All good things must come to an end.
After more than fifty years of operations at Powderhorn, the humble Colorado ski area, the West End lift is headed off to pasture. This summer, in its place, the ski area is installing a high-speed quad dubbed the Wild West Express.
But the story of West End isn’t over quite yet. In just a few days, the historic chairs will be up for auction, and interested skiers will only have about a week to act.
It all starts on June 1 and runs through June 7. Each winning bid includes a chair as-is. “No two chairs are alike—signs of wear, weathering, and age are part of their story,” noted Powderhorn.
Keep in mind: Winners will have to cart the chairs, which weigh around 250 pounds, home themselves. If there were ever a good time to have a friend with a flatbed truck (or own one yourself), this would be it.
Powderhorn Mountain Resort
Before the end of this season, when it was removed, the West End was Powderhorn’s oldest operating lift. Chair 1 predated it by a few years, but was decommissioned decades ago in 1987, according to LiftBlog.
As for make and model, the West End is a Heron-Poma double. Heron Engineering was co-founded by Bob Heron, a ski lift pioneer and “sport builder” member of the Colorado Snowsports Museum Hall of Fame. Heron Engineering merged with Poma in 1970. While Poma lives on as Leitner-Poma, the Heron name was dropped.
Today, Heron-Poma doubles, similar to Riblet doubles, are a slowly vanishing breed. What they lack in speed, they make up for in charm and old-timey wistfulness. Change is inevitable, though, and I doubt the skiers at Powderhorn will mind having a newer, quicker ride, even if they miss what came before.
Construction on the Wild West Express is underway, with Powderhorn providing regular updates on its Instagram page. As of the latest update, the ski area said: “The Wild West Express is still mostly flags, forms, and lines on a map—but the future of Powderhorn is taking shape.”
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