Newest chairlift to double capacity, provide warmer ride up mountain’s north-facing aspect
By Mira Brody VP MEDIA
While jokingly referred to Big Sky Resort’s coldest and windiest side of Lone Mountain, it’s a warm July afternoon in the Madison Base Area as work progresses on another new chairlift. A meticulously excavated crater sits where the previous Six Shooter chairlift once did, and instead of snow, the area is dotted with construction equipment—a towering red crane, orange lift and towers of rebar and plywood—as crews from the resort and Jackson Contractor Group work to install Six Shooter’s replacement, the new Madison 8 chairlift, scheduled to carry its first skiers up Lone Mountain for the winter 2024-25 season.
“The old lift has been taken down, it was taken apart very carefully and it got put on trucks and is, I believe, already unloaded in a parking lot in Sugarloaf, Maine,” said Tom Marshall, vice president of mountain operations. “That went really smoothly. From there it was clearing snow.”
Marshall explained that crews were clearing snow the day after the Madison Base Area closed for the 2023-24 season.
Six Shooter, a high-speed six-seat detachable chairlift first constructed by Moonlight Basin Ski Area in 2003, carried its final skiers on that closing day in April 2024. It will find new life after refurbishment and upgrades in Sugarloaf Ski Resort in Carrabassett Valley, Maine.
Marshall began working winter seasons at Big Sky Resort in the fall of 1999 and has been year-round for the last nine years. In fall of 2013, when the resort merged with Moonlight Basin, he was running the ski school in the Madison Base Area. Even standing at over 6 feet tall, Marshall’s stature is dwarfed by the construction activity, as well as Lone Mountain’s shadow behind him.
Madison 8 will double the capacity of its predecessor, transporting 2,745 skiers per hour at a speed of 13 miles per hour from base to top in eight minutes. The lift consists of 80 chairs and 29 towers along a path that is straightened slightly from the existing—riders will remember Six Shooter had to take a slight right turn on the way up the mountain.
The new chair will feature blue bubbles, heated seats, automatic safety bars, footrests and the “whisper quiet” mechanics riders have become familiar with from other recent upgrades at Big Sky Resort—namely Ramcharger 8 and Swift Current 6 chairlifts—made possible by Doppelmayr D-line engineering, designed to be smooth, quiet and low-maintenance. It provides a load time of 12 seconds with a loading carpet that can be adjusted to more easily accommodate children.
Big Sky Resort will be the first North American resort with three D-line lifts featuring chairlift bubbles, and with two eight-seat lifts. Madison 8 will be the world’s longest eight-seat lift.
Madison 8 will feature an indoor loading experience; chairs are able to be stored overnight in the lower or upper terminals as needed. The larger lower terminal also allows for an enclosed space for guests as they embark up the mountain, a first for Big Sky. The lower terminal will also sit 40 feet uphill from where Six Shooter’s was in order to create more queuing space.
In order to summarize the list of engineering feats, Marshall said the lift will combine the biggest elements of Ramcharger and Swift Current, arming it with both length and speed.
“I wasn’t directly involved in building Ramcharger. That was built in one summer. Swift Current was built in two, the gondolas [will be] in three, the tram in two, and they were still tight schedules,” said Marshall, listing the resort’s recent upgrades, both complete and in-progress. “But this is the first project of this scale that I’ve been involved in where the expectations are its going to be done in one building season and ready for next winter.”
While ambitious, Marshall is optimistic about the timeline. Next, crews will pour tower concrete, completing the tower installations from bottom to top, and backfilling excavated areas. Chairs are expected to arrive before the end of July, to be filled in no time with eager skiers for the resort’s upcoming season.
