Snowmass History: Getting Bubbly on the Chairlift

Skiers experience riding one of the “bubble” chairs on the Big Burn chairlift at Snowmass as shown in the Aspen Illustrated News in March 1969, with a caption reading “Two skiers enjoy the warmth and comfort of one of the Big Burn Chairlift experimental ‘bubbles’ at Snowmass-at-Aspen.” The chairs had a round bubble cover that could be pulled down to enclose the riders and were mixed in with the regular chairs during the experiment, but as stated by Mary Eshbaugh Hayes in The Aspen Times, “Those bubbles on the Big Burn lift at Snowmass look more like ‘blue people eater’ than chair lifts.”

By: Aspen Historical Society | March 2023