2-person Chairlift Bench

Want a vintage ski chairlift bench?  We now have them in stock!  BUY NOW HERE

We have replicas now made to the original specifications of the old 2-person chairlifts you’ve seen around for years.  They’re made into beautiful functional benches, perfect for any home, condo, cabin or lodge!

They’re very similar to the original chair lift chairs made by RIBLET, which are still around in MANY ski resorts across the country!

The original chairs are super rare and really hard to get now, but you can buy one of ours and own a piece of history forever with the same style they used for years and years in almost all the double chair lifts across the states, no matter where you grew up skiing!   Plus we’ve taken the trouble to make the custom base for you as well so it’s actually usable, comfortable, stable, sturdy and ready to enjoy now!  It won’t end up as an expensive, annoying project sitting in your yard or lawn that you never get around to finishing, just buy the completed one now!

History on these old double chairlift chairs:   The Riblet Tramway Company of Spokane, Washington, which operated for 95 years, from 1908 to 2003, was once the largest ski chairlift manufacturer in the world.  The company was originally founded by Byron Christian Riblet, who was born in Osage, Iowa, in 1865 & earned a degree in Civil Engineering. Arriving in Spokane in 1885, his first work was laying out railway and streetcar lines. He also built dams and irrigation projects.

Riblet built its first chairlift in 1938 at Mount Hood, Oregon. Skiing gained in popularity, and soon ski lifts became the major part of the Riblet Tramway Company’s business. They built more than 400 lifts, particularly in Washington, Oregon, Colorado and California, and as far away as Australia. They have the most double chair lifts operating in the U.S.

The company only built fixed-grip lifts, whose chair grip is woven into the haul rope rather than clamped onto it. But other technologies eventually proved more popular. Byron Riblet died in 1952, but the company boomed with the postwar rise of ski resorts and prospered until early 2003 when the firm announced that it was no longer viable and would go out of business.

Riblet chairlifts can be found in many places still in service, though the majority have been removed. The table below contains the chairlifts in COLORADO only, documented by SkiLifts.org as of December 28, 2007. More Riblet chairlifts may be in existence, though some listed below may have already been removed. There is a grand total of 160 existing Riblet chairlifts and 103 that are no longer installed.

Riblet Lifts in Colorado:

Resort NAME             # Remaining      #Retired
Aspen Mountain                1                      4
Aspen Highlands                0                      9
Breckenridge Ski Resort    6                       2
Buttermilk                           0                      1
Crested Butte Mountain     2                       1
Durango Mountain             3                       0
Hesperus                           1                       0
Keystone Resort                0                       2
Powderhorn ski area          0                      1
Aspen/Snowmass              5                       2
Vail Ski Resort                    3                      3
Winter Park Resort             1                      4

So, own a piece of history with our beautifully replicated ski chair lift benches that are just as beautiful and functional as the chairlifts you grew up on!

We can ship or deliver anywhere as well, just ask!  BUY NOW