STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Sun Valley Resort will cut the ribbon on its third new high-speed chairlifts in two years on Friday, Dec. 20.

Officials will cut the ribbon on the new detachable six-person Doppelmayr Seattle Ridge chairlift at 9:30 a.m.

The opening comes just in time for the holiday crowd, as Seattle Ridge is one of the busiest areas of Bald Mountain during the Christmas holidays.

Christin’s Silver will be open for sure, as Sun Valley has been making copious amounts of snow on that run. It’s possible Lower Broadway will be open, as well. Skiers and boarders will have to exit the area via the Mayday lift until there’s enough snow on the lowest part of Lower Broadway to permit the opening of the Broadway Lift.

The new detachable six-person Doppelmayr chairlift will increase uphill capacity by 20 percent for the Seattle Ridge area, which is considered the mountain’s intermediate family-friendly terrain. And, with the addition of the Sunrise expansion, the area named in honor of all the Seattle residents who ski Sun Valley offers some of Bald Mountain’s most challenging off-piste terrain.

When snow allows, skiers and boarders will have an additional 91 acres of glade terrain to explore in the Sunrise area, thanks to the removal of dead and dying trees as part of the ongoing Bald Mountain Stewardship program.

The program—a partnership of Sun Valley Resort, the National Forest Foundation, U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management—will reduce fire risk while improving forest health.

Workers started work on removing the old four-passenger chairlift in late April 2024 and finished the work on the new lift in mid-November as Sun Valley was getting ready to embark on its 89th season.

Sun Valley’s General Manager Pete Sonntag, who was promoted to chief operating officer of Grand America Hotels and Resorts on Wednesday, said the new lift will sound like a whisper compared to the noisy raucous old chairlift.

Sun Valley Resort replaced the Cold Springs chair with a high-speed detachable quad in Summer 2020, expanding Broadway run and opening the off-piste Sunrise terrain as part of that project.

The resort plans to replace the Christmas lift, which takes gondola riders to the top of the mountain, with a hybrid chairlift-gondola called a “chondola” in the next couple years.

MORE NORDIC TRAILS OPEN

The Blaine County Recreation District has begun grooming trails at Quigley Nordic in Hailey. Sun Valley opened Sun Valley Nordic earlier this week using a snowcat, rather than snowmobile to groom trails. Only Billy's Bridge north of Ketchum remains closed.