Flathead tram proposal returns for second look

It takes about an hour’s drive to reach a high-altitude panorama of Glacier National Park. One of its recreation concessionaires wants to trim that to six minutes.

Pursuit Attractions and Hospitality Inc. has revived a proposal to build a 100-person tram service on Columbia Mountain, on the west edge of Hungry Horse about six miles outside the park’s southwest border. It would offer 280-degree views eastward into the park and westward across the Flathead Valley without the anxiety of navigating the Going to the Sun Road’s twists and cliff edges.

Flathead National Forest officials rejected a 2022 version of the plan in a preliminary review before any public process got underway. At the time, the agency cited conflicts with the Flathead Forest’s recently adopted forest plan regarding construction in an inventoried roadless area where recreation impacts were still being evaluated.

The 2026 proposal varies little from the earlier one, according to Pursuit Chief Operating Officer Gary Rodgers, except to operate year-round instead of seasonally. It would still feature a base facility in Hungry Horse and a café about 3,000 vertical feet above. The project would not require any new roads for construction, Rodgers said.

“The biggest change since 2022 is this process — we want to tell the public and the northwest Montana citizens exactly what we’re proposing,” Rodgers told Montana Free Press. “We’ll be evaluating that on a regular basis and monitor what that feedback is. We hope if nothing else people understand what is being proposed.”

In addition to navigating the Forest Service review, Rodgers said Pursuit will use its project website to track community responses. The process is expected to run between 60 and 90 days.

Some critics have already lodged objections. Keith Hammer, the chairman of the environmental advocacy group Swan View Coalition, said the top station would put a facility in place that’s confusingly designated for both “primitive” and “semi-primitive” recreation in different parts of the Flathead National Forest policies.

“There’s the rub,” Hammer told MTFP. “On the one hand, it’s for motorized use and on the other hand it isn’t.” He added the top station site also would be built in prime grizzly bear habitat, adding to potential conflicts with human activity. 

Columbia Mountain towers over the South Fork of the Flathead River and, with Teakettle Mountain to the north, forms the visual gateway between the Flathead Valley and Glacier Park’s more dramatic landscape. It looms above a busy U.S. Highway 2 corridor of tourist activities, including zip-lines, whiskey distilleries, helicopter tours, river-floating guides, RV parks and motels. Columbia Mountain also features the northern end of the Alpine Trail, which runs 70 miles along the crest of the Swan Range through Jewel Basin and into the Bob Marshall Wilderness. The northern tip is accessible by motorbike and e-bike.

Flathead National Forest Supervisor Anthony Botello called Pursuit “an established and valued partner in providing recreation opportunities,” in a Oct.1 press release announcing the start of a screening process of the proposal. If it passes the screening, the proposal would then go through environmental analysis and public review.

Pursuit’s corporate ancestor was Glacier Park Inc., which for roughly 60 years held the concession for most of the historic hotels inside the park such as Lake McDonald Lodge and Many Glacier Hotel. It lost that contract to Xanterra Parks and Resorts in 2013, but retained control of several smaller properties including motels, rental cabins, a river guide service near Lake McDonald on the west side, and the original Glacier Park Lodge just outside the park in East Glacier. Pursuit owns numerous other recreational facilities in the United States, Canada, Iceland and Costa Rica.

Unlike the chairlifts and gondolas at nearby Whitefish Mountain Ski Resort, Pursuit’s tram would have just two large carriages rising and lowering on a cable without intermediate pylon towers for support. Each carriage would hold between 100 and 125 people, giving it capacity to move between 600 and 1,000 people an hour. Rodgers said the completed facility would provide about 230 jobs “through construction and ongoing operations,” according to an independent economic analysis Pursuit commissioned.