Ski Season Prep: Hang a Replica Chairlift Swing Out Back
The first cold morning always shows up before the first storm does. You walk out with coffee, the light is different, the aspens have started, and you can feel the season leaning on the door. That is the morning people call the shop about a replica chairlift swing for the backyard, and it is also, unfortunately, about four weeks later than they should have called.
The honest answer about where these come from
Start here, because a lot of the internet gets this wrong on purpose. Most ski lift benches and swings, including nearly everything we build, are handcrafted replicas. They are not lifts pulled off a mountain. They are built from scratch in steel, in a shop, by people who have spent years studying what an actual chairlift looks like and then making one that is safe to hang over a lawn.
That is not a downgrade. It is the reason a replica works in a yard at all. A retired lift chair is heavy, oddly proportioned, and engineered to hang from a moving haul rope, not from a beam on your deck. A replica gets built at the right weight, with the right hardware, in the color you actually want, with a seat sized for humans sitting still rather than humans in ski boots getting off at speed.
Genuine retired lifts do exist, and when a piece is the real thing, its product name says so. The original Taos Ski Valley bench says Taos in the name. The original Arapahoe Basin bench says A Basin. The Aspen Snowmass three person chair says Aspen Snowmass. There is a Sun Valley single chair in the ski lift collection that is the first chairlift in North America, and it is priced like the museum piece it is. If a name does not claim a mountain, it is a replica, and we will tell you that on the phone without being asked. Nobody should be inventing provenance for a piece of furniture.
What the replica gives you is the silhouette everyone recognizes from the bottom of the lift line, without the fiction. That turns out to be exactly what people want.
Steel, powder coat, and a wrap around bar
The two person replica is the one most yards end up with, and the specs are worth knowing before you fall in love with a photo. It runs roughly 72 to 90 inches tall by 24 inches deep and 40 inches wide, depending on the configuration, and while it is called a two person chair it seats up to three people who like each other.
The frame is steel. Not tube furniture from a big box store, and not aluminum. The finish is powder coat, which matters more than it sounds like it does. Powder coat is baked on rather than sprayed on and left to dry, so it goes on thicker, it does not run, and it does not peel off in sheets after two winters the way outdoor spray paint does. It is water and weather proof, which is the whole point of a piece that will spend February under snow.
Color is genuinely open. Black is the default and it looks like a modern lift, but any color is on the table, and this is where people get to have some fun. Resort yellow. A red that matches the front door. Team colors. One customer went with a specific shade of orange because that was the color of the lift she rode as a kid, and she was right, it looked fantastic.
The wrap around safety bar is the detail that sells the whole thing. It is the part your hands know. Everyone who sits down reaches up and pulls it, without being told, because thirty years of muscle memory says that is what you do when you sit on a chairlift. That reflex is worth the price of admission.
Hanging it, and the question everybody asks first
The question is always the same: what do I hang it from? Fair question, and there are three real answers.
The first is a beam you already have. A covered porch, a pergola with actual structure, or a deck with a solid header can carry a swing if the beam is sized for it and the hardware goes into structure rather than into decking. Have someone who knows framing look at it. A swing that comes down is a bad afternoon.
The second is an A frame, which is the option most people land on. An A frame is a freestanding structure that carries the swing anywhere in the yard, no beam required, and it means you are not drilling into your house. We build combos with the swing and the A frame together, in both wood and steel. The wooden A frames read warmer and suit a cabin, the steel ones read like the mountain and suit a modern build. A 72 inch wooden A frame with a red three person chair hanging in it is, in my opinion, one of the better looking things you can put in a yard, and that exact Red 3-Person Replica Swing with 72 inch Wooden A-Frame combo is $4,191 with the structure included.
The third is a tree, and this is the one that requires the most honesty with yourself. A mature hardwood limb, thick and healthy and horizontal, can do it. Most of the limbs people point at cannot. Cottonwoods in particular have a reputation and it is deserved.
Location wise, give the swing eight to ten feet of clear travel front to back and keep it clear of railings, hot tubs and grills. Swings go farther than people expect, especially with three adults on board and somebody who thinks it is funny to push.
Who buys one of these
Three groups, mostly, and they want slightly different things.
The first is the family that skis. Somebody in the house has a season pass, the kids grew up in a gondola line, and the backyard is where everyone ends up in the shoulder seasons. For them, the swing is not decoration. It is where you sit in October talking about whether the base is going to build early this year. It is a conversation piece that starts conversations they were already having.
The second is the person who does not ski much anymore but did. Knees, mostly. Life, sometimes. That group is more emotional about it than the active skiers, because the swing is a way to keep a hand on something that used to define their winters. The Customizable Powder Coated 2-Person Replica Chairlift Swing goes to a lot of these houses, and the phone calls are usually longer and better.
