- Purgatory Resort closes indefinitely and is under a mandatory evacuation order due to the nearby 416 Fire.
- Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz tells analysts in a conference call there are still select acquisition opportunities in North America (with more elsewhere) and that there are no specific plans yet for the $35 million in capital earmarked for Okemo, Mt. Sunapee, Crested Butte and Stevens Pass.
- Swiss manufacturer BMF and French competitor LST team up to sell urban ropeways in France.
- The Forest Service tentatively approves Steamboat’s Pioneer Ridge expansion, Bashor Gondola and other new lifts.
- A plan for the complete rebuild and reopening of Denton Hill, Pennsylvania is now online.
- Less than a month after opening its first two urban gondolas, the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo unveils plans for a massive 6.8 mile, six station 3S gondola line.
- Politicians block Gunstock from borrowing $600,000 for lift maintenance and other offseason projects as some call for a private takeover of the county-owned ski resort.
- French lift website remontees-mecaniques.net interviews Sigma CEO Yannick Morand about premium Evo & Symphony gondola cabins, air conditioning and why ten passengers are the new eight.
- Non-Vail Colorado resorts tallied 7.1 million skier visits last season, only 2 percent below 2016-17.
- The Balsams developers request that the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority delay consideration of its $28 million state-backed loan application.
Lift Blog 
I think it’s interesting how this Steamboat expansion has played out. They had initially been focused on Sunshine II to add more gentle cruising terrain, which is a gap there. This is why they had slated a six-seater for the Elk Head replacement so as to handle the extra traffic that would have needed to come back north to Thunderhead/Christie in the afternoon.
But instead they went with a quad, which perhaps should have portended that Sunshine II had moved down below Pioneer in the pecking order. Given how little traffic Pony Express receives, and the composition of the visitors to Steamboat, I’m pretty surprised about this. Sunshine is always full from 10:30 onwards. I’ve never waited more than 4-5 chairs at Pony even on powder days in holiday periods.
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It does seem a bit awkward, however- I am very pleased that there will be some help to the Gondola to get people out of the base area and up to some of the action in the mornings!
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Speaking of 10 passenger Sigma cabins, the New Zealand government just approved $7 million for a new gondola at Whakapapa. It will have the new Leitner Symphony-style stations and Diamond Evo cabins. This is notable because Leitner-Poma of America generally supplies lifts to New Zealand and Australia but they have not yet built any lifts with these stations and cabins in North America. I hope this means they will be offered as premium options to compete against D-Line here.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12071283
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What are the Symphony’s capabilities? I know that D-Lines can do 7m/s.
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The Leitner website says up to 6 m/s. The new stations still use the LPA grips that are compatible with many other Leitner, Poma and LPOA station designs.
https://www.leitner-ropeways.com/en/products/ropeway-systems/the-new-leitner-station/
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Is this what Copper’s using for their new lifts, or are those just modified LPA terminals modified to have Direct Drives?
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Likely not; Leitner (or LPA) would’ve specified the availability of the Symphony in North America, something which Doppelmayr explicitly did with D-Line when it was released in 2016 (they stated that it would be available in North America from 2017 onwards)
Besides, some Leitner Multix stations in Europe have direct drives, so DD is not exclusive to the Symphony.
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Zephyr, American Eagle and American Flyer will all use regular LPOA terminals with direct drives inside. Zephyr and the new Flyer will also have normal Diamond cabins, not Diamond Evo.
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What is the L.P. Direct Drive? How does it differ from their current offerings and how does it compare to the Doppelmayr D-Line or their current generation of lifts?
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Here’s a breakdown of what a direct drive is in general: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_drive_mechanism
I’m pretty sure that the D-Line also uses direct drive. The main two things I see that distinguish the D-Line are the fact that the D-Line does 7 m/s, while every other monocable can only do 6 m/s, and that the D-Line has a dedicated station, while Leitner’s DirectDrive (I don’t think that the name has a space) is just an option for a bunch of different stations, among them Poma’s Multix, Leitner’s Symphony, and LPA’s creatively named LPA.
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I confirmed the Whakapapa gondola will be built by Leitner Italy, not Leitner-Poma.
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Encouraging news….
Purgatory mandatory evacuation order lifted; resort to remain closed
https://www.purgatoryresort.com/mandatory-evacuations-lifted-at-purgatory/
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