Wildhorse Gondola Still Under Discussion

There’s still talk of a “people-mover” gondola stemming from the Meadows parking lot, through Wildhorse Meadows and ending at the ski area base. This would mitigate the need for shuttle service and would become an extraordinarily efficient way to move people from parking, to shopping, to skiing.

The problem however is logistics. So much has changed with the configuration of the ski base since the first discussions began four years ago. The new plans are calling for a detachable-car gondola that would move faster but is much bigger and requires more space to house the terminal. With the construction of One Steamboat Place in what was formerly Lot 1 of the ski area, the idea of “more space” becomes an even bigger challenge.

There are a lot of benefits that can be seen from adding a new gondola to transport guests more efficiently. Steamboat Ski & Resort Corp. President Chris Diamond has commented that they are “closer to the end (of discussions) than we are to the beginning” but didn’t think they were close to making it happen yet.

There is still a lot that needs to be learned and analyzed about how a higher-capacity gondola would fit into the overall development master plans before anything takes shape. I’d be surprised however if at one day in the future we didn’t have this new gondola system in place.