Stratton Mountain is in fine hands with Matt Jones as president/chief operating officer
Shaun Sutner Correspondent
[The article also discusses, the mountain is applying for permits to replace the Tamarack chair with a HSQ in the summer of 2025.]
Gondola moves
But the sexiest thing on the horizon is either adjusting or more likely moving and replacing Stratton’s now 10-person gondola. The lift was built in 1988 and has been overhauled a few times, but it has a glitchy design that exposes it to frequent high winds near the summit that trigger wind holds and stoppages.
Up until recently, Stratton was looking at re-orienting some of the towers and adding some towers to bring the gondola closer to the ground.
But Jones told me, and he seemed to favor this approach, that he’s also looking at moving the gondola line from its current configuration to the far looker’s right side of the base complex more to the center of the mountain along the line that the old South American fixed quad from 2001 occupies.
In that case, the approach would be to substitute a bubble-covered lift (likely a six-passenger or even eight-passenger chair, which would provide more uphill capacity than the gondola) for the gondola and drop it much closer to the ground.
I think that’s a great idea, and it’s great that Jones is looking to the future already. Stratton has tremendous uphill capacity — with five high-speed lifts plus the gondola — but it needs upgrades to keep the ski area’s lift infrastructure up to date, functional and capable of handling the mountain’s high volume of visitors.
Well-designed modern, low-slung six-packs are pretty wind-resistant, and bubbles are more than welcome on the coldest, windiest Vermont days. Also, moving the lift line more to the center, to the right of the American Express quad, makes sense to give more balance to the base complex layout.
So by replacing the South American, “you’d effectively have three main lifts in the base area,” Jones noted. “People don’t want to ride that fixed-grip South American lift.”
https://www.telegram.com/story/sports/columns/2024/03/28/stratton-mountain-is-in-fine-hands-with-matt-jones/73099512007/
