- The Vermont Passenger Tramway Board won’t allow the Jay Peak Tram to operate until its carriages are overhauled and controls upgraded, which Doppelmayr says will cost $4.9 million. Not to worry, the court-appointed receiver says although “it kind of sucks that it has to happen now,” the work is scheduled and summer tram rides will happen.
- The replacement for the La Bufa Cable Car in Zacatecas faces delays over concerns about visual impacts. Poma delivered parts for the pulse gondola lift last winter.
- Mexico’s National Action Party criticizes the bidding process for Torreón’s new 8-passenger gondola but construction continues.
- Les Otten still hopes to break ground at The Balsams this summer but doesn’t have all the financing he needs.
- Austin’s Wire gondola proposal gets some exposure.
- Sandia Peak mulls the future of its retired tram cars.
- The Kottke survey is out and U.S. ski areas hosted 53.9 million skier visits last season, up slightly from 2014-15. The Pacific Northwest saw its best season ever, up 142 percent, while the Rockies were +8 percent, Pacific Southwest +53 percent and the three Eastern regions declined.
- North America is up to 36 new lifts for 2016, up slightly from 2015. For comparison, resorts in Austria, France and Switzerland have ordered 94 lifts for an area roughly the size of Colorado Austria alone is getting 20 new gondolas! Last year the same three countries built 75 new lifts.
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