Saalbach Hinterglemm, which has built a reputation over the past decade for having the biggest and best ski lifts in the world is spending nearly €40m this summer to continue the upgrading process.
A new eight-seat chairlift and a gondola with cabins each capable of carrying 10 people are being installed at a combined cost of €17.5m. They are part of a more than €300m spend since the turn of the century. The rest of this year’s investment is going on new groomers, more snowmaking, piste improvements and ‘Misc’
Saalbach Hinterglemm will now operate 19 chairlifts, of which more than a dozen are 6 or 8 seater chairs – believed to be the highest number of this type of high capacity lift of any resort in the world.
The new lift, the Polten 8er, will be a modern 8-seater chairlift from Doppelmayr with heated seats and bubble to replace the old Polten 4-seater chairlift.
Saalbach Hinterglemm will also now operate 18 gondolas – believed to be the highest number of this type of high capacity lift of any resort in the world.
The new Steinbergbahn lift is Leogang’s second modern 10-seater gondola from the valley up to the Skicircus.
The new uplift the two lifts provide take the resort’s hourly uplift past the 100,000 mark for the first time to 103,000, a figure only matched by a dozen or so linked ski regions worldwide, all in Europe, and including Grandvalira, Paradiski, the Skiwelt, the Arlberg, Val Gardena, Alpe d’Huez and the Milky Way.
Saalbach Hinterglemm receives around 2 million visitors every ski season.