It’s been a big week for Thredbo and it just got even bigger with news the Australian resort will replace their Gunbarrel quad chairlift with a six seater hopefully by winter 2028, dependent on NSW Department of Planning approval.
The Doppelmayr D-line chair, as reported by Snowy Mountains Magazine, will be the same design as Perisher’s six seater launched at Mt Perisher in 2025 and cost around $35million.
The resort will also install more snowmaking on Friday Flat to complement the current Snow Factory for next season.
According to the full interview by Steve Cuff with Thredbo Resort manager Stuart Diver, the next chairlift to be replaced will be the Kosciuszko Express.
“We’ve prioritised Gunbarrel over Snowgums. We’re looking for a really good solution to the Kosciuszko Express replacement, which obviously has to have the ability to operate in much higher winds, given the propensity for wind hold days,” Diver told Cuff.
The resort has invested heavily in recent years with Australia’s only alpine gondola launched in 2020 and a year round alpine coaster in 2024. The Gunbarrel chair also transports mountain bikers in the summer, so works as a year round chairlift.
The Gunbarrel chairlift news could certainly help resort valuation as the owner corporation, EVT, announced last week that independent valuation of Thredbo Alpine Resort had dropped from $292 million to $143 million. The valuation was attributed to the current tough snowfall season, though the resort made $50million in lift ticket sales alone in 2025.
EVT also put all of their assets on the table, including Thredbo, as they revealed the intention to offload around $800million worth of “non-core properties” so as to concentrate on the hotels space.
We’re reached out to Thredbo regarding the new chair and will report back with more information and stats as they come to hand.
