Why you should experience The Gondola at Winter Park.
The Gondola at Winter Park is the mountain’s quiet elevator — an eight-minute drift through sky and snow that makes the whole valley feel like it’s holding its breath.
You step in, the doors close, and the world softens to a hum: cable wheels turning, wind brushing glass, boots knocking lightly against the floor. Below, the village shrinks into color and motion; ahead, the peaks open like a slow inhale. It’s simple, clean, peaceful — a short ride that somehow stretches time. Morning light hits the cabins in gold, the snow glints back silver, and for a few minutes, you’re suspended between worlds. When the doors open again at 10,700 feet, everything feels sharper — air, sound, thought. The mountain hasn’t changed, but you have.
What you didn’t know about The Gondola.
The gondola is more than a lift — it’s the moment the mountain learned to breathe differently.
Built in 2018 to replace the Zephyr Express, it’s the first new major lift at the resort in nearly twenty years. The line follows the same path, but the experience is completely reimagined: glass-walled cabins, heated seats, a smooth eight-minute ascent that can move over 3,000 people an hour without breaking the mountain’s calm. Engineers used helicopters to place the towers to avoid cutting into old forest, and the power draw runs partially off Winter Park’s hydro grid — a quiet nod to how progress and preservation can share space. The lift runs year-round now: snow and skis in winter, bikes and hikers in summer. Few realize how intentional the design is — even the tower spacing matches the mountain’s natural rhythm of tree breaks and terrain folds. It’s not just infrastructure. It’s choreography.
How to fold The Gondola into your trip.
The best way to ride the gondola is to treat it like the start and end of everything.
Go early — before the lines build, before the chatter starts — and bring your coffee. The cabins fog up from your breath, and the sunrise pours straight through the glass as you rise over the trails. At the top, ski straight into the first tracks of Cranmer or Mary Jane Trail, or stop at Lunch Rock Lodge for a slow breakfast above the clouds. Ride it again mid-day when the crowds have drifted; the silence inside feels different once the sun’s higher and your legs are tired. In summer, it’s just as good — trade skis for a bike or just ride up for the view. Late afternoon is magic: the whole valley washed in gold, clouds moving like slow surf across the Divide. When night hits and the lights flicker on below, the gondola turns into something else entirely — a floating lantern gliding through the dark. Whether you’re starting your day or closing it, this ride always delivers the same truth: sometimes elevation isn’t about climbing higher. It’s about letting go of the ground.
Hear it from the Foresyte community.
“Rolled in expecting a sleepy ski town, ended up at a block party with snow boots and craft beer. Colorado just refuses to be boring.”
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