The world’s top 7 craziest ski lifts

Built in 1948 to carry guests up General Stark Mountain, the single chair is iconic in the world of chairlifts. Mad River Glenn is America’s only skier-owned major mountain and they keep the single chair alive thanks to a cooperative of dedicated mountain lovers.

You’ll be pleased to know that it was fully renovated in 2007 with new towers, foundations, electrics, cables and drive motors. It’s now a brand new lift but it keeps its old school look and charm. You can now do the one mile journey in just under nine minutes. Quite a bit quicker (and safer) than before!

This is not a lift for the faint-hearted or the inexperienced! Known as a Va et Vient (French Come and Go) lift, or ‘the slingshot’, it’s a 5 person t-bar with button lift seats. It climbs steep, unprepared avalanche chutes, making the use of lift towers impossible.

At nearly triple the speed of a normal drag, you have to hold on pretty tight and be prepared for the mule kick of Gs as you take off. Getting off is just as tricky as riding the thing as when you get off the lift, you’re on a steep incline – no gentle dismounts here!

Also known as the Scare Chair, the Alp Auris express starts in the Les Bergers area of Alpe d'Huez and takes you across to the Auris area. It’s a four-seat high-speed chair that appears to go nowhere exciting, except through a small tunnel underneath the local airstrip.

Its flat start is misleading and this is where the Scare Chair gets its name. After a couple of hundred metres, it drops sharply down into the Sarenne Gorge at a steep angle and climbs the other side to the Auris ski area. A fun chair for those with a head for adventure.

The Peak 2 Peak gondola is a record-breaker. At a cost of CDN$51 million, It spans nearly two miles (unsupported apart from the cables) linking Blackcomb and Whistler Mountains. Each cable, and there are three in each direction, weighs a staggering 90 tonnes!

At an eye-watering 436m above the ground, the 28 gondolas whisk you between the mountains in just 11 minutes! For the brave, there are two gondolas with glass bottoms for an incredible birds-eye view of the forests below. Definitely worth it for the experience!

You don’t have to worry about picking the best spot to stand in this gondola as the whole thing rotates through 360 degrees for incredible panoramic views of mountains and rock faces.

It takes just five minutes to get from the mid-station to the top of Mount Titlis at 3,025m. It was the first ever rotating gondola, and still there are only two other gondolas like this in the world.

The Vanoise Express links Les Arcs and La Plagne in France to form the impressive 425km Paradiski area. This single lift creates one of the largest ski areas in the world, and the stats on it are just as impressive, It has two massive, independently operated gondolas which can carry over 200 people each at a time.

It can do this because each cabin has two floors – it’s the double-decker of ski lifts! The views are worth the trip as the ground quickly drops away to become a dizzy 380m below you. It’s quick too – 45kmh (a world record) which means your journey will take just under four minutes.

Number one has to go to the Leissieres Chair in Val d’Isère for its unrivalled roller coaster feel. It’s a super-fast chair that takes you up the steep face of the Ouilette Peak, to the top of the peak and then over the top and back down the other side!

There are other ways to get to one of the two glaciers in the Tignes – Val d’Isére, but this is by far the most fun and story-worthy!

To take a ride on some of these lifts, head to our ski deals page to find your idea; crazy holiday!

And if you're wondering what the picture at the top is, it's called the Tyrolienne lift in Val Thorens - a 1,300m long zip line that lets you have an incredible view of the slopes whilst whizzing at up to 60mph suspended 250m above the ground!