Big Sky Opens New Tram 50 Years After Original Opening Day
Fifty years and four days from Big Sky Resort’s inaugural opening day in 1973, the new Lone Peak Tram (a cable car to Europeans) began carrying guests to the resort’s spectacular 11,166-foot summit on Montana’s Lone Mountain.
The new tram is a complete replacement of the original jig-back gondola built in 1995. This state-of-the-art aerial tram technology is newly routed to carry more passengers spaciously up, which, at the time, opened up the biggest lift-served vertical in the US, ascending 2,142 vertical feet in just under five minutes.
“The original tram opened the high alpine terrain of Lone Mountain to skiers and riders, and the new tram is symbolic of the experiential transformation we are endeavouring to accomplish through our Big Sky 2025 vision,” said Taylor Middleton, president and COO, Big Sky Resort. “This world-class summit experience is now serviced by a modern tram that will open up possibilities never contemplated until now, in both winter and summer.”
After two years of construction and many more years of planning, the new Lone Peak Tram marks a significant milestone in the resort’s 50th year. It allows for completely new ways to enjoy skiing the mountain’s high alpine eastern and southern exposures and will also open up other experiences yet to be unveiled, a resort statement claims.
The tram complex will evolve in the years ahead, with the addition of what Big Sky say will be “a breathtaking observation experience” planned at the upper terminal in both the winter and summer season. Plans for the tram also include an architecturally stunning lower terminal enclosure and a mountaintop food and beverage facility housed in the old top terminal of the original tram.
The new Lone Peak Tram is part of a redesigned base-to-summit lift network that will more fully come to life by the end of the decade, starting with the addition of the Explorer Gondola, scheduled to open for winter 25/26. This new lift network will create improved access to the resort’s premier learning terrain, accessible to pedestrians for the first time ever, and complemented with new dining options too.
