Saalbach Hinterglemm in Austria has announced that it is upgrading another drag lift straight to a six-passenger chairlift for the coming winter 2012-13.
Saalbach will now operate 10 six-seater chairlifts along with one eight seater and 15 gondolas – most of them eight seaters giving it an uplift capacity of just shy of 100,000 people per hour and putting it in the world top three in terms of the number of high capacity chairlifts and of gondolas it operates.
Only Ischgl and La Plagne operate more six seater chairs (11 each) and only the Meribel Valley and Italy's Plan de Corones ski areas in the dolomites operate more gondola lifts (16 and 22 respectively).
In separate research, Saalbach, which with more than two million visitors each year (many German) is also in the world top 10 for skier numbers, and operates 200km (125 miles) of piste in its 'ski circus' was found to be 11th in the world and top in the Alps for the popularity of its Facebook page with 52,195 fans.
Only it and Grandvalira in Andorra have more than 50,000 Facebook fans in Europe but four resorts in North America have passed the 100,000 fans park since the start of this year; Heavenly (tope with over 122,000 fans), Mammoth, Vail and Whistler.