Jackson Hole Upgrading Sublette Lift to High-Speed Quad for 2024-25 Season

Following the Sublette lift’s replacement, Jackson Hole will offer high-speed lift access to every major terrain pod at the resort.

For the 2024-25 season, Jackson Hole’s upper-mountain Sublette chair is slated for a major upgrade, as per an announcement from the resort this week. For the upcoming winter, the fixed-grip quad will be replaced with a modern, high-speed quad with a higher capacity. The existing eight-minute lift ride will essentially be cut in half, to approximately four minutes.

Jackson Hole says the Sublette installation should be complete during the upcoming season, although the resort has not provided a finalized completion date yet. Upon completion, the new Sublette lift will be Jackson Hole’s sixth high-speed quad and ninth detachable lift in total.

The new Sublette chair will cut down the lift’s ride time by 50%, taking approximately four minutes from base to summit.

Our Take

Jackson Hole is already one of the most competitive ski resorts in North America—at least for experienced skiers and riders—and one of its few remaining faults has historically been some slower upper-mountain lifts. But in the wake of Sublette’s upcoming replacement—as well as Thunder’s upgrade to a high-speed quad two seasons ago—this shortcoming is on track to be almost entirely addressed. Following the 2024-25 season, the only remaining slow lifts outside of bunny hill areas will be the short Union Pass Quad, which provides egress from the lower-elevation Hobacks, Colter Ridge, and Lower Sublette Ridge area, the Moose Creek Quad, which mainly provides real estate access, and the Marmot Double, which primarily functions as a helper lift to get from the Thunder pod to the Rendezvous Lodge.

While the Thunder upgrade brought the first truly lappable high-speed lift service to Jackson Hole’s expert terrain, the Sublette replacement will substantially expand on this, bringing direct high-speed lift transportation to high-consequence double-black trails such as the Alta Chutes, Expert Chutes, and Cirque for the first time. In addition, while Jackson Hole already manages crowds pretty well with its current lift setup, the high-speed nature of the new Sublette chair should draw some crowds away from Thunder, which has become Jackson Hole’s most popular chairlift (albeit not its most crowded lift, as the Aerial Tram still sees substantially longer lines) since its upgrade back in 2022.

Jackson Hole is currently our #2 overall choice for skiing and riding in the United States, and we’re excited to stop by next year to see if this upgrade pushes it to the top rank.

Considering a ski trip to Jackson Hole this year? Check out our full Rockies rankings, as well as our comprehensive Jackson Hole review. You can also check out our Jackson Hole review in video form below.