She's here. Twelve semi-trucks, forty-seven crates, one very long convoy up the Grade Road, and the Stardust Express has arrived on Palomar Mountain. The main chairlift of Mirage Mountain Resort is officially on-site in San Diego County, and watching it come up the mountain felt like Christmas morning for people who are way too excited about steel cable and bull wheels.
We are those people. We're not sorry about it.
The Specs
The Stardust Express is a fixed-grip quad chairlift manufactured by Leitner-Poma, one of the world's leading lift manufacturers. Here's what it brings to the mountain:
- Vertical Rise: 1,200 feet -- from the base area at 4,940 feet to the summit at 6,140 feet
- Ride Length: Approximately 4,800 feet of cable
- Capacity: 1,800 skiers per hour
- Ride Time: Approximately 8 minutes from base to summit
- Chairs: 96 four-person chairs, each with a footrest and wind guard
Eight minutes from base to summit. In those eight minutes, you'll rise from oak woodland into dense coniferous forest, pass through two terrain transitions, and arrive at a summit where you can see the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Anza-Borrego Desert to the east. Most commutes aren't this scenic.
Why "Stardust Express"?
Because we're on Palomar Mountain, home of the Palomar Observatory. Because every clear night up here, the Milky Way stretches across the sky like someone spilled a bag of diamonds on black velvet. Because when you ride this lift at the end of the day, with the sun setting over the Pacific and the first stars beginning to appear, "Stardust Express" will feel less like a name and more like a description.
Also, "Chair 1" was boring and "The Lifty McLiftyface" was vetoed by legal.
Installation Timeline
The Stardust Express installation will proceed through the fall months:
- September 2025: Tower foundation completion and base terminal construction
- October 2025: Tower installation (14 towers total along the lift line)
- November 2025: Cable stringing, chair hanging, and mechanical systems
- Early 2026: Testing, safety certification, and commissioning
Each of the 14 towers was helicoptered to its foundation site because some parts of this mountain don't have road access, and because helicoptering steel towers onto a mountain in San Diego is exactly the kind of thing we do now. This is our life. We chose this.
The Other Lifts
The Stardust Express is the first of four lifts planned for Phase 1. The Coyote Creek triple chair, the Fir Line double, and the beginner Magic Carpet will follow in the coming months. Together, the four lifts will access all 22 runs across 280 acres of skiable terrain.
Follow our construction progress on the Plans page, or come see the mountain yourself -- though right now it looks less like a ski resort and more like a very ambitious construction site. Which is exactly what it is. Give us a year.