Ski Santa Fe, New Mexico Replacing Major Chairlift This Summer

Ski Santa Fe, NM, has been busy replacing the Santa Fe Super Chief Express, which was originally installed in 1988, with the all-new Santa Fe Express high-speed quad this summer.

Watch an update video from the resort detailing the process below.

The Super Chief Quad, which the new lift is replacing, is located to the far looker's right on the map below. The lift services black-diamond terrain (with several easier options to make it down) including trails Muerte and Desafio.

The new Santa Fe E cuts the ride time from 10 minutes to just over 4 minutes, a significant improvement for a workhorse lift responsible for transporting thousands of skiers on a daily basis. It's Ski Santa Fe's first new chairlift since 2005.

Find the old Super Chief Quad on the map below.

Ski Santa Fe enlisted a Sikorsky UH-60A Black Hawk helicopter for the construction process. This aided construction crews, as well as the resort, to bid goodbye to the last remnants of the old Super Chief Quad as the final pieces of the old lift were removed.

The helicopter also allowed construction crews to pour concrete for the footers of the new upper lift terminal. The Black Hawk is fitted with a bucket on the underside of the helicopter, allowing it to receive concrete directly from the mixing truck before expertly flying the load to the top.

Once concrete for the upper terminal was placed and the lift towers and heads and been removed, construction crews began placing the wooden forms to for the remainder of the lift tower footers. With all of this hard work behind them, the next step for construction crews is to set concrete on the remaining 12 new lift towers.

Although the name of the lift is changing, it will continue to be highly important lift providing access to a large area of Ski Santa Fe.

According to officials at Ski Santa Fe, the name change was intentional. Officials at the resort felt a new lift was deserving of a new name. Their managerial team got together and decided on the "Santa Fe Express" as a nod to it being the first high-speed lift to be installed at Ski Santa Fe.

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