This will undoubtedly be a controversial one. Every skier or snowboard has that chairlift that they just can’t stand, whether it’s because the lift is too slow, capacity is too low, chair swings too much, or the lifties just always seem to be playing some garbage music. This is with absolutely no hate or disrespect to the resorts mentioned. Some of them are among our favorite in the world. PeakRankings set out to rank what they believe are the 19 worst ski lifts in North America. Do you agree with their rankings?
1. June Mountain – J1 Double (California) – Only base access chairlift, 60+ year old double chair with a center pole, extremely low capacity, causes massive lines, and beginners must download since there are no green runs down.
2. Mountain Creek – Sojourn Double (New Jersey) – Covers only 500ft of vertical but stretches nearly 5,000ft long, taking 15 soul-crushing minutes. Largely unlit at night despite the resort being open until 9pm.
3. Smuggler’s Notch – Mogul Mouse’s Magic Lift (Vermont) – Runs parallel to the faster Village Lift the entire way but takes 15 minutes vs. 10, with no clear signage warning non-beginners about the dramatically slower speed.
4. Sun Peaks – Burfield Quad (British Columbia) – The longest fixed grip chairlift in North America at 9,500ft, taking a staggering 21 minutes for a full ride.
5. Crystal Mountain – Mount Rainier Gondola (Washington) – Originally designed for sightseeing, it carries only ~900 people/hour, less than a third of a typical gondola, creating chronic lift lines.
6. Steamboat – Morningside Triple Chair (Colorado) – A massive choke point funneling traffic from three different zones with no alternative exit, and the only way to lap certain front-side expert runs.
7. Heavenly – Sky Express (California/Nevada) – The sole connection between the California and Nevada sides of the resort, creating a massive bottleneck, especially at day’s end, and susceptible to wind holds.
8. Heavenly – Galaxy Lift (Nevada) – A 13-minute fixed grip triple that you’re forced to ride with no skiable egress at the bottom, just to get out of the area.
9. Keystone – Way Back Fixed Grip Quad (Colorado) – A slow 9-minute exit-only chairlift from the Outback area that backs up late in the day, made worse by frequent misloads from less experienced guests.
10. Okemo – South Ridge A & B Quads (Vermont) – Slow fixed grip lifts that are the only direct exit from the base, serving flat beginner terrain and unloading far from the lifts most guests actually want to reach.
11. Stowe – Toll House Double (Vermont) – A nearly 14-minute ride serving unspectacular beginner terrain, despite becoming the most convenient parking area access point on weekends.
12. Wolf Creek – Alberta Quad (Colorado) – A 10+ minute fixed grip chairlift serving the resort’s best expert terrain, sitting awkwardly next to a high-speed quad that serves beginner terrain almost nobody uses.
13. Big Sky – Lone Peak Tram (Montana) – The only major lift in North America not fully included with popular pass products, charging $30–$40 per ride on top of already expensive lift tickets.
14. Kimberley – Northstar Express Quad (British Columbia) – Provides the only access to the entire mountain with zero redundancy, having already suffered two season-long closures in five years due to a gearbox failure and arson.
15. Loon – Gondola (New Hampshire) – Unusually small 4-person cabins create a cramped, low-capacity experience that generates significant lines on busy weekends, despite a much larger bubble lift sitting nearby.
16. Kicking Horse – Pioneer Double & Catamount Quad (British Columbia) – Lower mountain lifts that don’t extend high enough to connect to upper mountain terrain, providing no meaningful redundancy to the heavily overworked gondola.
17. Kicking Horse – Gondola (British Columbia) – The sole access to virtually all of the mountain’s terrain, with a catastrophic failure last season that forced closure of most of the resort.
18. Revelstoke – Gondola (British Columbia) – A two-stage gondola with no continuous cable connection, forcing every guest to unload and rejoin a second chairlift line mid-mountain every single morning.
19. Snowbird – Mineral Basin Express (Utah) – A high-speed quad with insufficient chair spacing that funnels the entire resort’s backside traffic through one lift with no true alternative exit route.
