Arosa Bets Big on the Mountain: CHF 67 Million Overhaul Signals a New Era for Alpine Ski Investment

A record year, a record project. The lift company behind the Swiss resort of Arosa has unveiled its largest single investment ever — a CHF 67 million ($84 million) rebuild of the Hörnli area, the strategic high-altitude link to neighbouring Lenzerheide. The project, coming off the most profitable financial year in the company's history, is a striking example of how Switzerland's snow-secure resorts are doubling down on infrastructure even as climate change forces smaller, lower-altitude ski areas to close for good.

What's changing at Hörnli

Arosa Bergbahnen announced this week that it will replace two ageing lifts at Hörnli, roughly 2,500 metres above sea level: the Hörnliexpress gondola, dating to 1986, and a chairlift from 1994. In their place will come a new 10-person gondola and an 8-person chairlift, built on a modified route with a relocated valley station. Slopes and snowmaking infrastructure across the area will also be upgraded.

Work begins this summer with piste and snowmaking preparation. Foundations and the new chairlift's valley station follow in summer 2027, before the lifts themselves are swapped out in summer 2028 — a period during which the Hörnli sector will close to transport altogether. The new installations are due to open in December 2028, ahead of the 2028/29 winter season.

Despite the scale of the spend, the company insists this isn't about growth for growth's sake: hourly capacity rises only modestly, from around 4,450 to 4,600 people. The goal, management says, is modernisation and comfort rather than expanding the size of the ski area — all construction stays within the existing perimeter.

Why Hörnli matters

The Hörnli sector isn't just another corner of the resort. It's the physical link between Arosa and Lenzerheide, the two halves of one of Graubünden's largest combined ski areas, and its high altitude and favourable exposure make it one of the most snow-reliable parts of the whole region — valuable at both the start and end of the winter season. In summer, the area doubles as a mountain-biking hub, connecting to the Hörnli Trail and Lenzerheide's Bike Kingdom, part of a wider push toward a ten-month, not just five-month, mountain business model.

A company flush with cash — and reasons to spend it

The Hörnli project isn't emerging from nowhere. It follows what Arosa Bergbahnen has called the most successful financial year in its history, with first-time winter visitor numbers to Arosa Lenzerheide reaching 1.418 million — slightly below the previous year but still well above the five-year average.

That financial strength has fed years of steadily rising capital spending: from roughly CHF 6.6 million pencilled in for 2022/23, to CHF 8.2 million the following year — mostly for a new event venue and avalanche-protection infrastructure — and CHF 7.5 million more recently for piste and snowmaking upgrades around the Tschuggen area. Investment for the 2026/27 financial year is set to rise again, to around CHF 10 million, on top of the Hörnli spending, which will be spread over several years. Reporting on the company's 2025/2026 results noted the roughly CHF 67 million Hörnli project as a factor investors are watching closely for its implications for financial stability, even as the year's headline numbers were described as strongly positive.

The bigger picture: altitude as insurance

Arosa's spending spree fits a broader pattern reshaping the Alps. As snow-secure locations increasingly recognise their long-term advantage, high-altitude resorts are replacing old lifts with modern facilities and renovating restaurants, while ownership structures across the industry also shift.</cite> The flip side is stark: while resorts extending well above roughly 1,600 metres continue to find it worthwhile to invest in their future, lower-lying areas have faced a chronic lack of snow, and dozens of Swiss ski resorts have already ceased operations, with others on the brink.</cite> One tally cited by the Swiss press puts the number of shuttered Swiss ski areas at over 160.

The pattern isn't unique to Switzerland. Research on competition among Swiss ski areas has found that lift investments boost demand and revenue in the near term, while snowmaking investment reduces resorts' dependence on natural snowfall — though much of that demand gain reportedly comes at neighbouring resorts' expense, intensifying the pressure on operators to keep upgrading just to hold their position. Across the wider Alpine industry, the shift is now framed less as routine modernisation and more as risk management: ski resort investment worldwide is accelerating as operators upgrade lifts, expand snowmaking and adopt new technology, increasingly to manage climate variability, visitor flows, regulation and rising costs rather than simply to add comfort or capacity.

Some resorts are even looking for ways to make snowmaking pull double duty: engineers in Switzerland have begun exploring whether the reservoirs, pumps and snow cannons built for winter snowmaking could be repurposed in summer to help fight the wildfires that a warming Alpine climate is making more frequent

Set against that backdrop, Arosa's CHF 67 million bet on Hörnli looks less like an isolated capital project and more like a statement of confidence — a resort with the altitude, the balance sheet and, its management is wagering, the snow reliability to keep investing while others are forced to retreat.