An area closure is in effect on the Mt. Haig area of Castle Mountain Resort. This closure is in place so that Castle Mountain Resort staff, and contractors, can resume on-mountain construction work necessary to install the Stagecoach Express Lift.

Starting March 18, 2025, our team has been working hard getting the lift parts ready to go out on the mountain.  They have been refurbishing the various moving pieces and now, we are starting to pull the pieces back together.

Access to the area outlined above, regardless of the activity, is prohibited until further notice. This closure includes, but is not limited to:

• CMR’s former cat skiing area
• Haig Ridge (Giddy Up) with no access to Thunder, Lightning, etc.
• Ski-Daddle Traverse, south of the new Almost Perfect trail.

This closure does not currently affect terrain accessible from the Huckleberry Chairlift or Huckleberry Chairlift operations. This lift and associated terrain will remain available until our published closing day on Sunday, April 6. However, this closure will be expanded to include this area after this time.

Please obey all posted signage and rope lines, in order to ensure your own safety and that of CMR’s staff and contractors.

Starting March 25, our friends at Spidex All Terrain Excavation took on the excavation of our 7 most difficult towers. This head start allows us the chance to get geotechnical engineering in and looking at the soil conditions.

After nearly a thousand submissions to our lift name survey, and lots of conversation, we were proud to announce the name of our new high-speed quad chairlift on April 3, 2025.

Introducing the Stagecoach Express – a nod to the importance of cat skiing at Castle over the decades, and to the visionaries that first brought us skiing / riding on Mt. Haig.

It’s an exciting time to be part of the team here at Castle, with our Stagecoach Express Chairlift installation continuing to pick up steam. Our team has been busy getting the lift ready and we wanted to bring you up to speed with our progress as we move towards the opening day for the Stagecoach Express.

Here’s what we’ve accomplished so far:

May–August 2024

After announcing the purchase of the former Angel Express, our team spent time on site with our friends at Sunshine Village last spring, learning about the Leitner-Poma detachable quad chair.  Working with the help of TNT Towing, Leitner-Poma and Sunshine Village’s team, our crew helped dismantle the lift and get it on the road to its new home here at Castle.

Summer 2024
Back at Castle, we dove into all things planning – land surveys, environmental assessments, and permitting. The last pieces of the lift arrived in August, and by September, we had the official green light to install the Stagecoach Express.

Fall 2024
We quickly got to work in October, hoping to accomplish as much as we could before the snow flew. We cleared two major runs – including “Almost Perfect,” which is the main run that will connect you from the top of the Huckleberry Chair to the Stagecoach Express loading station – and cut the lift line. We also built the new Mountainside Road, giving us essential access to the return station (aka top of the lift), just in time for the first snowfall in November.

Winter 2024/25
While enjoying our final season of Powder Stagecoach cat skiing, we got to work refurbishing the lift. Crews were on site all winter replacing bearings, bushings, and prepping parts for sandblast and paint. Big thanks to McElhanney for their help with engineering, alignment and foundation plans.

Spring 2025
In March, Spidex Excavating came in to tackle the towers that were difficult to access. These excavations, done over snow, helped reduce our environmental impact and gave our engineering team a head start on determining soil conditions and bearing capacity for tower foundations. As of May, we’ve started piecing things back together – re-building the terminal to make sure everything fits just right. At the same time we’ve been doing land improvements and making progress with many other key tasks.

We’re proud of the progress so far and excited to keep things moving forward. Stay tuned – we’ll be sharing monthly updates throughout the rest of this summer and fall, as we march ever closer to our first ride on the Stagecoach Express.

July has been a very busy and productive month here at Castle Mountain Resort as work continues on the new Stagecoach Express Chairlift. We’re excited to share the latest milestones and celebrate the progress made!

Our concrete work ramped up in July, with Prairie Stone Concrete bringing in concrete, ProRoots Developments handling the forming and placing, and our own team assisting with excavation and transport. In true Castle fashion, our crew devised an innovative way to deliver concrete to tower sites by retrofitting a Prinoth Panther with a skid-mounted mixer.

Structural repairs and fabrication have continued at a strong pace. A big thank you to Thunder Mountain Welding and Horizon Welding and Fabrication for their hard work.

Rebuilding of the tower heads is progressing well, with our team rebuilding and installing the electrical wiring and sensors. Our new drive system, built by Softac, is nearly complete.

Behind the scenes, our earthworks crew has been busy improving access to the tower sites and return terminal. These upgrades are not only critical for ongoing construction but will also benefit future skier/rider experience.

Another huge thank you goes out to McElhanney, who is taking care of the engineering and survey. Their crews have done a great job assisting our team through the challenges of this monumental project.

Additionally, last week marked the successful completion of our Kissling gearbox rebuild, led by the Maintenance team and a Kissling gearbox technician. With this overhaul, the gearbox is now set up for its new home!

None of this progress would be possible without the tireless effort of our refurb and install crew. Whether it’s operating the Panther, handling anchor bolts, dismantling forms, or making the countless supply runs that keep everything moving—this team has been essential. Their energy, commitment, and teamwork are what’s keeping the project on track.

With July in the books, we’re incredibly proud of the progress so far! Stay tuned – August is shaping up to be another big month!

August has been another incredibly busy month for the Stagecoach Express Installation! Our crew has been working full steam ahead to keep everything moving along, and we’re making great progress.

We’ve been forming, pouring, and preparing all the tower foundations. Additionally, a part of the drive terminal is now assembled and standing. A big thank you to our friends at Horizon Welding & Fabrication for their excellent work on the primary legs, which form the critical support structure for the drive terminal.

One of the most exciting moments last week was flying in concrete for two towers located in areas without road access. Heli-pours are always a rush and it’s not everyday you see a helicopter flying overhead around here.

