This Winter, Every Aspen Mountain Morning Starts at Gondola Plaza
October 22, 2026
October 22, 2026
Aspen Mountain opens on November 26, and every lift-served lap will begin at one base. Lift 1A, the Shadow Mountain double that carried skiers up the west side starting in the 1971-72 season, finished its last winter in the spring. Aspen Skiing Co. began taking it down in late July. The season runs through April 18, 2027, according to the Aspen Mountain season page.
That makes the new Nell Bell chairlift more important than it might look. Ajax has two ways up this winter, and both load at Gondola Plaza. The new quad is the one that gives the east-side base enough room to handle a mountain's worth of mornings, and the west side will likely stay quiet for several winters.
The Aspen Daily News put it plainly in July. Until a new lift is built, skiers will use either the Silver Queen Gondola or the new Nell Bell lift, "both of which load in Gondola Plaza." Even ski patrol has moved. Its locker room, which used to sit at Lift 1A, is now at Gondola Plaza for the time being.
Nell Bell is a high-speed detachable quad. It starts beside the Silver Queen Gondola and runs to the top of Bell Mountain, about 2,650 vertical feet. It replaces two of the oldest chairs on the mountain. The Little Nell four-pack started spinning in 1986. The Bell Mountain double first went in in 1957, and so many of its parts were replaced in the 1980s that Chairlift.org called it "a true frankenlift," as the Aspen Daily News reported in April. That report added that the Bell chair ran on few days.
The table compares the old two-chair route with the new lift.
| Old route | Nell Bell | |
|---|---|---|
| Lifts from base to top of Bell | Two, Little Nell then Bell Mountain | One continuous chair |
| Time on the chair | 21 minutes combined | About 8 minutes |
| Uphill capacity | 1,360 per hour on Little Nell, then 900 per hour on Bell Mountain | Up to 1,800 per hour |
The ride times and capacities come from Mak Keeling, SkiCo's vice president of mountain planning, and a U.S. Forest Service scoping letter, as reported by The Aspen Times. The bottleneck was always the old Bell double at 900 riders an hour. Under the old setup, every skier headed for Bell Mountain had to squeeze through that chair. The new lift carries twice that many from the base in one ride.
The top of Bell is also a junction. It connects to Hero's, Ajax Express and the FIS lift. Keeling described Nell Bell as "a logical alternative to the Silver Queen Gondola by getting guests to mid-mountain faster than any other way." According to the Aspen Daily News, it also beats riding the gondola to the summit and skiing back down to reach Bell Mountain. The paper reports that SkiCo expects it to reduce lines at the base at busy times and to give the mountain a way up on days high winds or other problems stop the gondola.
That last point matters most this winter. In past seasons, a wind hold on the Silver Queen still left Lift 1A on the other side of the mountain. This season, the second way up stands right next to the gondola.
The Aspen Times wrote on October 13 that Aspen "plans to open" Nell Bell this season. SkiCo has not said whether it will run on opening day itself. Before the first powder morning, check the lift status page.
The Lift One corridor at the end of South Aspen Street is where modern skiing in Aspen started. Lift One debuted there in the winter of 1946-47, and Lift 1A replaced it about 25 years later. For skiers living on the west side of town, this winter turns that base into an exit only.
Aspen Journalism, as published by Aspen Public Radio, laid out what to expect:
The Aspen Daily News reported that SkiCo will share more later about which ski trails construction may affect. If your run home goes through that part of the mountain, plan to check conditions on the day.
The neighborhood around the base is changing too. Ben Anderson, the City of Aspen's community development director, told Aspen Journalism that "the entire area will have significant disruption." Two lodging projects are behind it. Chalet Alpina, formerly the Lift One Lodge, will include timeshares and full-ownership residences. The other is an Aman Aspen hotel. Anderson said the historic Skiers Chalet Lodge and Skiers Chalet Steak House could be moved as early as this fall, though a fair amount of grading has to happen first. The lodge is headed downslope to Dean Street.
The original Lift One equipment is already gone. It sat in Willoughby Park near the bottom of the hill for years. It has been removed and sent to WBS Coatings in Grand Junction for restoration, according to a city historic preservation officer quoted by the Aspen Daily News. Chalet Alpina crews plan to reinstall it in the corridor for display.
The new west-side lift can't go in until other work is done. Its base terminal will sit on top of a subgrade parking garage, so the garage has to be built first. The Aspen Daily News concluded that "the west side of Aspen Mountain won't have a lift in action for multiple years."
The construction sequencing agreement that the city, SkiCo and both developers finalized on July 31 sets out the order of work. Aspen Journalism's reporting gives these estimated milestones:
These dates are estimates. The agreement says outright that its schedule isn't a legally binding timeline and may change as construction moves forward. The parties do have reasons to stay on schedule. They meet every two weeks, and both SkiCo and the developers could face steep fees if they cause certain delays to the new lift.
"Finish work done by late 2029 and opening early 2030 seems the most reasonable at the moment, but could change based on fundraising and construction progress."
Murphy gave that estimate for the museum to Aspen Journalism. Once it opens, the restored lodge will also hold seasonal locker rooms and a SkiCo ticket office.
For now, the season starts at Gondola Plaza. Aspen Mountain and Snowmass both open November 26, and Highlands and Buttermilk follow on December 12. If you're weighing the new four-to-seven-day Flex Pass, The Aspen Times reports that the purchase deadline is October 30, about a week from now. After that, the useful habits are simple. Look at the lift status page to see whether Nell Bell is spinning before you head to the base. On the way home, Schuss Gully's status decides whether the west side is an option. And expect the west end of South Aspen Street to look different every few weeks.
If you own property near the Lift One corridor or at the Gondola Plaza end of town and want to talk through what the next few winters of construction and access could mean for it, Tara Slidell would be glad to share what she's seeing on the ground. Schedule a Consultation at your convenience.
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When Tara is not taking care of her clients and putting together deals, she is enjoying Aspen’s great outdoors with her husband and their two daughters, and their dog, Mack.