--- title: "Antidote turns the ski lift into its engine" locale: "en" url: "https://irz.fr/en/articles/antidote-ski-lift-engine-en" markdown_url: "https://irz.fr/en/articles/antidote-ski-lift-engine-en.md" category: "craft" tags: ["industrial design", "mountains", "mobility", "Antidote", "University of Ljubljana", "tourism"] published_at: "2026-08-28T09:01:00.000Z" author: "Léa Perrin" translation: "https://irz.fr/fr/articles/antidote-ski-lift-engine-fr.md" --- # Antidote turns the ski lift into its engine Antidote carries no motor: the lift supplies altitude and gravity supplies the descent. The real product is a loop built around existing ski infrastructure. Antidote describes itself as a mountain trike with “no onboard motor.” On the vehicle, that is accurate. Once the whole resort enters the frame, the claim gets more interesting. The prototype designed by Matic Čič and Vid Lebič only needs gravity to travel downhill.[1](https://www.dezeen.com/2026/08/26/gravity-powered-mountain-trike-university-ljubljana-slovenia-schoolshows/) To repeat the ride, however, both rider and machine have to regain altitude. The project explicitly relies on infrastructure ski resorts already own: **slopes and lifts**.[1](https://www.dezeen.com/2026/08/26/gravity-powered-mountain-trike-university-ljubljana-slovenia-schoolshows/) In practice, the lift performs the energy work the vehicle does not carry onboard. That dependency is what makes Antidote useful to study. It is not simply a fun three-wheeled vehicle. It is an attempt to build a summer product around infrastructure sized for winter. ## The motor sits elsewhere A ski resort holds a huge amount of capital that does not vanish in spring: lifts, slopes, access roads, maintenance facilities and visitor buildings. When snow disappears, those assets do not disappear with it. Čič and Lebič developed Antidote during their industrial design master's programme at the University of Ljubljana. The project starts explicitly from snow-scarce winters and the problem faced by lower-altitude resorts looking for other uses.[1](https://www.dezeen.com/2026/08/26/gravity-powered-mountain-trike-university-ljubljana-slovenia-schoolshows/) Zavod Big, which recognized their work, describes research into tourism practices and how successful destinations strengthen their offer outside winter.[2](https://zavodbig.com/matic-cic-in-vid-lebic/) The vehicle adds no new energy source to the site; it plugs into a loop that already exists. > **The real system is bigger than the trike** > Loop showing a ski lift carrying the trike uphill, followed by a gravity descent and return to the lift > - THE LIFT SUPPLIES THE ALTITUDE > - LIFT grid energy > - TOP potential energy > - DESCENT gravity > - BOTTOM brake + repeat > - No onboard motor does not mean no energy: infrastructure moves the energy outside the vehicle. > Antidote moves propulsion outside the vehicle: the grid and lift create altitude, then gravity returns that energy during the descent. It is a simple example of a useful design idea: **removing a function from an object does not necessarily remove that function from the system**. It can be moved into infrastructure. ## Steering with the body The prototype still brings a specific mechanism of its own. To turn Antidote, the rider shifts body weight. A pendulum-based mechanism translates whole-body movement into turns intended to feel like carving somewhere between sledding, skiing and mountain biking.[1](https://www.dezeen.com/2026/08/26/gravity-powered-mountain-trike-university-ljubljana-slovenia-schoolshows/) The designers say they worked with ski-resort operators and refined the machine through iterative testing until they had a functional prototype.[1](https://www.dezeen.com/2026/08/26/gravity-powered-mountain-trike-university-ljubljana-slovenia-schoolshows/) The steering mechanism is ultimately newer than the lack of a motor. On a conventional gravity cart, handlebars and brakes carry most of the control. Antidote tries to turn **the rider's body into the steering interface**, bringing the gesture closer to a snow or board sport. For a resort, that distinction can matter. A new vehicle does not only compete with other vehicles. It also competes with the sensations visitors associate with skiing, snowboarding and downhill mountain biking. ## The business idea already exists Some novelty needs to be stripped out of the story. The market is not waiting for Antidote to put motorless three-wheelers on summer slopes. La Plagne, for example, operates Mountain Carts carried uphill by chairlift or gondola.[3](https://www.skipass-laplagne.com/fr/mountain-cart) The carts run on dedicated tracks and use hydraulic brakes; the resort sells routes up to 4.4 kilometres long with 620 metres of vertical drop.[3](https://www.skipass-laplagne.com/fr/mountain-cart) The economic loop is already proven: **charging for a gravity descent after a lift ride already exists as a tourism product**. > NOT THE FIRST CART > **What Antidote actually changes** > - three wheels, no motor, handlebars, hydraulic brakes: Mountain Cart > - slopes plus chairlift or gondola already reused: Infrastructure > - pendulum steering through body-weight shifts: Antidote > - a carving sensation closer to snow sports: Promise > The novelty sits more in the steering interface than in the resort business model. The comparison does not sink Antidote; it clarifies what is actually worth prototyping. The designers do not need to prove from zero that customers will pay to roll downhill on three wheels. Prototyping can focus on what differentiates their machine: steering, handling, lift transport and operations. ## One more season “Off-season” needs a little precision too. At La Plagne, Mountain Carts operate during the summer season on open lifts and prepared tracks.[3](https://www.skipass-laplagne.com/fr/mountain-cart) Antidote targets the same general reuse pattern: keep a resort active when snow can no longer support the main product.[1](https://www.dezeen.com/2026/08/26/gravity-powered-mountain-trike-university-ljubljana-slovenia-schoolshows/) None of that turns a resort into an impact-free activity. Lifts consume energy. Tracks need maintenance. Vehicles need transport, inspection and braking hardware. Summer visitors also change how the landscape is used. The student claim is therefore more credible when kept modest: **less need for new construction**, not “impact-free tourism.”[1](https://www.dezeen.com/2026/08/26/gravity-powered-mountain-trike-university-ljubljana-slovenia-schoolshows/) Zavod Big similarly frames the thesis around using existing infrastructure more efficiently and helping destinations differentiate themselves rather than inventing an entirely new activity.[2](https://zavodbig.com/matic-cic-in-vid-lebic/) ## Design around sunk capital Antidote was also exhibited in 2026 at Cankarjev dom's *Freshly Painted* exhibition, where it appears as sports equipment intended to expand what ski resorts can offer.[4](https://www.cd-cc.si/en/culture/exhibitions/freshly-painted) That framing captures the project fairly well. The trike alone is only part of the product. The full product is a machine distinctive enough to make the descent desirable, a way to carry it back uphill, terrain the operator already controls and an organization capable of repeating the loop all day. For a designer or maker, the constraint is useful: before adding a battery, motor, structure or building, ask **which part of the problem the environment already handles**. With Antidote, the mountain provides the slope and the resort provides the lift. The vehicle can focus on what remains: giving the descent a product value of its own. ## References 1. [Gravity-powered mountain trike among projects from the University of Ljubljana, Dezeen, August 26, 2026](https://www.dezeen.com/2026/08/26/gravity-powered-mountain-trike-university-ljubljana-slovenia-schoolshows/) 2. [Matic Čič in Vid Lebič, Zavod Big](https://zavodbig.com/matic-cic-in-vid-lebic/) 3. [Mountain Cart, La Plagne — summer 2026 activity](https://www.skipass-laplagne.com/fr/mountain-cart) 4. [Freshly Painted, Cankarjev dom — 2026 exhibition](https://www.cd-cc.si/en/culture/exhibitions/freshly-painted)