Behind the scenes, our team has been busy repairing, welding, and assembling towers in preparation for flying them into their designated foundations. The earthworks crew has been working hard digging, assisting on pours, and backfilling as fly day inches closer and closer.

In addition to all of that, we’re currently developing a terrain map for the Stagecoach Express area, which will roll out closer to winter.

That wraps up another productive month here and we’re looking forward to what September has in store. With all this progress, it’s hard to not start dreaming of snow – who else is counting down the days?

Another month has come and gone in the blink of an eye. September was full steam ahead at Castle Mountain Resort as the team pushed hard to make major progress before the snow started to fall.

One of the most monumental milestones happened this month – flying in towers. It’s been 19 years since we last saw a helicopter flying in towers at Castle (during the installation of the Huckleberry Chair back in 2006). Seeing it happen again was something truly special.

Over the course of a couple of incredible days, a Super Puma helicopter from our friends at Coldstream Helicopters flew more than 140,000 lbs of steel up the mountain. Each tower was expertly lifted and placed onto its foundation with impressive precision. Coldstream’s pilots and support crew were top-notch, and our teams on the ground did an outstanding job ensuring every lift went smoothly and safely during the two-day installation.

It’s exciting to see all the towers now standing tall down the lift line.

Beyond the tower work, we also hit a couple other important milestones in September:

• A key section of the return terminal was erected. A huge thank you to Horizon Welding & Fabrication for their expert craftsmanship on this component.
• We wrapped up all the tower concrete work for the project! From our first pour back in July to the final finishing touches this month, it’s a huge accomplishment to have this phase complete.

The final touches on the towers are now underway, and we’ll soon begin grouting them in place. There’s still lots more to come in October and November, and we can’t wait to share more updates as we fly towards winter.

Stay tuned – things are only going to get more exciting from here!

Another month has flown by, just like that. October brought its fair share of challenging weather, but that didn’t slow things down one bit at Castle Mountain Resort. Our crews—staff, contractors, and volunteers—have been pushing hard and have come together with an incredible amount of dedication to keep the lift project moving forward.

We hit several major milestones this month, including installing the hold-down anchors, completing tower alignment, and wrapping up key land work along the lift line. But the biggest highlight of October was without a doubt the haul rope splice.

For those who may not know, the haul rope is what loops around the lift and is what the chairs attach to. The Stagecoach Express haul rope measures 40.5 mm in diameter—a seriously big rope—and splicing it is a complicated, highly specialized job. With help from our partners at Rocky Mountain Lift Services and Supplies and Fatzer AG, we were able to bring in a professional splicer all the way from South America for this crucial step. Over the course of the operation, more than ten staff members and volunteers worked alongside the experts to complete the splice safely and successfully.

To put things into perspective, our two bull wheels sit approximately 1,450 m apart, making the haul rope nearly 3,000 m long. That made it the single heaviest load of the entire project—and transporting it was a major undertaking in itself. A huge thank-you goes out to J Beez Truck and Crane Services for hauling the rope with skill and precision.

It was a massive milestone for the team and seeing that rope finally in place is an exciting moment for everyone involved. There’s still plenty more ahead as we push into November, and we can’t wait to share the progress as we continue the march toward winter.

November has been another big and productive month for our team! One of the major milestones has been the rebuild and reassembly of all the grips for the Stagecoach Express – an essential step in bringing this lift to life. We’re also grateful for the support from our friends at Westco Construction, who helped us complete the terminal enclosures. With the terminals now closed, our crews have been able to focus heavily on electrical work. This includes completing all lift circuits, the communication line, and the safety system. The communication system alone is a 37-pair wire running from top to bottom, fully integrated and tied into every tower along the line—an impressive piece of infrastructure that’s critical to safe and reliable operations.

As the project moves into its final phases, work will continue on completing the remaining electrical systems, followed by lift commissioning. We know there’s a lot of excitement surrounding the Stagecoach Express installation, and we’re right there with you. The Stagecoach Express is set to open in early 2026 and will unlock some incredible terrain! We can’t wait to welcome you to experience it, and we will continue to share updates as the project advances toward completion.

With the Stagecoach Express Quad nearing completion, we are extremely excited to release the new trail maps, available both digitally and in the form of our on-site pocket maps! While the official opening date is still to be determined, we anticipate providing another update in the coming days. What we can confirm is that this new lift will unlock access to more than 20 new trails, increasing our lift-accessible skiable acreage by over 25%.

View all of the new trails for yourself by clicking here.

The Stagecoach Express is officially moving! Seeing the rope spin marks an exciting milestone as the lift truly comes to life. This past week, our friends at Inter-Mtn Testing were on site conducting non-destructive testing on the haul rope, an important step in the process. It’s been incredible to witness the steady progress and dedication happening behind the scenes, and we can’t wait to share more updates as we continue moving forward!

All of the chairs for the Stagecoach Express have officially been moved from the North Parking Lot up to the return terminal, and crews have begun attaching them to the haul rope! This is another big step forward and the energy around this progress is unreal. We can’t wait to keep sharing more updates as everything really starts to come together!

We’re in the final stretch for the Stagecoach Express with load and acceptance testing officially underway! This critical phase puts the lift through full operational and mechanical checks under full load conditions, supervised by regulators and professional engineers. In our case, to simulate a fully loaded lift, hundreds of sandbags are added to the chairs, making it a literal heavy lift for our team.

We’re remain optimistic that the Stagecoach Express will be open in time for Family Day Weekend. Keep an eye on our social channels, e-newsletter, and snow report. we’ll be sure to shout it from the rooftops, as soon as your Stagecoach is ready to board!