- Doppelmayr will bring D-Line to France for the first time this fall.
- A child is okay after falling from a Big White chairlift onto a busy road.
- Ski California to host its first Lift Maintenance and Operations Education Conference June 5-7 at Squaw Valley.
- After weathering a challenging season with a narrow profit, Sunlight considers building a truly new lift for the first time in half a century.
- An empty cabin falls from an early model Poma gondola in France, leading to a rope evacuation and significant media attention.
- Fatzer produces a 6.5 mile long, 60 mm wide rope for what may be the new longest monocable gondola, location unknown.
- Mt. Timothy, BC is “flat broke” and will likely close without public funding.
- Leitner delivers the first Symphony cabin for the world’s highest 3S by helicopter.
- The financially-challenged Hermitage Club closes for the season.
- Garaventa names a new CEO.
- A state economic development authority delays consideration of a $28 million loan guarantee for The Balsams.
Lift Blog 
It would be great to see lift upgrade(s) at Sunlight. Right now you have to hop on Segundo or Tereco in order to access the top of the mountain via Primo. Having a bottom to top HSQ or FGQ would be great. While I love the old Riblets there, Segundo has been around since the late 50s or early 60s if you count the time she spent at Aspen before being relocated. The small lift maintenance team there has done a great job trying to keep it safe.
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Think that Sunlight should merge Tercero and Primero lift in to 1 high speed quad with a mid Station! This will reduce the cost of maintainence on the two lifts and it will be easier to find replacement parts. This will also take out the 15 minute ride time to the top to about 8 minutes!
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Yes, that might work great. and put a few carpets or T-Bars or J-Bars in the area of the lower mountain too.
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Question for anyone who may read this:
What do we think is the best lift system out there? Could it be the new Leitner System (shown in the video above), LPA (North American), Uni-G, D-Line, or another system?
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I’ve always preferred Doppelmayr systems, the UNI-G in my opinion’s always been a reliable, sleek, and efficient lift system. Hopefully the D-Line could carry on its predecessor’s legacy.
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Reliability wise- I think they are both about equal. Technology wise, I get the hunch that Doppie has a slight advantage over LP.
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Definitely prefer Doppelmayr! There are a ton of LPA systems here in Colorado and I feel like even the brand new or year or two old ones have all kind of rattles, pieces seem loose and the ride is rougher. The LPA carriers also seem to give off a “cheap” quality to me for some reason.
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Doppelmayr might have the advantage on technology, smooth ride, etc, but LP has the speed. Here’s my video of Gore Mountain’s Adirondack Express II, installed in 2014 cruising right along at 1100 fpm. I’ve never seen a Doppelmayr chairlift go that fast.
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That’s true, most Doppelmayr chairs in NA run at 5 m/s (1000 fpm). With the introduction of D-Line (can run at 7 m/s or 1378 fpm), to the US in the Ramcharger 8 and Disney Skyliner, it’s quite possible that future Doppelmayr chairs will run considerably faster than they already are. Not to mention, most LP lifts run at 5 m/s / 1000 fpm.
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Timberline Express at copper could originally run 1100 but this was found to cause excessive wear on the grips and rails so the lift was run for public at 1000. We used to peg it in the morning to do pre-operation checks. Funny fact some body at Doppelmayr must have been a Spinal Tap fan as the speed dial goes to 11.
LPOA has its own unique product from the group, I believe the Multix line used in Europe is very comparable to the Doppelmayr Uni series. The D-line from what I have seen is a premium product selected for lifts that are either flagship lifts or mainline lifts which require short down times.
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I was looking at the Mt. Timothy article and it mentioned that the lift being struck by lightning cost them quite a bit of money. How do you not have insurance for a lightning strike? Seems so irresponsible to not have coverage for lightning.
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Sounds as though the 3.25 mile monocable gondola is another island hopper by Sun Group connecting Cat Hai and Cat Ba near Hanoi.
https://saigoneer.com/saigon-development/10091-work-begins-on-$3bn-tourism-complex-on-cat-ba-island,-threatening-national-park
That would give Vietnam the four longest lifts in the world.
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For Sunlight, I’ll believe when I see it. I could say a lot about Sunlight operations but I’ll keep away from that. There actually was going to be a new owner some time ago who said he would install new lifts but that sale fell apart.
At first I though like above and build a bottom to top HSQ or even a HST with a mid unload but I have had second thoughts. Tercero serves pretty much the only place Sunlight makes snow and is usually the first to open. So if you got rid of it with a mid unload then that will make for a useless HSQ for a couple weeks or even a month like this year. (Granted you could use half but still.)
I think Tercero should (will stay) and Primo will go being the oldest in the fleet. I think Sunlight could do just fine with a FGQ bottom to top unless they want to go all in. Segundo (it’s not the oldest actually) could also be either replaced or relocated to the east side to serve the expert terrain which Sunlight is known for. When I used to ski there Segundo was never that busy and sometimes not open at all.
In the end Sunlight could do just fine with two lifts.
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