The longest high speed chairlift ride in the Canadian Rockies now belongs to Jasper.

Last week, Marmot Basin began installation of The Canadian Rockies Express, a 2.3 kilometre quad chairlift that will bring skiers and riders from the bottom to the top of the ski hill, making it the new longest new high-speed quad chairlift in Canada.

Crews started installing the 26 towers, flown in from the base area by a state-of-the-art KMAX helicopter. If all goes to plan, the lift will be operational by opening day.

As ground crews waited, the helicopter slowly placed the 35-foot tall towers in place as the crews went to work fastening them in. The highest tower was a double tower, with the heaviest lift at nearly 6,000 pounds – so much that the helicopter had to keep flying other towers up to burn fuel to lose weight after a failed first attempt.

The new lift will replace the longtime favourite chairlifts, the Tranquilizer Chair, built in 1968, and the Keifter T-Bar, built in 1964.

“It’s a huge improvement,” says Bob Bell, Vice President Maintenance & Operations at Marmot Basin. “I mean this is the biggest thing that’s happened to Marmot…I think this is the project that is going to turn the face of the mountain. The skiing dynamics are going to change for people, they’ve got the whole mountain to ski. They can go top to bottom off of one lift.”

The lift is a detachable lift system, built by Leinter-Poma, a French cable driven lift systems manufacturer. According to Bell, the company is only building three in Canada – one at Marmot, one at Nakiska in Kananaskis, and one in Ontario – although they are building many others this year in Europe and a couple in the U.S.

Able to carry up to 2,400 passengers per hour from the lower base area and unloading them at the top next to the Paradise Chair, the lift has an 800 horsepower, top-drive engine and will get skiers and riders to the top in seven and a half minutes.

Getting rid of the two older chairs is like taking down a historic building, as many people will remember the early days of Marmot when it was built in 1964, but Bell says it was time for an upgrade.

“It’s easy, it’s modern, it’s just getting rid of equipment that was timed out, dated, old, it served us well all those years, but 40 years later, there’s new technology, there are better ways and safer ways to get people to the top, so that’s what we’re doing,” Bell says, who actually helped build the Tranquilizer Chair when he was in high school.

With the new chairlift Bell says it will definitely be right up with all other major ski resorts in Banff and B.C., but that distance is always the issue. Jasper is always just a little bit further to travel he says, “but when they get here, they are so happy to be here it’s amazing. You get that comment a lot, when they are here, they love it.”

The Canadian Rockies express chairlift will be up and running by opening day.