Not only was it the final day of the ski season, but for many longtime skiers and riders, it was the last time one of Whiteface’s most iconic chairlifts on the mountain — the Little Whiteface double — was in operation.

The lift — as well as the parallel Mountain Run double chairlift — are slated to be taken down later this summer and replaced with a new one that will be ready to go by the start of next season, according to Whiteface General Manager Aaron Kellett.

For old times’ sake, mountain operations staff members gave the public one last chance to ride the Little Whiteface chair for a couple of hours Sunday afternoon. The lift hadn’t run in some time and the loading and unloading ramps, which had become completely bare in the warmer weather, needed to be re-covered with snow.

The Little Whiteface double was installed in the 1980s in its current iteration — with significant improvements made to its upper line in the early 2010s. It was the only lift to service the summit of Little Whiteface until the Cloudsplitter Gondola was completed in 1999. The Little Whiteface double features a “mid-station” — an elevated platform at the top of the Mountain Run ski trail that allows chairlift users to “touch down” on the ramp for a brief time.

Ian Urquhart preps the loading area for the Little Whiteface double chairlift at the Whiteface Mountain ski resort on Sunday. The lift spun for one final time that afternoon before it is slated to be replaced this summer. (Enterprise photo — Chris Gaige)

Riders have the option of either standing up, and skiing or snowboarding down the ramp or remaining seated on the chairlift before it pulls away and continues onward to the Little Whiteface summit, where its top unloading station is.

The lift was cherished by many advanced and expert skiers for the “quick laps” that it provided from its mid-station. Skiers and riders were whisked up to the chairlift’s mid-station in only a few.

Trail options from there included Mountain Run — which follows directly under the lift line — and the nearby Wilderness, Thruway and Parkway runs. All of these trails are black diamonds and rated for advanced skiers and snowboarders. They provide just under 1,000 feet of vertical drop over about a half mile, depending on trail, back to the Little Whiteface and Mountain Run chairlifts’ loading stations.

Kellett said it was all about location when it came to the chairlift.

“What our guests really like about the Little Whiteface double the most right now is that you can stay on the expert trails, you don’t have to go all the way back down to the gondola,” he said. “On any nice day, you can basically stay on an expert trail and keep lapping the Little Whiteface lift. And then you have Legacy Lodge right there at the bottom of the lift. … You can just keep lapping those trails, stop by the Legacy Lodge and hang out, then hop right back on the Little Whiteface lift.”

The Mountain Run Double chairlift, for its part, was installed in 1989, and paralleled the Little Whiteface Double to the top of the Mountain Run ski trail. The lifts used the same towers for much of their lift lines before diverging into separate sets of towers, as the Mountain Run Double chairlift ended at the top of its namesake ski trail, rather than continuing to the Little Whiteface summit as the Little Whiteface Double chairlift does.

At the time, the “double double” was crucial to handling large crowds on busy days, especially as the Little Whiteface double was the only lift servicing that area of the ski resort when it was first installed. Subsequent mountain expansions, mainly the building of the Cloudsplitter Gondola to service the Little Whiteface area, as well as the Lookout Mountain area that opened in 2008, helped to spread crowds out and take much of the traffic away from these two chairlifts. As a result, the Mountain Run double chairlift was seldom used.

Kellett said a big reason for the replacement was getting rid of the Mountain Run double chairlift, which the ski resort still had to maintain under required lift codes and standards, even though it wasn’t being used much.

Along with that, the Little Whiteface double chairlift had seen a lot of action and was nearing the end of its lifespan, with continued usage likely requiring a lot of maintenance time.

“The lift was our primary summer and winter lift from the ’80s until (1999) when the gondola was installed,” Kellett said. “It has a tremendous amount of hours. It’s seen a lot of use.”

As opposed to the “double double” current setup, the new lift will be a one double lift, and will generally follow the same lift line. Kellett said the lower towers would be moved slightly to match up with the upper lift line, and that the replacement will also have a mid-station.

The new lift will be installed by Skytrac, a company that installed the Warhorse and Falcon Flyer chairlifts at Whiteface. The Summit Quad also has similar components. Kellett said it was “great” from a maintenance standpoint to have continuity in the manufacturer across several lifts, as mechanics are working with similar systems and parts across the mountain.