Aspen Snowmass, CO, Will Replace Popular ‘Skittles’ Gondola

The Sky Cab Gondola, popularly known as ‘Skittles,’ has served Aspen Snowmass, Colorado, skiers for over 20 years. Now, the resort is saying goodbye to the pulsed-movement gondola.

On Monday, August 3, Aspen Skiing Company provided the Snowmass Town Council with an update on its long-planned replacement for Skittles, a new $10 million detachable gondola. During the council meeting, Mak Keeling, the vice president of Mountain Planning at Aspen Skiing Company, verified that the project will break ground in August 2027, aiming to complete the new gondola by Thanksgiving 2027.

“It’s really exciting to see this go forward,” Snowmass Village Mayor Alyssa Shenk said. “I know we’ve been working on it for a long time,” he added.

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Throughout its time at Aspen Snowmass, Skittles was a fan-favorite. Nicknamed for its multi-colored cabins resembling the popular candy, Skittles was built by lift manufacturer Leitner in 2005 at a time when Aspen was undergoing major infrastructure upgrades and booming skier visits. As part of a $100 million investment into the resort, Snowmass debuted Skittles alongside the six-passenger high-speed Village Express chairlift in a push to enhance the skiing experience and meet growing crowds. Riding Skittles would become a rite of passage for many Aspen skiers, especially young ones, who would do their best to get their favorite cabin color. Skiers even debated which colors were best, with many Aspen High School students preferring blue.

While seeing the nostalgic Skittles gondola disappear is disappointing for many skiers, Aspen Snowmass is hoping its new gondola can make up for it with enhanced speed and comfort. 

Skittles’ replacement will be a detachable gondola that significantly increases its capacity from 530 people per hour to 1,000, according to Keeling. Like the current Skittles, the new gondola will hold 12 cabins, but they will be a high-speed detachable design rather than the current pulse gondola design. The new gondola will blend durability and comfort, with benches that can be lifted up for ADA accessibility and room for bikes. Cabins will feature more glass, offering an upgraded way of viewing the resort on the ride.

Aspen Snowmass is also doing everything it can to keep the Skittles nickname alive. Aspen SkiCo’s internal branding and marketing team has been working with town staff to design cabin logos and color schemes in accordance with the Skittles name.

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The replacement and building of the new gondola comes with a price tag of $10 million. It is expected that SkiCo and the town of Snowmass Village will split the bill in half, each contributing $5 million to the project. While the replacement brings speed and capacity increases, it will maintain nearly the same alignment and height, but will have fewer towers. Its upper terminal will also reuse as much of the current structure “as humanly possible,” Keeling said.

As for Skittles’ old cabins, town managers are still deciding what to do with them. Keeling noted that two separate ski resorts had expressed interest in them, but the idea of auctioning them off also floated around, similarly to Aspen Mountain’s recent auction of chairs from the replaced Nell and Bell lifts.

After over two decades at Aspen Snowmass, the removal of Skittles for an improved gondola is bittersweet for skiers who grew up at the resort. While Skittles’ signature rainbow cabins may be heading elsewhere, skiers are sure to remember the joy of riding the cabin of their favorite color.