Aspen Highlands could join the year-round gondola club alongside Aspen Mountain and Snowmass under a new plan submitted to the Forest Service. Over the past ten seasons, Aspen Highlands averaged 210,000 skier visits with occasional long lines in the base area and a lack of lift redundancy. To address these challenges, the Aspen Highlands 2025 Master Development Plan envisions replacing two of Highlands’ oldest lifts as well as building an infill lift called Apple Strudel. The out-of-base lift experience would change dramatically with a higher capacity ten place gondola replacing the four place Exhibition lift. The new Maroon Bells Gondola would feature a mid-station just below the current Exhibition top terminal with full cabin parking. The gondola would then continue higher and unload at the popular Cloud Nine Alpine Bistro, elevation 10,840 feet. Maroon Bells Gondola would rise a total of 2,750 vertical feet with just under 12,000 feet of slope length. Both the Merry-Go-Round restaurant at the mid-station and Cloud Nine at the top would be expanded and could open year-round. The gondola could also enable early- and late-season skiing on the upper mountain with downloading.

Next door to the new gondola, the Thunderbowl triple would be upgraded to a detachable quad, increasing capacity from 1,200 to 1,800 skiers per hour. This would become a more attractive out-of-base option than the current fixed grip lift and better serve Goldenhorn race terrain.

Finally a new Apple Strudel lift would debut for those looking to lap mid-mountain terrain. This would also create redundancy in case the gondola went down. One interesting aspect of this proposal is a Pomalift called Grand Prix used to run a similar alignment from the 1970s until the early 1990s. The new version would be a detachable quad rising 976 vertical feet in just 4.7 minutes. Apple Strudel would carry 1,800 riders per hour, equal to the nearby Cloud Nine detachable quad.

If all lifts on the plan are completed, Highlands will operate a mostly-detachable fleet including a two stage gondola and four detachable quads. Two fixed grip lifts – Five Trees and Deep Temerity – will continue to spin on the periphery of the mountain. The Forest Service hasn’t yet accepted the new master plan and all projects will require review under the National Environmental Policy Act.

A final, interesting tidbit from the master plan is Aspen Snowmass seeks to connect some or all of its four mountains via lifts. “The technology exists to connect ski areas by aerial tramways, and there are multiple successful examples of these systems in operation in both resort and urban contexts throughout Europe as well as in North and South America,” SE Group notes. “However, the land use complexity, infrastructure costs and construction logistics in the Roaring Fork Valley are such that implementing a linked aerial tramway system across all four ski areas at Aspen/Snowmass provides a tremendous challenge. With that said, conditions are evolving to the point where constructing an aerial tramway connecting Aspen Highlands to Aspen Mountain, to Buttermilk and/or to nodes on the valley floor may prove feasible in the nearer term.”