UPDATE: All available chairlifts were sold out just four minutes after the online sale opened Friday morning. If you're sorry you missed out, the Whistler Blackcomb Foundation offered a glimmer of hope on its website."Stay tuned for more chairlift sales in the future," it wrote.
With construction underway on a new Fitzsimmons Express chairlift, the four-person benches that carried guests from Whistler Village to mid-station since 2000 are officially retired—but that doesn't mean the equipment is headed for the landfill.
Instead, it's destined to live out the next few decades in backyards, basements and porches in the Sea to Sky and beyond.
Whistler Blackcomb and its parent company, Vail Resorts, are donating the recently retired Fitz Express chairs and leftover Big Red Express chairs—a new six-pack replaced the 27-year-old lift last December—to the Whistler Blackcomb Foundation (WBF) and Vail's Epic Promise Foundation. The chairs will be up for sale later this month to raise tens of thousands of dollars for a wide range of community initiatives.
The online sale opens Friday, April 28 at 9 a.m. If you've always wanted to own your own chairlift, make sure to set a reminder: the WBF's Creekside Gondola cabin sale in 2022 sold out in just a few minutes.
The chairs are priced at $500 each. That includes taxes and loading assistance, but does not account for any shipping or delivery costs. Buyers are not able to request a specific chair number.
The chairs weigh approximately 325 lbs. each and measure 92.12 inches in width, 33 inches in depth and 62 inches in height. Retired Fitz chairs feature a safety bar and footrest, while Red chairs do not. Chairs do not come equipped with a stand, base or footings, the WBF specifies, but chair stands can be sourced and purchased separately at the buyers’ expense.
Buyers must pick up Fitzsimmons Chairs from Lot 8 during one of two windows: Thursday, May 4 from 4 to 6 p.m., or Saturday May 6 from 9 to 11 a.m. Buyers must collect Red Chairs from Lot 8 on Saturday, June 3 from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.
Previously, in 2015, more than 140 retired Whistler Gondolas were sold, and in 2018, the old Wizard, Solar Coaster and Catskinner chairs were sold to raise funds for the WBF.
