ASPEN — Colorado’s oldest operating ski lift began service on Aspen Mountain seven decades ago when that resort was emerging as one of America’s most glamorous. For the past 50 years it has been hauling skiers slowly up the slopes of the modest Sunlight ski area near Glenwood Springs, running at half the speed of today’s advanced lifts.

Called Segundo, it is a relic of ski history engineered by pioneering Colorado lift designer Robert Heron, but the 69-year-old lift’s days are numbered.

Its modern replacement sits in pieces in Sunlight’s maintenance area, having been disassembled and removed from its former home at Arapahoe Basin last summer. Workers will begin pouring concrete foundations for the new lift towers this summer, and construction of the relocated lift will be finished the following summer. Segundo will cease operations in April of 2024, 70 years after it was first installed at Aspen.

“It’s a very safe machine, I just think it’s time that it gets retired,” said assistant general manager Ross Terry. “A lot of that is public perception. They get on this old stuff, some people don’t like it. They don’t feel as secure on it. And no matter how good you maintain a machine, it’s not going to run forever. I’d rather replace it before it retires itself.

“It’s the same age I am,” he added. “I was born in ’54, and so was this chairlift. It’s old enough to collect social security.”

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