Park City • Along one wall of a beige hotel conference room, Lamont Joseph White raises his arm into what appears to be a one-armed dab or an impression of Dracula hiding behind his cape. Instead, White is reenacting some of his fondest memories of riding in the Cabriolet lift at Park City Mountain.
Whenever White’s family took its annual ski vacation to Park City, starting in 2001, the Cabriolet was always the first lift they rode. It carried them from the dirt parking lot along State Route 224 to The Canyons. But the lift, which White affectionately refers to as “the bucket,” has no seats and isn’t covered, which meant during snowstorms he’d have to hide his frozen face in the crook of his arm.
Ah, those were the days.
Park City Mountain has drawn up plans to replace the Cabriolet with a covered, and likely more comfortable, gondola ahead of the 2026-27 ski season. As part of the first phase of development, it presented the public with drawings and concepts of the proposed lift Monday evening at an open house at the Grand Summit Hotel at the Canyons Village.
Some of the dozens of people who circled through the posterboard-lined conference room said it’s about time the 25-year-old lift got an upgrade. And some, like White, lamented the end of an era.
Made by Garaventa, the cabriolet style lift enjoyed a small window of popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Now, according to Peter Landsman of Liftblog.com, they have almost all been phased out.
“I love the bucket. There’s a soft spot about it,” said White, who moved to Park City from the East Coast 12 years ago and has had his artwork adorn Red Pine Gondola cabins. “I’m also, at the same time, excited and understand the need for progress and growth and things like that. I think it could be a vital part of the improvements.”
The new Cabriolet, if approved, would accompany the construction of a five-story parking garage and transit hub being built on top of that old, dirt lot. The first few levels of that structure — which is expected to account for all the current public parking at Canyons Village — are slated to open in time for the 2026-27 ski season. Additionally, ahead of the coming ski season, Park City Mountain is replacing the seldom-used Sunrise lift with a 10-person gondola of the same name. That lift is expected to ease the burden on the Red Pine Gondola by also carrying guests from Canyons Village to the Red Pine area.
Likewise, Angelique Ives-Flaig, who has a second home at Sundial Lodge in the Canyons Village, said she expects the new Cabriolet gondola to ease both foot and vehicle traffic around the resort base.
“When you get to the top, there’s pretty much one way in and one way out, and then you have all those service trucks and people trying to get checked into their hotels up there. It’s a traffic nightmare,” said Ives-Flaig of Seal Beach, California. “Now there’s going to be all that parking down below. And as a gondola, it’ll be quick. So there’s no need to try and drop people off, because you’ll still get up there quickly.”
It currently takes 3 minutes, 40 seconds to ride the Cabriolet from the lot to the base and vice versa. Per Lift Blog, the lift’s 40 cars can carry eight people apiece for a capacity of about 3,000 people per hour.
Details about how fast the new lift will travel and how many people it will carry remain unclear. A spokesperson for the resort said the resort could not comment to the media at the open house and declined to answer questions submitted by email.
For a few reasons, the new Cabriolet might not actually be faster.
Julie Jag, The Salt Lake Tribune Leanne Miller of Park City looks at a posterboard at an open house at the Grand Summit Hotel at Canyons Village on Monday, July 15, 2025, that shows the path of a gondola Park City Mountain is proposing to replace the Cabriolet lift.
Landsman pointed out that it typically takes longer to load and unload an enclosed gondola cabin than the bucket-style Cabriolet cars. Also, Park City Mountain’s plans currently call for the construction of a midstation west of Red Pine Road just below the Yotel Pad hotel. While it would provide another opportunity for onboarding and offloading, it could further slow the trip.
In artist renderings, the location of the beginning and ending terminals of the Cabriolet do not appear to change.
The convenience of a midstation would counter almost any cost in speed, several Canyons Village property owners who attended the open house said. They said skiers and snowboarders staying in or near the Hidden Creek Condos and the Red Pine HOA have been stuck in limbo. They either have to walk a half mile in ski boots up to the lifts or a half mile down to the Cabriolet base to access the slopes. The midstation, which in mock-ups appears to be ADA accessible, would meet them in the middle.
“I want it to be functional,” Ives-Flaig said, “because then it would be nice and pleasant to be up here. Relaxed with no lines.”
Jim Simmons, the president of All Seasons HOA Management in Park City, pointed out that there is a parcel of developable land near the planned location of the midstation.
“I’m assuming,” he said, “that (the gondola)’s going to be a big drawing point for whoever ends up developing that.”
Wherever they board, one thing is certain: If the gondola is approved, passengers will no longer have to do the Dracula on windy and snowy days.
“That’s a major, key feature that I will enjoy,” White said.
But, he added, he’ll miss recreating those hard-won memories.
“We’re still talking about those stories of the wind,” he said, “so that’s good, too.”
Public engagement like the open house is part of Phase 1 of Park City Mountain’s Cabriolet development plan. That phase also includes: coordinating with Summit County and the Canyons Village Management Association — which oversees development around Canyons Village — and obtaining permitting and approvals. Park City Mountain did not provide a Phase 1 timeline.