Each morning, roughly 200 workers converge on Deer Valley’s east flank, putting finishing touches on the largest ski expansion in US history. It’s hard to believe Alterra Mountain Company and Extell Development Company unveiled their partnership to bring the Mayflower project under Deer Valley’s brand less than two years ago. By December, a three mile gondola, two six packs and seven quad chairs will be ready for skiers, completing the majority of the Expanded Excellence vision. After a limited preview last season, Deer Valley’s footprint will more than double this winter to 4,300 acres and 31 lifts. The expansion spans 2,850 feet of vertical relief, with the gondola alone rocketing 2,570 feet skyward in 14.5 minutes.
Deer Valley Senior Director of Mountain Operations Garrett Lang and Alterra Senior Manager of Construction Pete McKinnon graciously took time to show me around this week. I’ve never seen so many lifts at every stage of construction from concrete to rope pulling. Beyond lifts, some 1,250 fixed snow guns, a ridgetop snowmaking pond, several pumphouses and a maintenance facility are also nearing completion. It feels like Deer Valley’s building a city’s worth of infrastructure on the side of a mountain. Of course every fan gun, every lift tower and every terminal sport Deer Valley green.
The only way to complete such an ambitious project in three construction seasons was to divide and conquer. While Doppelmayr supplied all the lifts, they’re only assembling some of them. Big-D Construction crafted numerous foundations while already on site working on buildings. Highlander Ski Lift Services & Construction tackled roughly half the chairlift installations from start to finish. Doppelmayr brought in lift construction experts from all over, including Canada and Europe.
Most readers know Deer Valley launched the six place Keetley Express and two nearby quad chairs last season. While Keetley’s gorgeous, she represents a small portion of the overall project. Within that initial footprint, Layton Construction continues work this summer to complete a parking building for Keetley’s 102 bubble chairs. Right next to the top of Keetley sits the top of Galena Express, one of two detachable quads finished and commissioned last spring. The second is Pioche Express, connecting the bottom of Aurora to the northernmost summit in the 2,274 acre expansion.
The smallest lift under construction is Neptune Express, set to load below Pioche Village and top out next to Pioche Express. This is one of the two machines Highlander’s installing this summer on top of several last year. The Highlander team was completing the top drive terminal this week with the bottom to follow.
The flagship East Village Express gondola will run all the way to Park Peak. A behemoth of a mid-station sits on Big Dutch Peak, where the lift’s two sections connect at an angle. Each segment features its own direct drive and a Fatzer Performa-DT haul rope with cabins able to switch between lines. All three stations and most of the 40 towers were installed earlier this summer. Fatzer subsidiary Rigging Specialties worked to pull ropes this week with the lower line already on most towers. The upper rope, being installed now, will pass over several extremely tall towers and travel downhill at several points along the line.
142 Omega V cabins are set to begin arriving from Switzerland next week. Similar to Steamboat’s Wild BlueGondola, they’ll feature individual logoed seats. At Deer Valley, they’ll be heated. Big-D Construction is piecing together the gondola’s parking facility, located underneath the future Park Peak lodge. Lodge services won’t be ready for this winter but the first floor parking system should be. It will be fully automated and the plan is to park cabins nightly. The Park Peak complex is designed for a possible third gondola segment down to Silver Lake Village.
For now the D-Line Pinyon Express will connect historic Deer Valley to new terrain. It’ll load between Bald and Flagstaff mountains, lifting six guests at a time to Park Peak with optional bubble. Pinyon will closely mimic Keetley Express, though with longer terminals for in-station parking. Nine of eleven towers and the top station are complete with the bottom station going up now.
The last two pieces of the chairlift network are what the development team call 6A and 6B, originally planned as one lift with an intermediate station. Now dubbed Vulcan Express and Revelator Express, these steep UNI-G quads will service some of the best fall line skiing in Utah. Revelator will cross underneath the gondola and reach the high point of the expansion – 9,370 feet. Revelator’s bottom terminal is in with concrete almost complete and towers to follow in early September. “We’re almost out of the concrete business,” McKinnon noted.
Highlander is working on 6A/Vulcan, the lower lift that will provide egress from a large bowl that makes up the southern boundary for now. From the Vulcan Express unload, skiers will head right toward the East Village or left to continue up Park Peak via Revelator.
