“Well, it’s not often we can pull something like this off. We’re a small to midsize operation, and this is going to be awesome.”- Jeff Schmidt, General Manager of Red Lodge Mountain.
This summer, the Miami Beach double chairlift at Red Lodge Mountain is being replaced by a high-speed triple chairlift. This triple chairlift was originally known as Sunnyside, which operated over at THE Alta Ski Area. This lift replacement will increase the uphill capacity from around 450 people per hour (pph) to 1800 pph. In addition, it’s much quicker, and the new chairlift goes further up the hill. The cost of the replacement process will be around $3 million.
Since the season ended, crews have been hard at work to replace the chairlift. Larry Freeman, who is the lifts manager at Red Lodge Mountain, described to KTVQ what the process has been like:
“We’ve had a crew of about 12 working just the steel, the concrete, and this side of it for 6 or 7 days since the snow melted. There’s a lot of milestones, but I’ve told the guys I’m not celebrating until it’s officially open to the public.”
Last week, Red Lodge shared a video of a helicopter installing the new lift towers. It’s always exciting to see helicopter crews and employees working together to put the lift together. It also looks like the top terminal is nearing completion. The project is expected to be completed in October.
I was a big fan of Sunnyside back when it was over at Alta, so I think guests at Red Lodge are really going to dig it.
Image/Video Credits: Red Lodge Mountain
