Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
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News Roundup: Auction
- Sun Peaks applies for a permit to replace Crystal with a Doppelmayr fixed grip quad in a new alignment. The mountain is also getting its fifth James Niehues trail map.
- Ski Santa Fe and Sugar Mountain are getting new Niehues maps as well.
- Windham’s retired Wonderama triple is up for grabs.
- Granite Gorge, New Hampshire is listed for sale at a public auction July 8th but the ski area says it won’t happen.
- Hermitage Club President Harper Sibley resigns, citing an “unworkable” reopening plan. The bankruptcy case will proceed in a Vermont court.
- 85 year old Willy Garaventa recalls how the Squaw Valley tram project propelled his family’s company to eventually become the world leader in aerial tramways.
- A Montana community considers a co-op model for its shuttered ski area.
- Timberline, West Virginia’s owner may liquidate the ski assets.
- Bretton Woods’ gondola cabins are now hanging.
- Because 27 lifts isn’t enough, Big Sky is working on two more in Moonlight Basin and on Flatiron Mountain.
Instagram Tuesday: Mighty Gondolas
Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
New Quad to Anchor Woodward Mountain Park at Mt. Bachelor
Progression will be the name of the game next winter at a reimagined Sunrise base area on the east side of Mt. Bachelor. Powdr Co. today revealed three new lifts, a remodeled lodge and new parking lot will make up the first Woodward Mountain Park, designed to offer a fun and intuitive learning experience. Woodward Mountain Parks will eventually come to multiple Powdr resorts, building on the success of the company’s Woodward indoor action sports parks located throughout North America. At Mt. Bachelor, 70 foot and 300 foot covered carpets will be joined by a 629 foot long Doppelmayr quad chair servicing five new acres below the Sunrise Lodge.
“Woodward is all about stoking passion and I’m excited for our guests to enjoy reimagined on-mountain environments that’ll be fun for every age and ability level,” said John McLeod, president and general manager of Mt. Bachelor in a statement. “The Mt. Bachelor Woodward Mountain Park will debut expanded terrain and new and inclusive experiences that our guests will love. Combined with our significant Sunrise lodge and base area upgrades, we’re transforming the Mt. Bachelor the guest experience for the future.” Relatedly, Mt. Bachelor will debut a new trail map next winter painted by James Niehues.
Utah-based Powdr is on an epic building blitz. The Bachelor addition will be the fourth chairlift for the firm this year on top of new lodges at Killington and Lee Canyon, a major snowmaking upgrade at Pico and the all new Woodward Park City ski area. Last year, Powdr added six lifts at its resorts for an impressive total of ten in two years.
News Roundup: Stay Tuned
- Vermont sees its best season in four with 4.2 million skier visits.
- San Francisco’s Salesforce Transit Center will reopen July 1st and its mini tramway is undergoing testing.
- The Hermitage website is back with a reorganization plan posted.
- Berkshire Bank calls the Hermitage plan “not feasible” and members are stuck in the middle crowdfunding legal representation.
- Leitner-Poma expects 2020 to be as busy as 2018 was after a slightly quieter 2019.
- The Disney Skyliner evacuation boat gets a permanent home.
- Eaglecrest eyes building a $30+ million adventure park including a gondola replacement for Ptarmigan.
- MND Group’s LST division is working on another detachable lift.
- Before the Skyliner opens, take a look back at Walt Disney’s original vision for a gondola-connected resort.
- Stevens Pass is indeed moving the Skyline Express to make way for two new lifts and is considering even more lift projects in the future.
- U.S. ski areas paid record rent to the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management last year.
- Arizona Snowbowl is working on a master plan update which will include two new lift projects.
Instagram Tuesday: Here We Go
Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
News Roundup: Tallying
- Just in time for summer, the Sea to Sky Gondola welcomes ten more cabins to the line, increasing capacity by 50 percent.
- The Idaho Springs, Colorado city council may vote Monday on rezoning for a proposed 17 tower, 27 cabin gondola lift.
