Vail's High Noon Express Lift (#5), it's latest quad, also known as "Chair 5," has gone into service at the weekend.
The Leitner-Poma lift take's Vail's uplift capacity to 59,092 people per hour, more than any other resort in the USA, and second in North America only to Whistler. It now has 17 high speed quads, more than any other ski area on the planet.
The new lift takes only six minutes to make its ascent, half the time of the fixed-grip triple chair it has replaced.
Guests were invited to receive free cookies and cocoa and a celebratory souvenir badge and local's Pepi and Sheika Gramshammer's, who are long time locals, made the first ride up.
"There is nothing on earth like Vail's Back Bowls on a powder day, and with 70 percent more capacity and half the ride time of the old lift, the new Chair 5, will allow our guests to move quicker up and around the mountain and get even more out of their days," said Chris Jarnot, senior vice president and chief operating officer of Vail Mountain.
Pepi was one of the first to ski the Back Bowls that made Vail famous when it opened in 1962 with only three lifts. Currently the resort has 5000 acres of terrain open.
