Snow Business: Wachusett Mountain's New Lift Should Be Ready For Vacation Week

PRINCETON, MA — Have no fear, the new lift at Wachusett should be ready for the critical vacation week.

A week ago, on a cold Friday night, as skiers and riders whizzed by, work crews were busy in the center of the mountain in an effort to get the lift online.

This week, Wachusett Mountain President Jeff Crowley seemed pretty confident the lift would be ready for the holiday vacation week.

"We had a few hiccups early on, but we should be good," he said.

Last season, Crowley announced that Wachusett would be replacing its classic Polar Express quad chair, that services the center of the mountain, with a new, high-speed, six-passenger detachable chairlift from Doppelmayr for the 2025-2026 season, an investment of about $20 million.

Mind you, Wachusett has always been ahead of the curve as far as getting skiers and riders up to the respective summits, but the new lift will feature faster, more comfortable rides with automatic safety bars and "better crowd management."

That means more capacity, especially when the ski clubs begin coming next month.

The new lift will also have variable speeds for the loading and unloading of variable talents.

The original fixed-grip main summit chair opened in 1983 and, nine years later, the Polar Express high-speed detachable quad was introduced. The new lift replaces the four-person Polar Express.

Wachusett has always been a star of the 1,000 vertical drop market because its primary lifts have been of the high-speed variety. The Monadnock quad, which served beginner and novice terrain on the uphill left side of the mountain, was put online for the 2011-12 season. The Minuteman quad on the far right dates back to the 1999-2000 season.

When the rain clears out, snowmaking temperatures are expected to return.

Wachusett is already in good shape, especially considering the fluctuating weather. During the night session two Fridays ago, conditions were smooth, especially on the ever-popular Ralph's run and Sundowner. There was even a bit of off-piste action over at Ralph's.

On Friday night this week, base depths were 20 inches to 2 feet.

It's typical Wachusett, always prepared to put out a good product.

Stay tuned for the new lift.

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Chris Dehnel is Patch editor covering north central Connecticut. He has been writing about skiing and snowboarding since 1999 and is a past-president of the Eastern Ski Writers Association and Past Board member of the North American Snowsports Journalists Association. The Snow Business column appears periodically during the season.