Last but not least are three SunKid conveyors to be situated in the East Village. These form the beginning of a ski school progression from carpet to beginner chairlift to Keetley Express or the gondola. Every lift in the expansion will service at least one green route, including a 4.85 mile snake named Green Monster.
Deer Valley notes 1,200 day skier parking spots will be ready this season in the East Village, up from 500 last winter. A permanent skier services building won’t be but guests can ride a tram to temporary facilities by the gondola (the ride will be shorter than last winter’s to Keetley.) For destination visitors, the Grand Hyatt Deer Valley is already open with a Four Seasons and Canopy by Hilton under construction.
The Hail Peak Maintenance Facility includes a 10,000 gallon per minute pumphouse and space for vehicle maintenance with three cat bays. A 10 million gallon storage pond is being excavated near Park Peak, fed from the Jordanelle Reservoir below. The snowmaking system will include central air lines, meaning no onboard compressors needed for 150 TechnoAlpin fan guns. The vast majority of the system’s 1,100 HKD stick guns will be fully automated.
This season won’t mark the end for Alterra and Extell’s construction teams. Deer Valley recently announced an additional UNI-G detachable quad to open for 2026-27 on Hail Peak, serving seven runs and providing direct lift access from the day skier parking lot. Even once that lift is completed, guests needing rentals or lessons can opt for a tram ride through a new tunnel to the village. There will be escalators.
Park Peak terrain seen during the 2024-25 season.
Several additional lifts remain in the master plan with no set timelines for construction. Possible future projects include a quad on the backside of Bald Mountain, a longer Crown Point lift starting below Keetley Point and a lapable six pack on Big Dutch Peak. Beyond lies South Peak, an expert’s paradise with two possible chairlift alignments. Resort leaders are taking a wait and see approach, watching how skiers flow the next few seasons. With nearly 100 new trails this winter, it’s going to be awhile before Deer Valley needs more terrain.
Thanks to Lift Blog reader and pilot Auston C. for flying me over the expansion and to the Deer Valley team for hosting me.
Seventy three years after building the West Coast’s first gondola, Sugar Bowl will invest in a brand new gondola for 2026. The eight passenger, Doppelmayr D-Line system will anchor a major revitalization encompassing multiple lodges and facilities. The new gondola will run from an overhauled parking garage along Donner Pass Road to North America’s only snowbound village at the base of the Disney Express.
CTEC manufactured the current Village Gondola in 1983, carrying four passengers at a time between the parking area and village. The low angle gondola traverses over several roads, past several railroad tracks and under high voltage power lines. Historically the system ran 24 hours a day during the winter season. Recently it has operated less and become subject to frequent maintenance closures. The new lift will be more reliable and one of two new D-Line gondolas in Tahoe next year, the other being at Homewood Mountain Resort.
The new Sugar Bowl gondola is expected to be completed in November 2026.
Doppelmayr Canada will dramatically expand its base in Saint-Jérôme, Quebec, situated between Montreal and the Laurentian Mountains. The new facility will feature approximately 120,000 square feet of indoor production, service and warehouse space; 31,000 square feet of covered outdoor space; and a 34,000 square foot office and training facility. The news comes just a few weeks after Doppelmayr broke ground on a similar expansion in Salt Lake City. “The new facility will be a state-of-the art manufacturing facility where we will continue to design and produce the highest quality ropeway systems in North America,” noted Luc Guy, CEO of Doppelmayr Canada. “We are excited to expand our production capabilities and our workforce and continue Doppelmayr’s legacy of building ropeways in Saint-Jérôme.”
The existing Saint-Jérôme plant opened in 1978 and today specializes in building UNI-G detachable equipment for Canada and the United States. The new headquarters will rise alongside the existing building and allow Doppelmayr to better serve the growing North American market. “Our employees do an outstanding job completing all our ropeways on time and to the highest standards,” said Gerhard Gassner, Doppelmayr Group Managing Director. “However, due to growing market volume, the new building has become essential to continue meeting these expectations,” he continued. The United States and Canada comprised 29 percent of the Group’s revenue last year, eclipsing €300 million.
Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions (CED) granted Doppelmayr Canada a repayable financial contribution of $3 million for the project. Construction is anticipated to start at the end of May with production set to begin at the new facility by the fourth quarter of 2026.