The third is commercial. Breweries, coffee shops, real estate offices, resort lobbies and short term rentals. A chairlift swing outside a storefront is the single most photographed object on the block within a week, which is the kind of marketing that does not need a budget line. Rental owners tell us the swing shows up in more guest photos than the view does. That group usually drifts into the corporate ski gifts conversation eventually, because once a lift chair is out front somebody starts thinking about what to send clients.
What all three have in common is that they were not shopping for outdoor seating. Nobody comparison shops a chairlift swing against a patio loveseat. You either want one badly or the thought never crosses your mind, and there is very little in between.
Where it goes in the yard
The instinct is to put it against a wall. Resist that. A chairlift swing looks best with air around it, because the shape only reads correctly when you can see through the frame to something behind it. Put it against siding and it looks like a bench. Put it out in the open with sky behind it and it looks like a lift.
Face it toward whatever your best view is, even if that view is just the back fence line and a couple of trees. The point of a lift chair is looking out from it. If you have a west facing yard, that is the answer, because sitting in one at sunset with the bar down is close to the actual feeling of the last ride of the day.
Fire pits pair well with these, with the standard caveat about clearance. Give yourself real distance between the swing arc and the fire, more than you think, and put anything else you plan to sit in behind the swing rather than beside it. A pairing that works nicely is a chairlift swing with a couple of Adirondack pieces from the bench collection arranged around a pit, so people have somewhere to sit while they wait their turn on the swing. And they will wait their turn. Adults are not subtle about this.
Slope matters if your yard has any. The swing needs a level base under the A frame or the swing arc will drift to one side. Flagstone, a small pad, or a leveled gravel bed all work. This is a one afternoon job that prevents a year of mild irritation.
Color, logos, and other custom work
Since these are built rather than salvaged, customization happens before anything gets powder coated, which is the good version of custom. You are not modifying a finished object, you are specifying one.
Color first. Any color, and people should be bolder here than they are. Black is safe and beautiful. Yellow, orange, red, forest green and resort blue all look correct, because you have seen every one of those hanging over a mountain at some point. Match a lift you loved. Match your house trim. It costs the same either way.
Seats are the second decision. Wooden seats can be stained in a range that runs from light to dark walnut to ebony, and the darker stains against a black frame look genuinely modern. Lighter stains against a colored frame lean vintage.
Then there is branding, which is where the rules matter. Murals and painted artwork are done in exterior oils by hand. A logo is never painted. It goes on as a logo decal floated onto a painted background, with aluminum and plastic appliques as alternatives when you want the mark raised off the surface. This applies to the seat back plate on a branded chairlift, which is the most common request from businesses. Branded pricing is quoted on a call, because quantity, artwork format and mark size all move the number, and we would rather give you a real figure than a range you cannot plan around. The number is 303.775.7273.
Bigger builds exist too. Four person chairs, gondola cabins, restaurant booth gondolas and reception desks built into cabins. If your idea is larger than a swing, it has probably already been built at least once, and if it has not, that is the more interesting phone call.
Getting it through winter, and the rest of the year
Good news on maintenance: there is barely any. Powder coated steel is water and weather proof, and the swing is meant to be outside in weather. This is a piece of furniture designed for the season it is named after.
Late fall, before the first real storm, do one pass. Wash it with mild soap and water. Check every bolt and every connection at the hanging point, because a season of use loosens hardware on anything that swings. Look at the chain or cable where it wraps and make sure nothing has worn. Ten minutes, once a year.
Winter, leave it up. Snow on a chairlift swing is the entire point, and it makes for a better photograph than anything you will stage on purpose. If you get a heavy wet storm, brush the seat off so the load does not sit on the wood for weeks, and if the swing is going to be idle for months, tying it off so it does not swing in high wind saves wear on the hardware.
Spring is the mud check. Wash off winter grit, look at the base of the A frame where it meets the ground, and make sure runoff has not undercut one leg. This is the most common issue we hear about and it is a shovel problem, not a furniture problem.
Summer, use it. These are not winter only objects, and a swing under a shade tree in July is a perfectly good use of a chairlift. Wood seats will benefit from a re coat of stain every few years if they are in full sun. The steel and the powder coat will outlast the interest of everyone reading this.
As a gift, and why the timing is brutal
A chairlift swing is a landmark gift. It is the fiftieth birthday, the retirement, the twenty fifth anniversary, the housewarming for the mountain place they finally bought. It is not a thing you slip into a stocking, and everyone involved knows it. If a swing is more gift than the occasion actually calls for, the ski gifts for him and her collection is sorted by budget and covers the stocking end of the range without embarrassing anybody.
