- A tram in Butte, Montana?
- The Utah Department of Transportation hosts a podcast all about the proposed Little Cottonwood Gondola.
- Saddleback passes its skier visit goal for the season, secures $1.5 million in new financing and orders another new lift to run up the Cupsuptic line.
- Pat Campbell steps down as President of Vail Resorts’ mountain division.
- The group proposing a West Seattle SkyLink embarks on a public education campaign.
- Keystone says goodbye to both Argentine and Peru Express.
- 461 US ski areas operated in 2020-21, down by 9 from 2019-20.
- Doppelmayr USA is hiring for lots of positions right now.
- Bartholet to build its first gondola in Austria.
- Bloomberg interviews Vail CEO Rob Katz.
- Doppelmayr will host a virtual event featuring product news and more on May 5th.
- Publicly-owned Spirit Mountain reports a 17 percent increase in revenue.
- Due to an electrical issue, the Sugarloaf SuperQuad will operate on a diesel engine for the rest of the season.
- The Forest Service green lights Arapahoe Basin’s Lenawee lift replacement project.
- This cool video explores how one Swiss T-Bar is able to turn sharply both left and right.
Lift Blog 
Has Bartholet thought about coming to the US? Or is there just too much competition in the US for it to be worth it?
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My understanding is any detachable lift sold by MND America would utilize Bartholet technology.
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I thought Bartholet already erected gondi’s. Isn’t there one in Arosa Lenzerheide? Or was that another company?
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Bartholet already built a few Gondolas. But the one mentioned is the first one in Austria, home of their biggest competitor, and secondary base of the other big competitor. The grips used bz Bartholet are the ones developed by Wopfner in Austria which only managed to build a few detachable lifts before folding.
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Sorry for the self-reply:
A list of Bartholet gondolas from the seilbahntechnik.net database:
https://www.seilbahntechnik.net/en/lifts/searchresult.htm?eOrt=&eSkigebiet=&eLiftname=&eLand=&eArt1=&eArt2=MGD&eHersteller=BMF&eBaujahr=&toleranz=AND&sort_by1=Ort&sort_by2=Liftname&sort_dir=ASC&suchoption=erweitert&sprache=en
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There’s an MND America? The only lift they have in America is the t-bar at Little Ski Hill, Idaho and that was mostly built by LST.
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It was completed as MND.
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MND America has been headquartered in Colorado for years. They supply many US ski resorts with safety supplies, Gazex avalanche exploders, snowmaking, and now lifts. LST was the original name and now their lifts are marketed under the MND Ropeways name. There have been three T-Bars built in the US to date plus some conveyors.
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Where is the other t bar besides the ones at little ski hill and at cannon mountain.
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Waterville Valley.
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I wouldn’t say there’s ‘too much’ competition for Bartholet/MND to sell lifts over here; as evidenced by the late lift openings of a couple years ago, both companies are close to maxed out on what they can physically construct in the short summers. It’s more a matter of which ski area/maintenance department is going to be the first to bite on unfamiliar technical designs. In addition, Doppelmayr and Poma/LPOA have decades of history and well-established service centres all over the continent. Not to mention a major portion of lift parts from both companies are manufactured here. I think it would be good for those two to have some competition but it’ll take some doing for Bartholet to gain any traction.
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With MND building a detachable at Waterville looks like it’s coming true.
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The group promoting the West Seattle SkyLink is trying to derail a light rail line which would have a much higher capacity and is much more appropriate for that route. Gondolas are cool, but I hope to god they don’t get any traction.
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A tram in Butte has been in the works for more than 25 years. Goti Hoffman (Von Roll/Garaventa) made multiple trips there to pin down details.
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Any rumors on a buyer/interest for Indianhead Mtn and Blackjack in the UP of Michigan?
Regards
Tyler Boyles
>
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Not knowledgeable about Midwestern ski areas, but would vail have any interest in them? From their latest earnings call, Katz talked about buying more ski areas, my guess they snag a lot in the Midwest and the northeast, mostly feeder mtns, time will tell.
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I doubt Vail bites for either of those two. Vail’s strategy for feeder hills is to have them near major population centers so people can buy an Epic Pass, ski at their local hill 90% of the time, and then take 1-2 trips out to their destination resorts every year. Neither Indianhead nor Blackjack are near any major population centers, so they are not what Vail is looking for.
