Snowmass history: New lifts

“Snowmass Resort gets two new lifts,” Snowmass officials announced in the Sept. 13, 1973 edition of The Aspen Times. “Cables from helicopters have been placing lift towers this week as work progresses on the $2 million expansion program at Snowmass Resort. Two new chairlifts, Wood Run and Alpine Springs, will be ready by mid-December. According to Aspen Skiing Corporation president DRC Brown, the new lifts and trail network will serve the base slopes, eliminating morning crowding on existing lower lifts. They will also serve the new Alpine Springs area between Elk Camp and the Big Burn. The lower lift, called the Wood Run Lift, is the corporation’s first triple chairlift. Manufactured by Riblet and installed by Ski Corporation crews, it is 4,541 feet long and has a vertical rise of 764 feet and has a capacity of 1,800 skiers per hour. The Wood Run lift unloads near the bottom terminal of the new Alpine Springs lift, which will continue up the mountain and take skiers into the new Alpine Springs area. The Alpine Springs area is approximately 200 acres of lower intermediate to advanced skiing. Terrain is similar in length and pitch to Elk Camp. The trails were cut earlier this summer.”