Lift construction has been underway in resorts across the world.
Chris Madoc-Jones' full round up of new lifts can be found in Issue 2 of this season's Ski+board
Scandinavia
Investment in resorts across Finland, Norway and Sweden continued over the summer off the back of a good 2016/17 winter. Kvitfjell in Norway, annual host to FIS Alpine World Cup Downhill races, has grabbed the headlines. An expansion into a whole new area has kicked off with the building of the new Vardan Express six-seater, a 250m long chair to link this to the rest of the ski area and 5km of new pistes. More slopes are due to be built and plots of land are up for sale for luxury ski-in-ski-out developments, all of which looks set to transform this formerly deserted side of the mountain.
Over at Trysil, a new draglift has been built in the children’s zone and a new piste has also been constructed from the top of the Skihytta chair – a six-seater that was new last winter, attracting over 700,000 individual lift rides by skiers and boarders.
Across the border in Sweden, many resorts, such as Åre and Sälen have invested in snowmaking, but the only major lift project is at the resort of Hemavan-Tärnaby. The brand new hybrid six-seat chair and eight-seat gondola lift runs from the town to mid-mountain and looks set to transform the ski experience in 2017/18. It forms the first part of the “Hemavan – Vision 2025” project to revamp the entire resort. A terrain expansion, two new six-seater fast chairlifts, a new draglift and a ski lodge are part of the plans – so look out for even more developments in the next few years and greater interest from UK tour operators as a result.