Alpental: Replacing Edelweiss - Important Operations Update

This summer they’re embarking on the third major chairlift project at Alpental, replacing Edelweiss with a new Doppelmayr triple chairlift. It’s an exciting one, but this project has an even more challenging timeline than the Internationale Chair because we must remove the old lift and install the new one in a single summer. To make things even more difficult, no part of the construction site has road access – whereas on the Internationale project they were able to get a temporary construction road to the base of the lift.

They say: "You might be wondering, why can’t we just run lower-mountain and Internationale? The avalanche control work that allows almost all of lower-mountain to safely operate relies on access to the top of Edelweiss. Since we have to start removing the existing lift on April 14th, avalanche control work for normal ski operations has to end that day as well.

"While we would love to keep Alpental open later, and know everyone loves late spring days at Alpy, it just isn’t possible without seriously jeopardizing the timeline of this massively important project. We do not have any major Alpental projects slated for next year, so we’re looking forward to having this amazing new lift and the potential of getting back to normal spring operations. Thanks for your understanding, and be sure to take advantage of every spring day we have on the calendar!"

That tight timeline dictates the need to close Alpental a couple weekends earlier than average. The final day of the season will be Sunday, April 13th, that way the team has enough time to remove the existing lift while there’s still suitable snow conditions to get towers and large components off the mountain. Without roads, the best way to get all these components off the mountain is to do it over the snow. Once the mountain closes the team will be working on the project daily, but they must also consider that they might lose multiple days of the removal process due to spring storms that hamper the team’s ability to get things done.