Girdwood, AK –Following a winter for the record books, Alyeska Resort in Girdwood announced on Thursday the replacement of the Alaska ski and snowboard resort’s existing four-person fixed-grip Chair 4 with a high speed detachable quad that will increase the lift’s uphill skier capacity and shorten the lift ride time by close to half when it opens with the start of the 2012-13 winter season.
Chair 4 provides primary lift access from the Daylodge base area of the resort to the upper mountain and the base area adjacent to The Hotel Alyeska. Servicing high volumes of day users including families, ski buses, and other groups, Chair 4 serves as a pivotal launching point for getting skiers and riders uphill. The existing chairlift was originally installed in 1992.
“I am very excited for this new lift,” said Di Hiibner, ski area general manager. “It will be the second high speed quad installed at Alyeska Resort, along with Chair 6, and the only two high speed lifts in all of Alaska.”
Construction and installation of the chairlift will begin early this summer. The new chairlift is manufactured by Doppelmayr, an Austrian company with offices in Salt Lake City, Utah. The chairlift is being fabricated in the U.S.
The hardware for the new lift will cost approximately $4 million. Installation is estimated to cost an additional $1 million and the resort also plans to spend close to $1 million on summer grading work for terrain improvements on trails fed by the new Chair 4.
The necessary ground work for the chairlift installation includes terrain re-grading for both top and bottom lift terminals, removal of existing lift towers, extensive electrical and utility work, as well as overall summer road improvements in order to accommodate the heavy machinery needed to install the chairlift. The installation is scheduled to take five months to complete. The resort also plans to tackle additional terrain work designed to improve user access, decrease skier speeds and create a safer corridor for users.
The estimated ride time for the new chair will be approximately five to seven minutes, 40% shorter than that of the previous chairlift.
Previously, based on tracking by the resort’s RFID (radio frequency identification) lift gate access system, intermediate and advanced skiers preferred staying in the upper mountain area accessed by Chair 6. The improved ride on Chair 4 will provide skiers more reason to explore terrain in the Lower Bowl and Race Trail areas. The easier access to lower mountain terrain will also ease some of the traffic and congestion on the upper mountain during the resort’s busier periods.
“A high speed quad at the Daylodge base area will change how our guests ski the mountain,” said Hiibner. “The new chairlift will create a better top-to-bottom ski experience.”
This large-scale construction project has required the support and approval from a number of organizations. The planning for the replacement chairlift has taken two years. The resort’s mountain management team worked with a number of experts in the field including The SE Group to determine the best chairlift plan. The resort has contracted with Outdoor Engineering and Summit Lift to install the new lift with support from the resort’s mountain operations crews. The chairlift installation has also included collaboration through permitting processes from Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources and the Municipality of Anchorage.
The resort’s primary owner, Utah resident John Byrne, is scheduled to be in Girdwood on April 21 as keynote speaker at the 12th Annual Girdwood 2020 Meeting and Banquet. During his keynote address, Byrne plans to officially announce the new chairlift project; he also intends to highlight other resort priorities and future plans.