The Longest Ski Lift In The World Isn't Where You Think
When you think long, where do you think? (Gondolas not included, because let's face it... there are some long ones!)
Village Express at Aspen Snowmass, Colorado (10,074 feet)? Sunshine Express in Telluride, Colorado (10,732 feet)? Chile Express at Angel Fire Resort, New Mexico (10,992 feet)? What if we told you it wasn't on the West Coast at all?
In reality, the longest lift in the world is at none other than Sugarbush in Vermont.
Yes, the East Coast has something big!
Slide Brook Express, which is a detachable quad, has a length of 11,012 feet. It has a net vertical rise of under 400 feet.
It was installed in 1995, making it almost exactly three decades old.
Funnily enough, it is also one of the fastest lifts in the world, running at 1,150 feet per minute (although according to guests, the resort doesn't operate the lift at full speed anymore).
You may notice that in the video, there is a road. The creator of the video explains, "this road is the reason that Slide Brook doesn't run very often. It has to have 1' 1/2 of snow on it, and they have to groom it. This is because of evacuation, so they are able to get Snow Cats and Snowmobiles into the bottom of Slide Brook Basin."
Apparently, evacuation is a bit of an issue causing the lift to only run on certain days of the week. For a significant period of time, while Sugarbush was owned by Win Smith, the lift ran on weekends and holidays only.
Teddy's caption explains that "evacuation access is very difficult due to most of the liftline being remote and quite far away from either side's trail system. That combined with the liftline being full of obstacles results in it being very difficult to evacuate. Instead of investing in clearing the liftline and providing easier access to the liftline, a rule was simply created that only allows it to operate with 1 1/2 feet of snow underneath it for easy access."
The 2.1-mile-long lift connects the Lincoln Peak and Mt. Ellen areas at the resort.
Lincoln Peak has "mellow groomers for beginners to the legendary terrain of Castlerock Peak, full of narrow, steep, and winding trails."
Mt. Ellen is the third-highest peak in Vermont, with steeps, wide-open cruisers, intermediate terrain, and the Riemergasse Terrain Park.
Perhaps weirdest of all, Sugarbush seems to have a streak for setting chairlift milestones. Sugarbush is home to the first gondola in the United States, and was the first Eastern resort to offer cat skiing.
With Sugarbush predicted to get 21 inches by January 13th, let's hope Slide Brook is running as scheduled!
Related: East Coast Ski Resorts To Benefit From Multiple Feet Of Snow
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