Steamboat Wild Blue Gondola Stage II and Mahogany Ridge Expansion: Game-Changing Updates for a Resort In Need

The Mahogany Ridge Express lift serves Steamboat's largest terrain expansion of the 21st century.

The 2023-24 season was significant for Colorado’s Steamboat ski resort, with the mountain finally completing two massive projects that had been anticipated for years.

First off, the resort completed the second stage of the Wild Blue Gondola, marking the longest traditional gondola in North America. Secondly, the resort opened a nearly 500-acre expansion into Mahogany Ridge and Fish Creek Canyon, bringing a new massive, expert-oriented terrain zone to the resort. Individually, these projects may well have been pretty impactful, but combined, they throw a one-two punch at the Colorado ski scene that’s resulted in the biggest disruption we’ve seen in over a decade.

A Steamboat master plan document showing the locations of the completed Wild Blue Gondola and Mahogany Ridge terrain expansion.

Experience Changes

These projects cut right at the heart of Steamboat’s biggest historical issues: frustrating lift logistics and difficult expert terrain access. 

Wild Blue Gondola Stage II

The completed Wild Blue Gondola (the first stage, which extends to a new learning area, was completed in 2022) finally provides a way to get up and down the resort without going through the Thunderhead Lodge mid-point, doing wonders to reduce lines in the morning and even taking some pressure off the Elkhead Express lift in the afternoon. The new lift has comfortable cabins with stitched, padded seats, and it spans some particularly high ridges, making for cool, distinct views along the ride up.

The completed Wild Blue Gondola is the longest traditional gondola in North America, and its long spans between towers provide some really cool birds-eye trail views in upper-mountain areas.

The Wild Blue Gondola isn’t a perfect lift—the 13-minute lift ride may feel a bit sluggish for some people, and it’s still somewhat confusing to get from the top of Sunshine Peak to the Storm Peak area. However, this 10-passenger lift has provided important relief to what might have previously been the most overworked ski resort base area in North America, with lines at the lower-mountain Steamboat Gondola and Thunderhead Express substantially reduced from previous seasons. While starting the day at Steamboat previously meant waiting in frustrating out-of-base queues even on moderately busy days, this isn’t universally the case anymore.

The Wild Blue Gondola offers a new route up the mountain, bypassing the Thunderhead Lodge area and substantially reducing crowding at Steamboat on busy days.

Mahogany Ridge and Fish Creek Canyon Expansion Areas

For experienced Steamboat visitors, the Mahogany Ridge and Fish Creek Canyon expansion areas are without a doubt the more exciting of these two projects. This massive expansion—the biggest one in Colorado since at least 2015—adds some of the best steep skiable terrain in the state.

Steamboat’s Mahogany Ridge expansion exclusively serves advanced and expert terrain, with only a handful of truly tree-cut trails in the area.

The fully-lift-served Mahogany Ridge brings a barrage of bump runs, aspen trees, and tighter glades that are barely even tree cut, making for some of the most natural-feeling slopes at the resort. But for those who can handle it, Fish Creek Canyon is the most exciting new piece of terrain at a Colorado ski resort in quite some time. This double-black terrain zone starts at a series gates with some rather daunting warning signs; while not as truly extreme as some terrain at resorts like Crested Butte and Arapahoe Basin, the Fish Creek Canyon trails are no doubt experts only, with intensely steep gradients and distinctive fall lines with unique obstacles—including a rock garden if you can find it.

The expert chutes in Steamboat’s Fish Creek Canyon are substantially more difficult than any other terrain that’s previously been available at the resort.

But the most pleasant Fish Creek Canyon surprise of all is that the so call 30-45 minute “hike back” is hilariously exaggerated, being pretty much a hike in name only. The journey out involves two-to-three sections of sidestepping and a few flat areas, but at least if you’re a skier, it’s actually fairly lappable—and much more so than Steamboat’s warnings would have you believe. Ironically, this makes Fish Creek Canyon much easier for repeat laps than the technically-lift-served but awkwardly-located Christmas Tree Chutes at the top of the Morningside lift.

The “hike back” from Steamboat’s Fish Creek Canyon is really just two or three sections of uphill sidestepping, making the area surprisingly lappable for those with at least moderate stamina.

And the best part of the expansion? No crowds. At least as of this past season, there were basically no signs to Mahogany Ridge—you wouldn’t know how to get there unless you studied the trail map or coincidentally arrived at the top of the Pony Express lift. Combined with the expert-oriented nature of the area, it seems like Steamboat’s clientele just didn’t make it over there. When considering the awful lines and sheer difficulty of hitting the resort’s hardest slopes in years’ past, it feels like the Mahogany Ridge and Fish Creek Canyon expansion is Steamboat’s way of repenting for those sins—and boy, have they repented effectively.

This past season, Steamboat’s signage to the Mahogany Ridge area was lacking, with the exception of a few temporary-looking signs at the top of the Pony Express lift. For those in the know, this had the welcome benefit of keeping crowds down.

Final Thoughts

Is Steamboat the best ski resort in Colorado now? Probably not. But is it still a below-average one? Many would argue not anymore. It’s been years since a large ski resort has experienced such a fundamental transformation over a single season, and it’s one that we expect industry followers to remember for years.

Considering a ski trip to Steamboat this year? Check out our full Colorado rankings, as well as our comprehensive Steamboat review. You can also check out our analysis of the major 2022-23 ski resort upgrade projects in video form below.