Because the world bids farewell to 2025, 49 new lifts are up and working throughout North America. 45 of these rose in the US plus 4 in Canada. That’s eight fewer installations than 2024 because the Covid-era out of doors journey increase waned barely. Marquee tasks in ’25 included ten passenger gondolas at Large Sky, Deer Valley and Park Metropolis – all offering new out-of-base entry. A number of ski areas pushed boundaries, most notably Deer Valley with six new lifts within the East Village.
The Rocky Mountain area noticed robust funding with 24 lifts opening in Colorado, Montana, New Mexico and Utah. The East additionally proved robust with 15 new lifts, up by three from 2024. The Pacific states, the Midwest and Canada fared weaker with only a handful of tasks every.
Each mounted and removable chairlift gross sales fell considerably whereas gondola tasks elevated to a powerful eight machines. Floor lifts additionally outperformed with 4 new platters and T-Bars provided by three producers. No aerial trams opened this 12 months however that would change quickly with tasks on the horizon at Cannon Mountain, New Hampshire and Franklin Mountains, Texas.
Expansions prevailed with extra lifts breaking new floor than any 12 months since 2019. In Alberta, Lake Louise opened Richardson’s Ridge with a Doppelmayr removable quad and Fortress Mountain constructed the Stagecoach Specific serving a whole bunch of acres of alpine terrain. Stateside, Powder Mountain accomplished the Davenport addition for owners serviced by a Leitner-Poma removable quad. Monarch Mountain, Colorado will quickly debut Tomichi, a Skytrac triple ascending No Identify Basin for the primary time. Within the east, Bryce Resort additionally partnered with Skytrac to debut a bottom growth with 4 new trails. Solely 30 of 49 new lifts this 12 months straight changed previous lifts, down by 9 from final 12 months.
Doppelmayr and the HTI duo of Leitner-Poma and Skytrac continued to dominate the market in North America. LPOA gained barely greater than half of tasks (22) with Doppelmayr finishing 20 installations. HTI paricularly excelled within the fixed-grip realm with 5 new Leitner-Poma Alphas and 7 Skytrac Monarchs. Doppelmayr dominated the gondola and removable areas with six D-Strains and 6 UNI-Gs. By vertical transport ft per hour (VTFH), Doppelmayr edged out HTI with 46 p.c of put in capability vs. 45 p.c. MND Ropeways constructed its first new carry in three years right here, a T-Bar for Waterville Valley, New Hampshire.
Lifts at locations apart from ski resorts took off in 2025. The State of West Virginia invested in two mounted grip gondolas at state parks, certainly one of which opened this fall and the opposite of which can launch come spring. Riverbanks Zoo in South Carolina debuted a beautiful river crossing gondola in partnership with Leitner-Poma, the primary removable ever in-built that state. The Tennessee State Truthful debuted a set chairlift and OZ Trails Bike Park in Arkansas is placing the ending touches on a Leitner-Poma high-speed quad, the primary removable in that state.
Practically 90 p.c of carry tasks have been new-from-manufacturer with simply six used lifts re-installed. They represented slightly below eight p.c of recent VTFH with Fortress Mountain’s excessive pace quad the most important adopted by Alta’s relocation of the Supreme chair. The vast majority of used lifts have been Pomas of varied vintages and kinds.
Deer Valley’s new gondola earned largest new carry of the 12 months adopted by Large Sky’s Explorer Gondola then Elk Camp Specific at Snowmass. Each Doppelmayr and Leitner-Poma engineered lifts throughout the VTFH spectrum whereas Skytrac and MND lifts skewed smaller.
There’s a story that solely conglomerates can afford new lifts. Whereas lifts have definitely turn into costlier, this 12 months confirmed that isn’t the entire story with dozens of unbiased operators shopping for very nice machines for his or her clients. From Wachusett to White Cross and Welch Village, unbiased ski areas are thriving. Setting apart the Deer Valley megaproject funded partly by Extell Growth Firm, Alterra solely added one new carry to its current portfolio at Crystal Mountain, Washington. Identical story with Vail Resorts, which constructed the Dawn Gondola at Park Metropolis in partnership with the Canyons Village Administration Affiliation. Greater than half of all new lifts this 12 months went to what I’d take into account mom-and-pop, family-owned single mountains.
The business additionally retired 53 lifts in 2025, three greater than final 12 months, at a median age of 42 years. Eight Halls, six Riblets and 4 Borvigs went to scrap as resorts modernized fleets. Some 211 Halls, 213 Riblets and 118 Borvigs nonetheless spin throughout the continent, nonetheless, with extra to get replaced in 2026.
Subsequent 12 months is shaping as much as be just like 2025. Introduced new lifts are pacing simply barely behind this time a 12 months in the past with 41 installations on my listing of possible tasks. A number of installs initially meant for 2025 have been pushed to 2026 together with Purgatory’s Gelande triple, Powder Mountain’s DMI and Halfpint lifts, Homewood’s gondola and Bluewood’s summit carry. A number of ski areas already introduced contemporary investments for 2026 together with two replacements at Solar Valley, two lifts at Little Switzerland and a brand new gondola at Sugar Bowl. Unbiased mountains are poised to proceed out-investing conglomerates per capita regardless of accounting for lower than half of skier visits.
As these tasks unfold, I hope you’ll proceed to learn Carry Weblog. 2025 was one other report 12 months for the positioning with 841,000 distinctive guests studying practically 4.7 million pages. Thanks to your help, assume snow and Joyful New Yr.
