The Most Spectacular Ski Lifts in the World
2 places in 2 countries · updated 13 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most spectacular ski lifts in the world are Zugspitze Cable Car (Germany) and Peak 2 Peak Gondola (Canada). The list covers 2 ski lifts in 2 countries. Canada has the most, with 1. Last updated 13 October 2026.
Most lifts are machinery to be ignored on the way to the snow. A few become the reason to come: a cabin hanging over a void far above the valley floor, a span so long the cable seems to float, a ride that turns a mountain face into a slowly unrolling panorama. What lifts them to world class is engineering pushed to a visible limit, set against scenery that makes the crossing itself the experience.
This section gathers three of them. The Zugspitze cable car rises from the Eibsee to the summit of Germany's highest mountain; opened in 2017, it set records for the longest free span between supports and for the tallest lattice steel support tower of any aerial tramway. The Peak 2 Peak Gondola at Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia links two neighbouring summits across a valley and still carries its cabins higher above the ground than any other gondola. On Titlis in central Switzerland, the Rotair turns its cabin a full circle on the way up to Klein Titlis, so every passenger sees glaciers, crevasses and the Engelberg valley in one ride; it was the first rotating cable car in the world.
Every lift here was chosen for how it looks and the list is ordered by beauty. Each has its own description, a photograph credited to its author and a place on the map, and the section also opens country by country on separate pages.
01 Zugspitze Cable Car
Seilbahn Zugspitze
Germany · 37.1 km from Innsbruck47.457° N 10.992° E
Maksym Kozlenko · CC BY-SA 4.0 Most cable cars are a way up a mountain; the Seilbahn Zugspitze is an engineering landmark in its own right, and the ride itself is the reason to come. It climbs from the shore of the Eibsee, a lake at the foot of the mountain near Grainau, to the summit station on the Zugspitze, Germany's highest mountain, on the border with Austria. In a single section the cabins rise about 1,945 metres, the greatest height difference of any aerial tramway in the world in one span of rope. The line opened in December 2017, replacing the Eibsee cable car of 1963, which had run on almost the same route for more than half a century.
Did you know? Over the long free span the cabins travel at up to 10.6 metres per second, easing to 8.5 metres per second as they pass the single support tower.
02 Peak 2 Peak Gondola
Canada50.069° N 122.946° W
Ruth Hartnup from Vancouver, Canada · CC BY 2.0 Between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains the ground falls away into the valley of Fitzsimmons Creek, and for most of the history of the two ski areas that gap meant a long descent and a long climb to get from one summit zone to the other. Since December 2008 the Peak 2 Peak Gondola has simply stepped across it. Its cabins leave Whistler's Roundhouse Lodge, swing out over the treetops and, after a few towers, launch into an unsupported stretch of cable more than three kilometres long before arriving at Blackcomb's Rendezvous Lodge eleven minutes later. At the deepest point of the crossing the cabin hangs about 436 metres above the valley floor.
Did you know? The idea came from a 1997 trip to Zermatt, where the resort's managers saw lifts linking ski areas around the Matterhorn.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What is the most spectacular cable car in the world?
- On our list, Zugspitze Cable Car (Germany) ranks first, followed by Peak 2 Peak Gondola (Canada).
- Which cable car has the longest span between towers?
- The Zugspitze cable car holds that record with a free span of about 3,213 metres. It overtook the Peak 2 Peak Gondola at Whistler, whose span of about 3.03 kilometres had been the longest until 2017.
- Where is the world's first rotating cable car?
- It is on Titlis, above Engelberg in central Switzerland. The Rotair cabins revolve as they climb to Klein Titlis, giving every passenger a full view of the glacier and surrounding peaks.
- How high above the ground is the Peak 2 Peak Gondola?
- At its highest point, the Peak 2 Peak Gondola between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains runs about 436 metres above the valley floor, the greatest height above ground of any gondola.
- How many ski lifts are on this list in the world?
- The list covers 2 ski lifts in 2 countries. Canada has the most, with 1.