- Hermitage Club founder Jim Barnes explains his reorganization plan but for now, a receiver remains in place.
- Snowshoe is purportedly planning to replace Powder Monkey with a fixed grip quad next summer.
- Although it doesn’t build lifts in the United States, Bartholet has built some very slick machines lately.
- The Indy Pass grows to 28 resorts.
- A rocket from Syria damages a ski lift at Israel’s Mt. Hermon, where a Leitner gondola is also currently under construction.
- Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz launches a podcast with a great first episode about the Park City acquisition.
- The City of Steamboat is still weighing options for bringing in a private operator and/or replacing Barrows at Howelsen Hill.
- California Express notches another approval but litigation could be coming.
- Vail Resorts reports a great quarter: skier visits up 14.3 percent and lift revenue up 16.4 percent with season pass sales for next year trending up 9 percent and 13 percent in units and dollars. “We are still absolutely aggressive on looking for additional resorts that we think add to our network and make the experience that we provide our guests better,” says Rob Katz on the quarterly conference call.
- Quebec tallied 4.6 million skier visits last winter, a ten year high for a province with three new chairlifts already under construction for next year.
- New Hampshire resorts logged 100,000 more skier days than 2017-18.
- Colorado is king with 13.1 million estimated skier visits, a new record.
- This was supposed to be the summer the town of Grafton, Illinois celebrated a new gondola. Instead, 2019 will be remembered for the flooding that has thrown a wrench in its construction.
- Teo II is approved but has no timeline for construction yet.
Fatal Gondola Maintenance Accident in Switzerland
One worker was killed and six were injured this morning while performing maintenance work on an eight passenger gondola at the Swiss ski resort Engelberg-Titlis. The three most seriously hurt were transported to the hospital by helicopter. Cabins were not on the line and no guests were involved. The lift, called Engelberg-Trübsee, was built by Garaventa in 2015 and is operated by Bergbahnen Engelberg-Trübsee-Titlis AG.
Nineteen people were working on a routine haul rope splicing project at the time of the accident. The man who lost his life had worked for the resort firm for over 20 years. “It’s the darkest day in our company’s history,” said Chairman of the Board Hans Wicki at a press conference. “The deceased had many years of experience with maintenance and loved the work,” he continued.
An investigation into the accident will be performed by the Forensic Science Institute Zurich and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research.
Instagram Tuesday: P2P
Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
Exploring Big White’s Backcountry Project
As I first wrote last summer, Big White Ski Resort is eyeing its most ambitious expansion since the 1996 Gem Lake megaproject. This time, a pair of quad chairs are planned for east of the Black Forest Express, servicing 300 acres of new intermediate trails and glades within the mountain’s existing controlled recreation area. The expansion is in place of one once planned for west of Gem Lake. “The Black Forest Connector and Backcountry chairs will build on and complement the Black Forest ski pod, the most popular area at Big White,” notes Brent Harley and Associates, which prepared the plan. “Together, these chairlifts represent the full realization of the vision described in the 1999 Master Plan, and the fulfillment of the Controlled Recreation Area’s physical potential to offer a world class alpine skiing experience.”
A gorgeous new daylodge and parking lot opened at the base of Black Forest in 2015, encouraging regional guests to bypass the congested village portal. The upcoming lifts are envisioned as gateways to even more terrain planned for East Peak eventually. Both lifts would be 2,400 passenger per hour quads with Backcountry being detachable and Black Forest Connector being fixed grip. The former would rise 1,250 feet over a slope length of 4,977′ in under five minutes. The smaller lift would be about 4,354 feet long with a vertical of 666′ and ride time just under nine minutes.
Big White operates a mix of mostly older Doppelmayr lifts and a few newer Leitner-Poma models, so I could see either company winning the next contract. Just last year, the resort’s Powder triple was replaced with a Leitner-Poma Alpha quad. Big White initially intended to build both Backcountry lifts in 2019 but the project is still listed as “Under Review” by the province. Not to worry though, the resort is focusing on new bike trails, Gem Lake base area improvements and new employee housing this summer.