Sundance, Utah today revealed plans for its fifth new lift in ten years, the Electric Horseman Express. The mountain’s second detachable quad will run from near the bottom of Wildwood to the top of Red’s, rising an impressive 1,850 vertical feet in six minutes. The back mountain expansion will open in phases with nine new trails and 60 acres opening this winter. The new lift will debut in 26/27 along with 105 acres adjacent to Bishop’s Bowl. The nearby Flathead lift, a 1975 Thiokol, will remain for now but eventually be removed.
Doppelmayr will construct the Electric Horseman Express along a steep, 4,400 foot alignment requiring 16 towers. The lift’s eccentric name is a nod to a 1979 film starring Robert Redford, who owned Sundance for 51 years. Redford sold the mountain in 2020 to two real estate investment firms, which have pumped tens of millions into new lifts, terrain, parking, a daylodge and hotel over the past five years.
“The addition of the Electric Horseman Express will transform how our guests experience the back mountain, allowing skiers and riders to lap all of the new and existing terrain in a single high-speed lift ride,” said Czar Johnson, Chief Operating Officer. “The expanded acreage gives locals even more reason to choose Sundance Resort for their season pass, and provides our traveling guests enough variety to make our new Inn at Sundance their home base for exploration,” he continued.
Canada’s third D-Line lift will debut at Moonstone, Ontario next winter, just steps from the groundbreaking Adventure8. Mount St. Louis Moonstone has again partnered with Doppelmayr to build the Elfriede Huter Xpress, a 3,000 passenger per hour six pack. The new lift will replace the Easy Street and Outback fixed grip lifts on the north flank of the mountain. “We’re saying goodbye to two legendary lifts,” said Robert Huter, General Manager of MSLM. “We’re thrilled to be writing the next chapter in our commitment to delivering the best lift infrastructure in Eastern Canada.” The project is named for Elfriede Huter, co-founder of the resort and matriarch of the Huter family who passed away last winter at the age of 86 (the six year old Josl Huter Express bears the name of Elfriede’s late husband and co-founder.) “Elfriede’s strength, warmth, and quiet determination helped build the resort from humble beginnings into the iconic destination it is today,” the resort noted.
MSLM will move some 100,000 cubic meters of fill to add 28 vertical feet for the new D-Line to land on. The Elfie Xpress will feature a direct drive, heated seats, manual locking restraint bars and a raiseable loading conveyor. When the lift is complete, MSLM will operate five detachable lifts moving more than 3,000 skiers an hour apiece. “Our goal is to stay ahead of the curve, investing where it matters most—on the slopes,” said Operations Director Andre Huter. “This new lift is not just about speed, it’s about guest experience, comfort, and continuing to build on the legacy of innovation that’s been our family’s foundation since 1964.” Lift construction has already begun and the new ride is expected to be complete by December.
Leitner-Poma discusses the impact of tariffs on the SAM huddle.
Burke Mountain emerges from nine years of government receivership with new owners.
Mount Saint Louis-Moonstone, Ontario teases a new era coming to the Outback side of the mountain.
Leitner introduces its next generation monocable detachable called Ropera, combining technology from Leitner, Poma and Bartholet. The launch customer will be Speikboden, Italy with a six place chairlift.
Nonprofit Titcomb Mountain will erect a shiny new T-Bar this fall in partnership with Doppelmayr. The new T-Bar 2 will replace a 1953 Constam which had been relocated from Cannon Mountain and reached the end of its useful life. The move comes after Titcomb successfully raised over $1.6 million of an estimated $2.25 million needed to renew mountain infrastructure. Initially Titcomb considered installing another used lift but settled on new after reviewing bids from several manufacturers. “Thanks to your donations, and a bid from Doppelmayr USA that came in well below our expected price, we will be installing a BRAND NEW T-Bar where our beloved Lift 2 once stood,” the mountain wrote on social media. “This is a pivotal time for Titcomb, and we greatly appreciate having the support of our community, as it breathes new life into our Mountain and increases our sustainability,” the post continued.
Production will begin immediately and the new lift is expected to open for the 2025-26 season. Titcomb is still fundraising to replace the aging T-Bar 1, which could happen as soon as this fall as well. The link to donate is here.
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