- In a decision the Durango Herald calls a “bombshell,” the Forest Service proposes granting road access to the controversial Village at Wolf Creek, which would include two new lifts near Wolf Creek Ski Area’s new Meadow quad.
- Magic Mountain’s new Green lift is set to debut this winter but the Black Line Quad may not spin until 2019.
- Tawatinaw Valley, a county-owned ski hill in Alberta with three T-Bars, will go out of business on October 1st due to continued losses.
- The price of steel is up up 33 percent in the United States so far this year and companies like Caterpillar and Polaris are increasing prices as a result.
- The first Doppelmayr/Garaventa lift with D-Line cubic glass enclosures comes together in Switzerland.
- A Yan triple from Squaw Valley hits the market in Idaho (looks like East Broadway, retired in 2012.)
- Loveland’s new high-speed quad gets a name: Chet’s Dream.
- Opening of the Transbay Transit Center tramway in San Francisco slips to September.
- A refurbished Riblet quad from the closed ski resort in Drumheller Valley, Alberta goes up for sale.
- Alterra officially takes the reigns at Solitude.
- Leitner-Poma of America President Rick Spear goes on the MarketScale Transportation Podcast to discuss the ski lift business and growth of urban cable transport.
- With two Mueller lifts in need of work, Mt. Timothy, BC will likely close if it can’t find a buyer.
- Big White’s retired Powder triple is headed to Red Mountain.
- Copper Mountain commits to building its fourth new lift in three years, a Leitner-Poma triple on Tucker Mountain in 2019.
- The Miriam Fire is burning uncomfortably close to White Pass Ski Area.
Lift Blog 
any idea where the Powder lift will be going at Red? Is this instead of the T-bar?
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Yes- Topping Creek connector lift between Silverlode and Grey Mountain. Should be 2019, not 2018 as the lift is still standing at Big White.
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What happened to the T-Bar idea?
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I can’t think of any suitable used T-Bars that were available over the past year.
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The YAN lift for sale in Idaho does not appear to be Bailey’s Beach as it doesn’t feature the “purple” trim around the top of the lift operator shack. However. it does appear to be 80s vintage based on that gearbox.
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I find it a bit curious that Alterra closed the Solitude aquistion but has yet to clarify how/if Solitude will be added to the IKON Pass. Perhaps its because Solitude does not have the SkiData gates required? Any thoughts here?
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Mammoth, June, Snowbird, Alta, Copper, and Sugarbush all have Axess gates like Solitude. Killington will probably also be Axess. I was at a mountain earlier this summer that was using SKIDATA cards with Axess gates so I’m thinking they are now compatible. The gate infrastructure is so expensive it doesn’t make sense for resorts to switch when they are acquired or change pass affiliation. I believe Whistler Blackcomb is still using SKIDATA gates unlike the rest of Vail Resorts because they cost CAD$5.9 million to install and are basically brand new.
I think you will see Solitude Ikon access announced very soon.
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Alterra has a little Lorem Ipsum going on in that link :)
Also, it says details about Ikon and Solitude will be announced at a later date, it sounds like they’re still determining whether to make it limited or full access. IMO, it makes sense as full access on the standard Ikon and limited on the base, as that’s pretty close to other season passes in the area, and they can’t add too many crowds, the mountain was already close to capacity on weekends. It also lets them sell the to Utah residents, as it simply didn’t compete with Epic before.
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So does anyone know the plans on any other Solitude lift replacement besides the Sunrise lift or any expansions that could happen?
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Nothing official but within the next few years, expect replacement of Eagle Express, it turns 30 next year.
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They want to build that gondola that would be their leg of One Wasatch.
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