Which brings up the timing, and this is the part people get wrong every single year. These are made to order. Steel gets cut, welded, powder coated and cured, and none of that is fast. If a swing needs to be under a tree in December, that conversation needs to happen in October at the latest. Calling on December 10th about a Christmas chairlift is a conversation neither of us enjoys.
If you are up against a deadline, say so immediately rather than at the end of the call. Hard dates are frequently workable when we know about them at the start. There are also pieces in the ski lift collection that are already built, and that is the right path when the calendar has already made the decision for you.
One more piece of advice on gifting: do not try to keep it a total surprise if the recipient has strong opinions about their yard. The color, the placement and the A frame style are decisions somebody has to make, and a swing hung in the wrong corner is a very large mistake to correct. Loop them in on the where, keep the what to yourself for as long as you can.
How ordering works before the season starts
Step one is a phone call, and it is short. We need to know the size you want, the color, whether you need an A frame or you already have structure, and your date. Fifteen minutes usually settles it.
Step two is the quote. The Customizable Powder Coated 2-Person Replica Chairlift Swing is listed at $2,749, down from $3,491, and that is the piece most backyards want. Larger configurations, A frame combos and gondola cabins run higher, and branded work gets quoted on the call rather than off a page.
Step three is the build. Made to order steel work takes time, and the fall queue fills up in a way that catches people out. Order in September and October and you are relaxed. Order in December and you are hoping.
Step four is delivery and setup. Local delivery runs across Colorado, from Denver and Colorado Springs to Vail, Breckenridge, Aspen, Steamboat and the rest of the map, and we ship nationwide to the lower 48. Everything is built in Manitou Springs, Colorado, by people who ski, which is why the proportions come out right.
Step five is the part you are actually buying. Somebody sits down for the first time, reaches up, pulls the bar, and grins like an idiot. Every time.
When a swing is not the right call
Sometimes the answer is a chairlift, just not a hanging one. It is worth knowing the alternatives before you commit, because roughly a third of the people who call about a swing end up buying something else and are happier for it.
The fixed bench version is the same replica chair on legs rather than on chain. It sits flat on a deck or a patio, it does not need overhead structure or an A frame, and it does not need swing clearance. If your usable outdoor space is a twelve foot deck, this is almost certainly the right choice. You lose the motion and you keep the shape, the powder coat and the wrap around bar. The Customizable Black Powder Coated 2-Person Replica Ski Chairlift Bench is $2,749, the same as the swing, and if the number matters more than the options, the 2-Person Ski Chairlift Bench in any color is $1,771.
The bigger builds go the other direction. Three person and four person chairs read as furniture for a group rather than a perch for a couple, and they suit a wide porch or a commercial patio. Past that are the gondola cabins, six and eight person, which turn into dining booths, reception desks and DJ booths. The Customizable 6 Person Replica Ski Lift Gondola Cabin starts at $8,995, which tells you what tier of project you have wandered into. Those are room sized objects and they get specified more like a build out than a purchase.
Then there is the option nobody thinks of, which is to skip the lift entirely and do seating around a fire instead. Adirondack ski chairs run 45 inches tall by 36 deep by 32 wide, carry 400 pounds, come with a ski binding cup holder and a 3 year warranty, and most of them ship free to the lower 48. A group of four of those costs less than one chairlift swing and seats twice as many people. Not every mountain house needs a lift in it. Some just need somewhere good to sit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this an actual ski lift chair off a mountain?
Most of our ski lift benches and swings are handcrafted replicas built from scratch in steel, not lifts pulled off a mountain. When a piece is a genuine retired lift, the resort is named right in the product title, like the original Taos Ski Valley and Arapahoe Basin benches.
How many people fit on a two person chairlift swing?
It seats up to three. The two person replica measures roughly 72 to 90 inches tall by 24 inches deep and 40 inches wide, so there is more room across the seat than the name suggests.
Do I need an A frame or can I hang it from my porch?
You can hang it from existing structure if the beam is properly sized and the hardware goes into framing rather than decking, and it is worth having someone qualified confirm that. Most customers choose an A frame combo instead, available in wood or steel, which lets the swing stand anywhere in the yard.
Can it stay outside through winter?
Yes. The steel is powder coated and weather proof, and these are built to live outdoors year round. Wash it and check the hardware once in late fall and once in spring, and brush heavy wet snow off the wooden seat.
How far in advance should I order for ski season?
These are made to order, so plan on ordering in September or October for a piece you want in place by the holidays. If you have a hard deadline, tell us at the start of the call and we will tell you honestly whether it is workable.
If the first cold morning already happened at your house, you are on the clock. Call 303.775.7273 and we will sort out size, color and hanging in one conversation, or start with the Customizable Powder Coated 2-Person Replica Chairlift Swing and browse the rest of the ski lift collection while you think about it. Built in Manitou Springs, Colorado, delivered across the state and shipped nationwide to the lower 48.
