Two Colorado Resorts Add Lifts, Terrain While Three Replace Oldies This Summer
It'll be busy at five Colorado ski and snowboard resorts this summer, as seven chairlifts go up to either replace older ones or carve out new way to get up the hill.
Both Monarch and Purgatory are cutting brand-new lift lines and adding terrain -- both to reduce crowding on other parts of the hill and to up the ante for advanced and expert skiers and riders.
At Monarch, the much-ballyhooed 377-acre No Name basin expansion will open for the 2025-2026. It will be the southern Colorado resorts' first foray onto the west slope of the Continental Divide -- and first new lift in 25 years. Nine new runs, both blues and blacks, have been cut along with a 2,700-foot-long lift line for the new No Name fixed-grip triple.
In the southwest corner at Purgatory, ownership takes on crowding around the base area with a new fixed-grip triple chair that rises right out of the overflow parking lot -- bypassing the main base area and the workhorse Purgatory Village Express high-speed.
The Gelande lift -- nearly a mile in length and traversing over some of Purgatory's steepest terrain -- will take folks to the front-side summit where they can spread all over the mountain. It also will serve a couple of new expert runs on the front side.
At Snowmass, the upper mountain gets a modest upgrade. The Elk Camp detachable quad will become a six-seater, increasing wintertime capacity by 40 percent to the host of open blues off Elk Camp peak (11,325 ft. elevation).
One of the oldest lifts on the hill (1995), Elk Camp is also the main hauler of mountain bikes during the summer. Resort officials say the new six-pack will double biker capacity to the top of Snowmass Bike Park.
Plus, the highest lift of the hill -- The Cirque platter -- becomes a T-bar. Hourly ridership will more than double for skiers and riders who like to roam the timberline terrain below The Cirque (12,510).
Above Glenwood Springs, Sunlight Mountain is also getting a pair of replacement lifts this summer for two of Colorado's oldest lifts. The Segundo double that originally went up in 1954 and got upgraded in 1973 will become a fixed-grip triple. The lift is the only lift up Sunlight's west shoulder, with blue groomers up high and black chutes below.
And, the mid-mountain Primo double (1966) becomes a fixed-grip quad to speed up action in Sunlight's middle section. It's the only lift to reach Sunlight's 9,895-foot summit and to provide access to the mountain's array of double-blacks to skier's right.
And finally, another long-running Colorado chairlift gets a new face at Loveland Valley. The shortest chairlift on the hill, Lift 7 will add seating this summer to bring more beginners to the gentle slopes of Loveland Valley -- the resort's primary learning and teaching area. Thought a four-seater, the new lift will be loaded with three riders to help beginner's get used to loading and unloading.
