Sugar Bowl

Sugar Bowl to Build New Gondola

Peter Landsman7 Comments

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.

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  • French regulators propose $800,000 in fines against MND Group and its CEO for allegedly misleading investors and deleting emails, which the company denies.
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  • As Crested Butte departs the Powder Alliance, Marmot Basin, Castle Mountain, Sugar Bowl and Loveland join up.
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  • Loveland confirms Leitner-Poma will build its much anticipated first high-speed quad.
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  • Approaching two years post-Olympics, both urban gondolas in Rio remain abandoned.
  • Bloomberg is out with a not-so-complimentary article about the Whistler Blackcomb-Vail transition.
  • Doppelmayr wins contracts to build nine Beijing 2022 Olympic lifts including five gondolas and two bubble six place chairs.
  • A gondola once the symbol of an Olympics destroyed by war returns to Sarajevo thanks to Leitner Ropeways and a $3.5 million donation from an American.
  • The Oakland Athletics consider building a gondola to their new stadium.
  • Nine different mountains in Sweden will spin T-Bars for mountain bikers this summer.
  • If approved, Vail’s new Golden Peak lift will likely be a T-Bar.
  • Owl’s Head retires its Green lift and will give the chairs away to season pass buyers.
  • I started this blog three years ago this week as an off season project.  It now sees 215,000 page views each month from 40,000+ unique visitors.  Thanks to everyone who has helped to make Lift Blog a success!