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Planned Opening for Homewood’s New Gondola Declared

Originally posted on Powder | By Izzy Lidsky | Last updated May 12, 2025 7:41 PM ET

Homewood Mountain Resort, California, has announced the latest progress on its master plan for mountain upgrades.

On Sunday, a social media post by the resort announced that their new gondola is on track to be installed in 2026. According to updates on the ski area's website, pending permits, they hope to begin site work for the new gondola in 2026 and open it for the 2026/27 ski season.

As of May 2025, a new gondola has been purchased, and its towers and cabins have been delivered and are currently being stored in Sparks, Nevada.

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A generator and terminal components for the new gondola have also been delivered to Homewood. Permits from the California Tram Board have been approved for the project, as has Placer County Substantial Conformance (all the essential components of a contract or main requirements of a statute, save for minor details, for those of us who didn't go to law school).

Homewood is still awaiting approval for the building permit for the surrounding gondola buildings from Placer County.

Once these permits have been issued, the resort plans to begin site work with tree removal along the gondola line and to schedule the gondola installation team.

Down the line, grading and foundation work will need to be done for lift towers and terminals before terminals, towers, and cables are installed. Last on the docket is the removal of the Madden Chair. The mountain is targeting 2025 for the tree removal and grading processes ahead of the planned 2026 installation and opening.

At the beginning of the 2024/25 ski season, the Tahoe area ski resort found itself at the center of some controversy over rumors that the resort would be privatized.

After the mountain's decade-old infrastructure update plan had its changes rejected by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, Homewood's financial backer rescinded the mountain's financial support, forcing the mountain to remain closed for the 2024/25 ski season.

Rumors about the resort's future and the public's access to it swirled around the Tahoe community as Homewood evaluated their next steps.

Following further changes to the resort's Master Plan and a governing meeting with the TRPA, updates to the plan were ultimately approved in January 2025. Amongst those key updates was the building of a new gondola and the necessary infrastructure around it at the resort.

The gondola was approved per the TRPA's acceptance of Master Plan changes; however, the resort still awaited building permits from Placer County for construction on structures surrounding it.

Homewood has also committed to being open for the 2025/26 ski season and currently has season passes on sale.