World's Coolest Ski Lift Version 2 Unveiled

A new version of arguably the world’s coolest ski lift has gone in to service.

The Tschuggen Express lift which first began operating in 2009 is a private ski lift for guests of the luxuriuous Tschuggen Grand Hotel in the Swiss ski resort of Arosa, which also boasts one of the biggest and best spa facilities in the skiing world.

The lift is a small and luxurious private funicular railway which quickly climbs a steep and undulating track to deposit skiers up on the slopes of the huge Arosa – Lenzerheide ski area in just two and a half minutes.

Guests leave the hotel’s boot room and board the lift, which has two self-levelling, six-seat cabins using their hotel room key.

The original lift had something of the feel of a James Bond villain’s personal transportation system, but according to a spokesperson for the hotel the new lift has been installed for reasons of, “speed and comfort” – so presumably it’s even better.

The lift climbs just over 150 vertical metres from the hotel at 1850m to a top slopeside-station at 2004m and is just over 500 metres in length.  The average uphill gradient is 17° but what’s especially cool about the lift’s two coupled cabins is that they self-level as the track gradient undulates.

(winter preview)

The journey time is approximately 2.5 minutes and the lift’s capacity just 120 people per hour.