Which Type of Chairlift Is the Best? 1,000 Skiers Weigh In on a Classic Debate

It’s Sunday, and you know what that means—we’re back with the results of another POWDER Weekly Poll, thanks to the Department of Polls and Skier Opinion.
The subject of this week’s debate was chairlifts. This time, we wanted to know which one was the most popular.
Keep reading to see what more than 1,000 skiers had to say when asked: Which type of ski lift is your favorite?
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Table of Contents

POWDER Weekly Poll Results

Poll Highlights

Total Votes: 1,247
Most Popular Choice: High-Speed (637 votes, 51% of voters)
Least Popular Choice: Surface Lift (130 votes, 10% of voters)

Poll Observations

At this point, our data scientists were beginning to feel clairvoyant. Whichever option in a poll was the most core—that is, most popular among diehard skiers—would win. For this poll, the obvious answer was going to be the soulful fixed-grip lifts. They’ve been waxed about poetically many times, so surely popular sentiment would follow. And yet, this poll went in a different direction.
People like convenience! High speeds won the day. Getting to the powder faster and more comfortably proved to be the most popular option. We aren’t Luddites, after all. We’ll admit it: fancy chairlifts are pretty cool.
Still, the swankiest strain of ropeway, cable cars, didn’t win. Faster chairlifts, yes. Hanging out in a gondola where you might get farted on, no, the people said. We should probably pour one out for the surface lifts, too, while we’re at it.
The lowly position of cable cars came as another surprise. Perhaps the fact that most North American skiers spend most of their time riding chairlifts played a role. It’s easier to appreciate what you know.
“It’s not the lift. It’s where it takes you!” read one comment on our website, which we appreciated. It’s true that we love our lifts. But as skiers, we love them because of the slopes below them. The ride, in a way, is secondary.

What We Could’ve Done Better and Further Questions

This poll went smoothly. Still, it left us wondering about what skiers think are the very best lifts around the world. The Aiguille du Midi cable car surely would be in the mix, but what else? Whistler’s Peak Express? Palisades Tahoe’s KT-22? The options are endless. A poll with more options could’ve gotten more granular, too, separating the trams from the gondolas or the two-seaters from the quads. We don’t think this will be the end of the chairlift related polls.

About the POWDER Weekly Poll

We launch our weekly polls at 3 p.m. Eastern Time every Monday. They remain open until 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time the following Friday, with the results dropping on Sunday at 9 a.m. Eastern Time. You can participate and see the results right here on our website or by visiting our Instagram page.
While you’re at it, drop us a line or leave an Instagram comment if there’s a poll you’d like to see next. Skiers have plenty of opinions and preferences, and we want to know which ones might land on top of the heap.

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