My guess is that Vail is eyeing the SoCal market and will eventually try and get one of the resorts down there. The population is just so big and Alterra really dominates the region. I would say Mountain High and Mt. Baldy are prime candidates for acquisition.
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Alterra definitely controls the SoCal market with Bear, Summit, June, and Mammoth all owned by them and on Ikon. If Vail was to make an entry into the SoCal market, I could seem them potentially targeting Mt. High, however Mt. Baldy I see as a long shot. While the terrain is epic when snow conditions allow (no pun intended) Vail would have to spend significant capital to upgrade the ski area at the bare minimum in terms of lift, snowmaking, and road access infrastructure. Snow Valley is another under-the-radar ski area in the area but seems poised to stay independent
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A tram in Butte for Our Lady of the Rockies would be a great idea. Trams have really worked well around the world for similar tourist attractions on top of mountains.
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I have looked at mountain high, I can see vails interest in that ski area, will have to look at Mt baldy, is Mt baldy the ski area, where the one and only Warren Miller first skied? Do you think vail will purchase any Midwestern ski areas?
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Looking in the midwest, Vail already has Minneapolis, Cleveland, St. Louis, Kansas City, Chicago/Milwaukee, Detroit, Columbus, and Louisville/Indianapolis covered. I guess there is maybe an argument for another near Chicago due to the large population, but Cincinnati is really the only large city they are missing. Even there, Paoli Peaks is not too far where they are completely out of the market. If you want to expand the borders of the midwest slightly, Pittsburgh is an obvious target with a couple of mountains nearby. Or, if they are really filling in the dots completely, Des Moines and Omaha are two smaller markets they could go after.
Honestly, I would not be surprised to see Vail try and sell a midwest resort, particularly one of the two near Cleveland. Do they really need Boston Mills/Brandywine and Alpine Valley?
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Vail tried to buy Alpine Valley in Wisconsin but they are offered only 11 million for it including the concert venue, hotel, and golf course along with the actual ski area too. Super Glide costed 2.6 million to build alone.
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Who would want to buy any of the ski areas in the Cleveland area? Even if someone would buy one of the areas, it would go under just like Clearfork did. Ohio doesn’t have much of a market for skiing. I don’t understand why Peak Resorts bought all three of the areas in the Cleveland area. Ohio skiing just isn’t good enough for three ski areas per city. Columbus only has enough for Snow Trails and Mad River, Cincinnati has Perfect North and Paoli Peaks covered. What is it that makes Cleveland any different.
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Maybe one of the places near pittsburgh? I think that would be the next biggest market. Elsewhere they could get one of the NC or VA places.
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That Keystone article has some cool old pictures. The article runs a bit loose with the history but assuming the 1970 picture is really the Argentine lift, it clearly isn’t the same lift that is being removed this summer. The old SAM lift survey data, which I think is the primary source for a lot of data on this site as well, indicates that Argentine was a Riblet (matches picture in article) from 70-77 and the current Yan lift replaced it. I think that conclusion is fairly reliable but I would love to know why a Riblet was replaced after just 7 seasons. Some additional pictures at: https://www.summitdaily.com/news/longtime-keystone-resort-employees-reflect-on-50-years-of-community-spirit/
FYI I found a few other history articles that were littered with incorrect information so the truth may be lost to history.
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As almost all mountains are now closed, it is really apparent to see that Alterra allows their resorts to push their season whereas Vail remains pretty conservative. Squaw & Mammoth have always been known for their long seasons, but there is no reason Vail could not make a similar push at Heavenly. The top of the gondola is at over 9000 ft, above High Camp at Squaw and Main Lodge at Mammoth. On the east coast, Wildcat has a history of spring skiing, and its relatively high base elevation of just under 2000 ft is more than Sugarbush, which always strives for a May closing. Even Park City could work if they used the Red Pine Gondola to access Saddleback & High Meadow, all of which is above 8000 ft.
It would definitely require a snowmaking investment, but Vail has shown a willingness to vastly expand snowmaking when necessary. Vail has done an excellent job in Colorado providing access from early October through Memorial Day with Breck and Keystone, and it would be nice to see this replicated elsewhere.
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