Snowmass Town Council received an update Monday on the replacement of the Sky Cab Gondola, also known colloquially as “Skittles.”

Constructed in the early 2000s, Skittles runs from Lot 1 of the Snowmass Base Village to the Timbermill Property on Daly Lane, next to the Snowmass Mall. Snowmass staff have been working with Aspen Skiing Company staff in order to develop the design for the new gondola terminals, cars and surrounding areas, according to a staff report.

Mak Keeling, vice president of Mountain Planning at Aspen Skiing Company, confirmed to council that the project is currently on track to begin construction in August 2027, with the aim of opening the gondola back up by Thanksgiving 2027.

“It’s really exciting to see this go forward,” Mayor Alyssa Shenk said. “I know we’ve been working on it for a long time.”

The replacement will be a detachable gondola that significantly increases the capacity from 510 people per hour to 1,000 people per hour, according to Keeling. There will be 12 gondola cabins, the same number as there are currently, but they will be a high-speed detachable design instead of a pulse-gondola as it is now.

The $10 million price tag is expected to be split between SkiCo and the town of Snowmass Village, with each contributing $5 million to the project cost. While the replacement will increase capacity and speed, it will retain the same alignment with the rope line at virtually the same height, while decreasing the number of towers that create what Keeling called “obstacles” for skiers.

The new upper terminal will reuse as much of the current structure “as humanly possible,” Keeling said, with a proposed paved surface of an undetermined type of material, a permanent ramp, a snow-melted walkway from the mall up to the plaza that would be electric and the replacement of the current gravel area with something more turf- or grass-based.

Council Member Cecily DeAngelo questioned if there was something wrong with the gravel there, to which Keeling replied that, while it doesn’t need maintenance and does well on drainage, it’s been in place for five years and provides an unstable surface.

“We feel that we can have a better storefront, if you will, for our product,” he said.

He did flag, however, that the ramp, retaining wall and landscape design — all work outside the existing gondola platform — will require the approval of neighboring property owners.

“That component of the project is at risk,” Keeling said.

All the work done in Base Village will be within the SkiCo property, though, including the narrowing of the staircase by adding a planter similar to the other Base Village planters in order to more adequately form a line.

“This one is a little easier,” he said of this location’s needs.

He added that SkiCo’s internal branding and marketing team is working with town staff to create a few options for the logos for the side of the cabins and decide on color schemes in accordance with the gondola’s nickname. DeAngelo flagged that, this year, Skittles featured a new white color for pride month.

The cabins’ interiors will focus on blending durability and comfort, according to Keeling, with benches that can be lifted up for ADA accessibility and room for bikes. There will be more glass on the new doors than the current cabins.

In accordance with council’s informal approval at Monday’s meeting, the schedule as it stands is to begin outreach to the adjacent property owners next week, finalize the design by Christmas and start with construction next August.

The old gondola will be closed during construction. Transportation Director Sam Guarino confirmed to council that the transit system would be updated at that time in order to provide consistent service to and from Base Village and the Mall — either by updating existing routes or introducing an entirely new route.

The Benedict Trail will also be available between the two locations for those who are able to utilize it.

“With those two things, we do think we can move that same amount of people close to as efficiently (as the gondola),” Guarino said. “We’ll be able to utilize transit and the Benedict Trail to fill that gap.”

Shenk questioned where the old gondola cabins would go once they were replaced, with Keeling noting that two separate ski resorts had expressed interest in them in previous years.

“It would be good to know what we could get,” Council Member Susan Marolt said of selling the cabins.

Town Manager Clint Kinney did note that the money received would likely just cover the cost of what it took to remove them.

“It doesn’t net a whole lot of money, as I recall,” he said.

The other idea floated was auctioning off the cabins, similar to the recent Nell and Bell chair auction from Aspen Mountain and the upcoming Lift 1A chair auction next year.

No formal action was requested of council at this time.

Original reporting from aspentimes.com