Skiers will still find plenty of moguls at Alta Ski Area next season, but “the bumpies” will be gone.
For the past decade, skiers taking the Supreme lift to the terrain on the east side of Devil’s Castle have had to pass through an 8-degree bend. In addition to rattling riders, the unusual turn has taken its toll on the lift’s infrastructure. Last summer, Alta General Manger Mike Maughan told the Alta Town Council that an inspection revealed the lift has experienced “accelerated metal fatigue.” The degradation was likely caused by vibration of chairs going through the bend.
Alta announced Wednesday that it will be changing the Supreme lift’s configuration. Expected to be completed in time for the 2025-26 ski season, the new alignment won’t have the bend. The U.S. Forest Service approved Alta’s request to straighten the lift’s route in March, and an Alta spokesperson said the realignment has cleared the required environmental review process.
The lift’s top and bottom terminals will remain in place but will be pivoted, according to a statement issued by Alta. Per the Forest Service’s approval, which was first reported by Lift Blog, “the realignment will require the replacement of the lift.” However, an Alta spokesperson said the same lift will be used in the new configuration.
The current Supreme lift, a high-speed quad, was installed in 2017. It combined the routes of an older Supreme lift and the Cecret lift, which served nearly the same area. Instead of realigning the combo lift or installing a costly angle station, Alta opted to take the unusual route of running the chairs through an 8-degree bend. That option resulted in the least amount of deforestation and soil erosion.
Alta poked fun at the reaction to the lift’s turbulence in an April Fool’s Day post on its website Tuesday. The post said the turn “— known colloquially as ‘the bend’ or ‘the bumpies’ — proved to be a fan favorite feature for skiers young and old.”
In reality, it was rough on both lift riders and equipment.
During the 2023-24 season, Alta experimented with dampening “the bumpies” by adding different chairs.
By the end of that season, Maughan told the Alta Town Council last June, “Every one of those [chair pans] is cracked significantly.”
He said engineers had also found accelerated fatigue in the grips and the bend. He pointed out, however, that the lift never had an accident and was considered safe to run this season.
Realigning the Supreme lift will require installing all new towers and footings, Maughan said in June. Per a Forest Service memo on the project, approximately 212 trees will have to be removed. Alta will be required to undertake “a reforestation effort of equal magnitude … in the old lift line area, after all construction is completed.”
The construction may cause some trail closures this summer. An Alta spokesperson said the resort will post weekly updates with any impacts to hikers, bikers or campground users.