Kitzbühel announces 2 new lifts & €26m investment

The Austrian resort of Kitzbühel has announced it’s investing 26 million Euros on upgrades to its resort infrastructure over the summer.

This includes the construction of another two high speed new chairlifts in the resort’s on-going programme of upgrades. This adds to what is already one of the most modern lift systems in the world with an impressive 60 lifts and an uplift (numbers of skiers and boarders that can be taken up the mountain in an hour) of 75,000 people.

Bringing more comfort to those sometimes chilly journeys up the hill, both new lifts come equipped with heated seats and a weather hood.

Goodbye to a 51 year old T Bar

The high speed six-seater ‘Walde’ chair lift is a major upgrade. replacing a 51-year-old T-bar-lift which used to run on the same route. The lift will be a total of 473m in length longer than the old T bar. This replacement will give much better flow across from the top of the Hahnenkamm gondola to the rest of the ski area, removing many grumbles over arduous waits for an uncomfortable T-bar. The new chairlift, constructed by Leitner, has a capacity of 2,100 persons per hour.

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Image credit: Kitzbühel Bergbahn AG

Hello to heated seats and weather hoods

The second new high-speed eight-seater chairlift Steinbergkogel replaces a 35-year-old slow-moving double chair lift. Covering a total of 1309m, skiers and boarders will rise a total of 523m, with the lift carrying up to 2,800 people per hour. This lift serves several black runs and will alleviate bottle necks in the valley between the Ehrenbachhohe and the Steinbergkogel.

Kitzbühel is one of only three ski areas in the world to operate three or more of this type of high capacity chairlift, along with Mayrhofen and the Silvretta ski area, two other Austrian ski resorts.

Image credit: Leitner

Additionally, Kitzbühel Bergbahn are investing in increased snow-making capacity, with a total of 780 snow guns in operation for the forthcoming winter season.

Crystal Ski have a wide range of Kitzbühel ski holidays.

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This post was written by Amy Fletcher for Crystal Ski