A blackhawk helicopter flies in the background and workers ready the sheave train of a newly installed tower on the Sunrise Gondola Project at the Canyons, Park City Mountain Resort. Photo: TownLift//Randi Sidman-Moore

PARK CITY, Utah — A Black Hawk helicopter made repeated trips across Park City Mountain on July 3, airlifting massive steel towers into place as part of a major lift upgrade in Canyons Village.

The work marks a key milestone in replacing the Sunrise lift with a new 10-person gondola, slated to open for the 2025–26 ski season. The upgraded Sunrise Gondola will be supported by 24 towers stretching across 6,500 feet of lift line, all dropped into pre-poured concrete foundations by helicopter—a standard method for high-elevation lift installations.

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Sunrise Gondola Project at the Canyons, Park City Mountain Resort — A helicopter flies in close quarters during a flight construction day on July 3, 2025. (Randi Sidman-Moore)

The new gondola is Park City Mountain’s first major addition since 2019, when the Over and Out lift was built to ease end-of-day bottlenecks near Tombstone. The original Sunrise lift—a fixed-grip double—mainly served hotel guests, providing access from the southern edge of Canyons Village to the base lifts like Red Pine Gondola and Orange Bubble Express.

Unlike its predecessor, the new Sunrise Gondola will carry skiers directly to Red Pine Lodge, offering an alternate mid-mountain access point. Resort officials hope the new lift will reduce congestion on Red Pine and Orange Bubble, both of which are vulnerable to weather-related shutdowns. Sunrise’s lower profile and more sheltered alignment are designed to mitigate wind exposure, Mike Lewis, Park City Mountain Vice President of Mountain Operations said.

To accommodate the new upper terminal, a gully south of Red Pine Lodge has been filled in. Some ski school facilities previously located there are being relocated to the east.

The gondola project carries an estimated $27 million price tag, with $9 million coming from the Canyons Village Management Association and the remainder covered by Park City Mountain.

All photos by Randi Sidman-Moore