long when the rest of the lift fleet is largely modernized.
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Why would they replace this with a chondola if there is no reason for a non-skier or beginner to ride to the top?
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There is a restaurant at the top of this lift. Is currently is not open/being used except for special events like when hosting ski races. They hope to use it for night dining/events in the future.
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Why would they do that when the Silver Queen Gondola is next door?
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They are limited on the amount of night events per year that can be held at the top of the Gondola at the sundeck restaurant by Pitkin county gov’t regulations. Using Ruthies restaurant at the top of the Shadow Mtn lift will give them more opportunies to host night events.
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I think this should be a 4-4 chondola.
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Maybe a 4-6
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