Santa Fe announces high-speed fast chair lift

Ryan Boetel, Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
·2 min read

Nov. 13—Ski Santa Fe announced last week that they will introduce the mountain's first high-speed chair lift for the 2024-2025 winter season.

The "Santa Fe Express" is a new detachable Leitner-Poma Quad, which will replace the 35-year-old Chair 1, Super Chief Quad.

The result will be that skiers and snowboarders will be ferried up the mountain's primary lift in less than half the time. The ski area said on its website that the current lift takes 10 minutes to go from bottom to top. Once upgrades are complete, skiers or snowboard can expect about a four-minute ride.

That will reduce lift lines, alleviate bottlenecks on busy days and making loading and unloading easier, according to the ski area's website.

The new lift will be the first high-speed chairlift at Ski Santa Fe and the first new lift since the Millennium Chairlift was installed in 2005.

Construction is expected to begin in April 2024 and be completed in early November 2024.

Ski Santa Fe officials couldn't be reached for comment on Friday.

"I have decided to authorize the" chair lift, Shaun Sanchez, a forest supervisor with the Santa Fe National Forest wrote in a decision memo. "This decision is based on the need to replace aging infrastructure, improve skier circulation, and relieve congestion at Ski Santa Fe. This action is fundamental to enhancing the overall recreational experience on National Forest System lands at Ski Santa Fe."

The ski area is expected to open Nov. 23 for the 2023-2024 ski season.

The news of the new lift at Santa Fe Ski Area comes shortly after a shakeup in the ski the central New Mexico.

The Abruzzo family owns and operates Santa Fe Ski Area, Sandia Peak Tramway and TEN 3 Restaurant and previously also operated Sandia Peak Ski Area. In October, it was announced that Sandia Peak Ski Co. and Durango, Colorado-based Mountain Capital Partners entered into a joint venture agreement to turn over operations at Sandia Peak to MCP, which will operate the ski area outside of Albuquerque.