Two chairlifts on Mt Perisher will be removed and replaced with a new six-seater called the Perisher Six, which will lift 3000 people an hour, and take them further up the mountain.
But for the forseeable future the new Mt Perisher Six will be aimed purely at uplifting the ski crowd - not mountain bikers, as occurs over the range at Thredbo - with owners Vail Resorts saying that expanding to cater for the booming summer sport "is not a priority at the moment".
The Mt Perisher Six will replace the oldest chairlift at the resort, the Mt Perisher double chair, which was built in 1961, and the triple chair which was added in 1979.
The cost of the project has not been disclosed however, the Freedom quad chair and associated development at Guthega cost $24 million nine years ago and the much shorter Leichhardt quad chair cost $4.2 million four years ago.
The existing Mt Perisher lifts have a total of 27 towers; the new six seater will have 10 towers and carry 88 chairs.
Operating at a speed of 4.5 metres per second, the new lift will cut travel time up the mountain from 10 minutes to around five and a half minutes, with a faster load and unload at each end.
However, the US-owned Vail Resorts is remaining coy about the timing of the new lift project, only committing to building it within the next five years.
Perisher's general manager Belinda Trembath says the first stage of the project, underway this summer, is working with telecommunications providers to relocate their services "to a temporary location to make way for construction of the top station [of the project]".
Unlike the existing lifts, the Perisher Six chairs will be detachable and contained within a storage shed at the bottom.
The loading area and bottom station for Perisher Six will be close to that of the existing triple chair and the lift alignment will follow much that same path up the mountain, but bring skiers and boarders up higher to near the top of Mt Perisher, where the National Parks and Wildlife communications is currently located.
The NPWS communications gear will be relocated onto the new top station which will be an enclosed structure for weather protection, as it will face greater wind exposure due to being closer to the summit.
As a result of more people being lifted and disembarking at the one location - with a 90-degree offload to the south - rock will need to be removed to create a larger congregating area at the top.
"The top station building has ... been carefully designed to integrate with both the summer and winter landscape with the top of the building set lower than the large rock outcrop behind to limit impacts when viewed from the Main Range," the planning documents state.
The bullwheel at the top of the Eyre T-bar will be also relocated.
In the planning development submitted to the NSW government, proposal, the "higher lift provides more connectivity options for skiers and snowboarders than the current two top stations located at different elevations.
"Skiers and snowboarders will be able to choose all the available ski runs in all directions without having to traverse across a slope," the plan says.
Potential environmental impacts of the new lift were studied over the summers of 2017-18 and 2018-19 and as a result, two Perisher Six towers were relocated further uphill, one because it was a recorded site for the Guthega skink and the other because of an alpine bog.
Perisher Six will be the first major infrastructure upgrade at the ski resort since the Leichhardt T-bar was replaced with a chair in 2019.
Ms Trembath said that Perisher was working with the NSW government and agencies on the newly minted Snowy Mountains Special Activation Precinct Master Plan.
After a number of bumper ski days during last year's winter school holidays in which people had to be turned away because there was not enough parking on the mountain, there is work underway to increase the capacity of the Smiggins car park, and to create more parking further down at Piper's Gap, where patrons can park and board a bus.
"We are also currently investing in our snowmaking capabilities at Smiggins to improve the reliability of this very important beginner and family ski area," Ms Trembath said.
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