- The first lift-served bike park in Texas opens January 18th with a fixed-grip quad called the Texas Eagle.
- What was once the longest triple chair on the continent is officially off the Sunrise Park trail map.
- Pajarito does a rope evac of the Aspen lift on opening day.
- Simultaneously, Whitefish evacuates East Rim, which goes over quite the cliff.
- Breckenridge brings out the ropes for the Quicksilver Super6 the same day.
- Yet another lift is rope evacuated at Loch Lomond, Ontario.
- 39 lawsuits have been filed against The Hermitage Club and its founder to date.
- Attitash provides daily updates on Summit, which has been down a bunch lately.
- Hickory, NY won’t reopen this winter.
- Killington still plans to open the new South Ridge quad sometime this winter.
- Map master James Niehues gives up on retirement and is painting a new trail map for Mt. Bachelor.
- The planned race training T-Bar at Sunday River is a go for this summer.
- A teenager dies from a chairlift fall at Blue Mountain, PA.
- A lucky nine year old keeps on skiing after falling 40 feet from Solitude’s Moonbeam Express.
- A teen girl dies after jumping from a quad chair in Quebec.
- Greater Vancouver’s transit agency still wants to build a gondola up Burnaby Mountain but needs funding for it.
Lift Blog 
I bet Attitash wishes they still had the Top Notch Double in their arsenal after this. That thing was invincible. Best built lift ever installed on that mountain by far.
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I would agree that they wish they still had it active. I’ve heard that the reason they haven’t upgraded the Triple is that it crosses into National Forest Service land which requires more permitting. It’s why the Flying Yankee stops where it does – any higher and it’s NFS land. Of course, other ski areas deal with this issue.
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That’s exactly the story on Flying Yankee. It ends about 40 feet from Nat. Forest land.
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a boy also fell off of ursa express at stratton around a week ago around tower 5. The only reason I know was because I was 5 chairs back, no news coverage about it, which was interesting. He looked fine, and ski patrol was only ~50 feet uphill coming to him.
Also Snowbowl express is making its debut tomorrow at 10am, its hidden in their snow report.
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With the cyclone triple at sunrise park, AZ off the map, is it possible that they may be replacing it with a high speed quad next summer?
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Rumor has it that lift failed it’s inspection and therefore cannot operate. Apparently it had something to do with the cable and they are going to replace the cable. Dosent look like a HSQ will happen this year, but may still be a possibility for the future.
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I finally made it to Sunrise today to take some pictures for the database and see what’s up. Cyclone could be done for good. The chairs and cable are gone as is most of the comm line. https://liftblog.com/cyclone-sunrise-park-az/
Eagle Feather appears to have been inoperable for a decade or longer. She still has the Yan plastic chairs and hub cap sheaves, although some of both have fallen apart. The remaining operating Yan lifts were upgraded with Doppelmayr sheaves. Cyclone got new chairs but only a few new sheave assemblies. I suspect that is one of the reasons she is no more. https://liftblog.com/eagle-feather-sunrise-park-az/
Rustler also was not operating this holiday week and looks quite rusty. It is in better shape than the two abandoned Yans though. https://liftblog.com/rustler-sunrise-park-az/
It seems the Tribe overbuilt in the 1980s and has struggled to maintain the infrastructure ever since. Two of the large day lodges appear to be abandoned. Sunrise has superb skiing but it is very remote. I get the feeling it doesn’t always have the boat loads of snow it did today.
High speed quads for Cyclone and Geronimo would be great but don’t hold your breath. It felt like I was exploring a lost ski area today, unfortunately.
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Very cool that you were able to make it down there. Thanks for all the photos and sharing.
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I skied there on a crowded day in Feb 2008. I think all the lifts were still running at that time. It was the first day they got the roads open after a big storm, business was booming that day. Cyclone and mid-mountain lifts were short lines.
As for length, was Cyclone longer than Killington’s Northeast Passage? The light side on that lift was crazy high with the skipped towers, must have been a heck of a bounce when the lift stopped.
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How long is Cyclone? The original Northeast Passage chair (also Yan) I think was over 9,000 feet long.
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Northeast Passage was 9,243. Cyclone was 7,982
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Looking at the sunrise trail map it seems like they could service all of their terrain with half of the lifts that were built. Perhaps in the days before snowbowl was rebuilt by Mountain Capital and serviced with snow making, sunrise generated the skier visits that would have justified 8 chairlifts. I’m guessing snowbowl has picked up a lot of their business. In Arizona it probably helps to be close to a decent sized town so you have access to high quality wastewater for snow making. Everyone is probably on septic in the sparsely populated environs around sunrise so they are SOL (pun intended).
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Interestingly, the map at the top of the James Niehues article, that he is working on is Gunstock, NH.
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Pajarito update: Aspen and now Townsight are both closed indefinitely due to mechanical issues. The two Riblet center poles are saving the day!
https://www.pajarito.ski/snow-report/
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https://www.instagram.com/p/BsJHiJzBakN/
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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
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May she be dismantled and recycled in peace.
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