Mt. Hood, OR – The towers for the sixth high speed quad chairlift at Mt. Hood Meadows – the Stadium Express – were placed last week.

Twelve towers for the new ski lift, built by Leitner-Poma, were placed atop their concrete footings by a KMAX helicopter from HeliQuest in just under two hours. The new lift’s haul rope is expected to be installed and spliced sometime in mid-October.

The bottom terminal of the new Stadium Express is being placed in a much more convenient location to the base area, closer to the North Lodge than the old Yellow chairlift that it replaces. The upper terminal will sit at 5,949 feet near the top of the Heather Lift. While the vertical drop of the lift will increase by only 19 feet, the new lift is 556 feet longer than the old one, for direct access to Shooting Star, Hood River Meadows and the ski resort’s popular gated access terrain.

The high speed lift increases passenger capacity over the old chair from 1,200 to 2,000 people per hour.