The Little Whiteface ski lift is seen at the Whiteface Mountain ski center in Wilmington on Tuesday, Oct. 21. The lift was installed this summer and replaces two old chairlifts that served the same terrain. While the chairs still have to be assembled, placed on the haul rope and tested, the lift is expected to be operational by the start of ski season. (News photo — Chris Gaige)

WILMINGTON — Things are on track for a new lift to be spinning at the Whiteface Mountain ski center for the 2025-26 winter season.

The new fixed-grip Little Whiteface Double chairlift loads near the mid-mountain Legacy Lodge. Its lift line follows the Mountain Run black diamond ski trail as it comes to a mid-lift unloading station, where skiers and riders either have the option to disembark — and access exclusively advanced terrain — or stay on the lift to the summit of Little Whiteface mountain, where both intermediate and advanced terrain is available. It’s also where the Cloudsplitter Gondola unloads.

The new lift replaces an earlier fixed-grip double that shared the same name and essentially followed the same route, along with a separate parallel chairlift, the Mountain Run Double, that followed the route up to the top of the Mountain Run ski trail, but did not continue up to the summit of Little Whiteface.

This so-called “double-double” chairlift was a bit of a Frankenstein setup, in that it was an amalgamation of two different lifts that shared the same towers for part of their lines. In recent decades, it became redundant and inefficient. That’s because the Cloudsplitter Gondola, which was subsequently installed in 1999, took a lot of the passenger traffic away from these chairlifts.

Though the old Little Whiteface Double was used regularly throughout the season, especially on busier days to help disperse crowds, the Mountain Run Double was seldom operated — sometimes not even once in a ski season, according to Whiteface Mountain ski center General Manager Aaron Kellett.

Whiteface Mountain ski center General Manager Aaron Kellett smiles in front of the new Little Whiteface double chairlift, which is nearing completion and expected to be operational by the start of ski season. The ski lift headlined the ski center’s summer 2025 improvement projects and replaced two old lifts that served the same terrain. (News photo — Chris Gaige)

“We hadn’t run the Mountain Run lift for a couple of years because it’s just redundant,” he said. “We literally have a lift on the same towers that gets off at the exact same place. And we have another lift that gets off at the exact same place about 150 feet over with the Freeway lift.”

Per state regulation, however, the Mountain Run lift still had to be maintained to perform and pass the annual safety tests. This took up a lot of time for something used so little, Kellett said. Therefore, when it came time to replace the “double-double,” Kellett said it was a no-brainer to install one chairlift in its place, and keep that as a double since there’s not enough demand for a triple or quadruple chair there, as the gondola is still handling most of the traffic on that area of the mountain, and it’s important to not overcrowd the trails by putting in too much capacity on the lifts.

“We rarely see a line longer than five minutes to get on the Little Whiteface lift as it is,” he said. “We aren’t seeing it get overwhelmed.”

He said putting in another fixed-grip double there, as opposed to a high-speed detachable lift, is also a tip of the cap to the lift’s legacy and the iconic views it offers on the ridgeline to Little Whiteface that overlook the Sentinel Range, Mount Van Hoevenberg, the ski jumps and the other High Peaks to the south on a clear day.

“That double is pretty historically awesome to ride,” he said. “We didn’t want to totally lose that. It’s kind of like the Mad River Glen single chair, there’s some great history with that double chair. It’s a special ride. It doesn’t need to go 100 miles per hour. We want people to look out at the ski jumps and the beautiful terrain all around there.”

Whiteface Mountain is seen on Tuesday, Oct. 21, in Wilmington. (News photo — Chris Gaige)

The new Little Whiteface double is manufactured by Skytrac. Kellett said the mountain has had success with the company previously. There are currently two other Skytrac lifts — Warhorse and the Falcon Flyer, both fixed-grip quadruple chairlifts — operating on the mountain.

“We know how to work on them,” he said. “We have some similar parts already in inventory. It made a lot of sense to us not to really go crazy with trying to put any high-speed equipment in that area.”

With the lift choice, the upper line towers — which were separately installed in the early 2010s and are 17 years newer than the other components that were replaced this summer — were able to be retained for the new lift. The mid-station unloading ramp was also able to be preserved for the new lift.

Kellett said the work throughout the summer remained on schedule, which was important not only for an already-squeezed weather window, but work had to be done to avoid working above 2,800 feet between May and August so as not to disturb the Bicknell Thrush’s habitat, a seasonal endangered bird species. Though the majority of the work was below that elevation, the top terminal had to be completed outside of that seasonal window.

“That was a really important consideration,” he said. “It took a lot of working with the lift manufacturer to make sure they understood that restriction.”

Metal chairlift components are seen at the Whiteface Mountain ski center in Wilmington on Tuesday, Oct. 21. The chairlifts are for the new Little Whiteface lift and are assembled on site before being attached to the haul rope and tested for safety. The chairlift is expected to be operational at the start of ski season. (News photo — Chris Gaige)

The new towers this summer had to be installed in a slightly different spot than the double-double’s placement in order to line up with the upper lift line as a singular lift. Kellett said this also offered an opportunity to slightly move the loading station and create a better corral for the line cue, which was tricky to manage with the previous setup.

With the haul rope spliced and on the towers, the final installation step is to build the chairlifts and attach them. The building is done on-site, as the metal components are shipped disassembled for efficiency. This is expected to be complete by this week, with a load test scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 4. Kellett said this is meant to test the chairlift motor’s ability to drive under maximum stress, as well as the various safety and backup mechanical features under the maximum possible weight load that the chairlift is rated for. Kellett said this is done using water in boxes, not actual people.

The state has to certify the results and sign off on the mountain operating it. Then, after a short clean-up by mountain staff, Kellett said it should officially be set to open for the public.

Whiteface has not yet announced an opening date for the season. Though heavily dependent on conditions, that’s typically in late November. Last year, the mountain first opened on Nov. 15 for season pass holders and Nov. 16 for everyone else.