Alta Ski Area, Utah, has received United States Forest Service authorization to realign its Supreme chairlift this coming summer, allowing it to iron out an eight-degree bend that made for a "bumpy ride" and created "maintenance issues," according to a statement shared by the mountain.
The statement said the lift would be dismantled and reinstalled with a new, straighter alignment this summer. The upper and lower terminals will be pivoted but remain in their current general locations.
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Supreme is still expected to be open during the 2025-2026 ski season. Alta Ski Area anticipates being able to share further information once the project begins in earnest next month.
The realignment has been planned since at least June 2024, when The Salt Lake Tribune and LiftBlog reported that Alta Ski Area intended to rebuild the Supreme lift, which was experiencing wear and tear.
Photo: Photo-John/Alta Ski Area
According toThe Salt Lake Tribune, Mike Maughan, Alta Ski Area’s president and general manager, said in 2024 that Supreme’s unique, bending alignment was causing accelerated fatigue to its metal, grips, and chairs.
However, the lift, which was installed in 2017, hasn’t had any accidents, and Maughan saidlast summer that it was a viable option for the 2024-2025 ski season, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.
Alta Ski Area opted for the eight-degree bend when constructing the Supreme lift instead of a costlier angle station, according toLiftBlog. The bending path of the 2017 chairlift also allowed it to follow the alignments of the chairlifts it replaced—a previous iteration of Supreme and the now removed Cecret lift—resulting in less deforestation and ground disturbances.
The current Supreme lift accesses a network of intermediate and expert terrain on the looker's left side of Alta Ski Area’s terrain footprint.
On April Fools’ Day this month, the mountain joked that Supreme would be replaced with a mile-long, covered conveyor belt. The legitimately planned realignment, as you could probably guess, is more practical.
"Due to overwhelming and immediate feedback from Alta skiers, it has been determined that Alta Ski Area will abandon our April Fools' plans to move forward with the proposed construction of the Supreme Griz covered ski conveyor," Alta Ski Area wrote in a recent tongue-in-cheek update shared on its website.
