- Poma’s largest single lift contract ever is worth more than $110 million for a six station, 100 cabin 3S system in China.
- Whitecap Mountains still wants to build its first new lift since 1991 but doesn’t yet have funding.
- A 70 year old woman is okay after falling from Whistler’s new Emerald 6 Express last Saturday.
- Doppelmayr will introduce two new products at Interalpin: a new 3S cabin called Atria and something called Smart Ropeway.
- Mi Teleférico crosses the 200,000,000 passenger mark and is on track to transport more than 40 million by gondola this year.
- A feasibility study will look at whether Teton Pass could reopen as private company, nonprofit or co-op.
- West Mountain confirms a Partek quad will replace its last classic chairlift.
- Casper, Wyoming is unlikely to put six figures towards a Hogadon quad chairlift after all.
- The Glenwood Gondola reopens today with all 44 cabins.
- The Hermitage Club founder’s wife files for bankruptcy and lists $8.5 million in debt related to the closed ski resort.
- Mount St. Louis Moonstone’s Louis Express is up for sale.
- Arapahoe Basin is in talks with the Mountain Collective and others about possibly joining a multi-resort pass on a limited basis.
- A judge will consider whether to place Timberline Resort into receivership next Thursday.
Lift Blog 
Doppelmayr has been rumored to be working on a more-affordable detach product. Obviously, it’s just a rumor, but do you think they may drop any hints regarding it at Interalpin? It seems like if they were going to say something about a more affordable detach product, than it would be bigger news and we’d here about it, so not getting my hopes up for anything. I just know there’s a lot of resorts that are/would be interested in doing something about their heavily-traveled fixed-grip lifts if they felt like there was a cost-effective solution for them. It seems like loading carpets on faster line speed lifts has helped alleviate some of that pressure.
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Regarding mount saint louis high speed quad going up for sale, is there a possibility it will be removed and be replaced by a high speed six (or eight person) chair in the near future?
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My prediction is that a new 8 person ends up on the new Venture peak and Promanade is moved to replace Louis Express
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Rumours have it that Doppelmyr has nearly ended new Uni-g sales in europe moving almost exclusively to the D-line and that they also plan to phase out the UNi-g completely in about 5 years.
I would guess that a much lighter design that would support use in only quads and non enclosed six packs would be necessitated if the Uni-g goes away as the D-line is definitely a premium product and unlikely to be a hot seller in some markets.
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Uni-G is almost 20 years old. The DT and Agamatic grips are almost 25 years old. It’s not surprising that Doppelmayr is trying to phase out this technology for new D-Line technology. Don’t get me wrong, those are great designs, but they are getting older.
As for it not being a “hot seller”, D-Line has been officially avaliable in the USA for a couple years, and they’ve only had two installations. This should tell you something about the target audience. Doppelmayr is hoping to get into alternative markets (see Disney Skyliner) with the D-Line, as it incorporates features that make it more attractive for urban transport.
Perhaps will see a new North American specific detach design, that more closely mirrors the American-style Uni-G, but uses D-Line technology. This isn’t like Doppelmayr, but it seems like Doppelmayr USA and Wolfurt have grown more distant recently.
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Hot seller comment was just referring to the D-line being a premium product and the US not having much of a market for premium lifts, we are saying the same thing.
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If Doppelmayr USA doesn’t realize how much of the market they would lose to LPA if they cancelled the Uni-G without replacement, they should go bankrupt from sheer stupidity.
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If they discontinue the UNI-G they will probably offer lifts using D-Line technology at a similar price point. There are many super luxury lifts that use UNI-G technology. No reason one detachable product can’t cover the entire market.
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LPOA can only increase market share if they increase production and installation staff. Keep in mind both companies’ North American divisions were maxed out last season. I don’t see Doppelmayr going anywhere as the market for new lifts, especially detachables, is only increasing. If anything there’s room for a third major player, although I’m not sure who that would be at this point. BMF has no presence over here and LST seems not to be pushing their product.
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Your comment has made me think about Skytrac in the detachable game. Once upon a time they had an agreement to be the NA distributor of BMF. Now that Skytrac is part of the Seeber/Leitner group, that may or may not have fallen apart. I’m personally interested in seeing them introduce a product using the LPA grip. To differentiate it from LPOA’s product, it would use many of Skytrac’s current designs, like chairs, towers, line equipment, and even drive systems. The terminals could use LPA tire banks, with a Monarch drive transplanted inside.
I would imagine that this would most likely cannibalize Doppelmayr USA’s market share more than it would L-P’s market share. Skytrac is still a young company, and probably cautious about spending too much R&D money right now.
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Would have been nice, but Skytrac is now entirely focused on FG and Retrofits.
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what type of lift is West replacing with that Partek? I’m happy to see Partek is still alive, btw.
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A 1971 Thiokol.
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