Ski lift
transport device that carries skiers up a hill
A ski lift is a mechanism for transporting skiers up a hill. Ski lifts are typically a paid service at ski resorts. The first ski lift was built in 1908 by German Robert Winterhalder in Schollach/Eisenbach, Hochschwarzwald.
Types
Aerial lifts transport skiers while suspended off the ground. Aerial lifts are often bicable ropeways, the "bi-" prefix meaning that the cables have two different functions (carrying and pulling).
Aerial tramways
Chairlifts and detachable chairlifts
Funifors
Funitels
Gondola lifts
Hybrid lifts
Surface lifts, including T-bars, magic carpets, and rope tows.
Cable railways, including funiculars
Helicopters are used for heliskiing and snowcats for snowcat skiing. This is backcountry skiing or boarding accessed by a snowcat or helicopter instead of a lift, or by hiking. Cat skiing is less than half the cost of heliskiing, more expensive than a lift ticket but is easier than ski touring. Cat skiing is guided.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Ski lift” as transport device that carries skiers up a hill. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as transport device that carries skiers up a hill. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q891302. The Library of Congress control number is sh85123133. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1908.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ski lift” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.