- Arapahoe Basin becomes the fourth US resort to reopen for skiing during coronavirus, including the soon-to-be-replaced Pallavicini chair for one final run.
- Washington’s Crystal Mountain will host two weeks of socially distanced spring skiing beginning Monday.
- While open for skiing with two high speed quads, Timberline Lodge works to replace the rope on a third and starts building the new Pucci Express all at the same time.
- The only amusement park with a chairlift in Indiana isn’t going out of business after all.
- Many state fair lifts won’t run at all this year: the California State Fair, Minnesota State Fair, Ohio State Fair and Wisconsin State Fair have all been canceled.
- Mt. Roberts Tramway rebrands as Juneau Tram.
- Sunshine Village cancels its entire summer season.
- A local resident continues to push for a San Diego urban gondola.
- One of the only people allowed to enter New Zealand recently is an expert helping to complete The Remarkables’ new D-Line six pack.
- Homewood announces a two year upgrade of Ellis: Skytrac line gear in 2020 and a fresh haul rope, drive terminal and chairs in 2021.
- Coronavirus hurts the bottom line and sale prospects for Jay Peak.
Lift Blog 
I was up skiing Timberline last weekend and it was impressive to watch their maintenance crews dig the road used to get the new haul rope to the base of Palmer. I’d say they removed 8ish feet of snow in the deepest spots via snowcat and hand shovels.
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I was have also been able to make it up to Timberline and I took some photos of the progress on Palmer.
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Just out of curiosity…
Any more details on what exactly caused the problem, or ETA for repairs?
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Back in January they were still trying to operate it and the haul rope wasn’t yet placed on the winter assemblies. Then were a series of massive storms that caused a lot of ice to accumulate on every surface of the lift. This caused a deropement. At some point they think all the ice broke off of a section of the haul rope at one time causing it to spring up like a rubber band, resulting in damage to two tower heads and to the rope itself. Normally lift maintenance can go up and deice the rope so this doesn’t happen but they were unable to get up there do to the storms.
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Since Palmer Express at Timberline Lodge is 5564 feet long and the old Pucci Triple was 3376 feet long, one wonders if the haul rope currently being replaced on Palmer could be cut and reuse a piece as the new haul rope on the new Pucci Express, currently being built. . Both Palmer and the new Pucci are Dopplemayr. Obviously if the old Palmer haul rope got damaged on both sides of the damaged towers , it is possible there are two damaged sections of the old haul rope, several thousand feet apart. Just a thought.
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Repairs will most likely be finished sometime next week.
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R.I.P Pali!!!!
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