Mountain at Eaglecrest Ski Area closed to public as work begins on gondola access road

Project is expected to take several weeks; periodic assessments about whether it’s safe to allow access will be made, general manager says

A used gondola awaits installation near Eaglecrest Ski Area on Sept. 13, 2025. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Independent)

By Mark Sabbatini

Juneau Independent

Public access to Eaglecrest Ski Area has been halted due to work starting on an access road for a gondola scheduled to be installed during the next few years, resort officials said Wednesday.

Work is scheduled daily, including weekends, and the current project is expected to take several weeks, said General Manager Craig Cimmons. Heavy construction vehicles, blasting and other activities that could pose a risk to recreational users of the mountain are planned.

"We're starting with the mountain closed, and then as the project gets underway we're going to figure out if the entire mountain needs to be closed or not," he said.

The reassessments will likely occur every week or so, Cimmons said. Additional closures of some or all of the mountain during future phases of the project are also expected.

The long-discussed gondola from the base to the top of the ski area is a focal point of Eaglecrest’s hopes of developing large-scale year-round operations.

"As the gondola project progresses over the next several years, our goal is to keep open as much of the mountain as possible," an announcement published on Eaglecrest’s Facebook page Wednesday states. "Following these restrictions now helps us with this."

A contract with Goldbelt Inc., which provided $10 million in installation costs in return for a share of the revenue, states the gondola needs to be operational by May of 2028.

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.