- Cranmore announces an over $1 million overhaul of the Skimobile Express to take place next summer.
- Granite Gorge’s owner says he’s unlikely to reopen skiing.
- Catamount and Berkshire East owner Jon Schaefer explains his strategy of relentless capital improvements.
- Park City Canyons Village skiers get stuck for a few hours when the Red Pine Gondola goes on wind hold.
- In Japan, a gondola lift doubles as a device to cure salmon.
- Carrabassett Valley Academy seeks to raise $1.6 million to build a T-Bar at Sugarloaf next summer.
- In other Sugarloaf news, pieces of Big Sky’s former Swift Current reportedly begin arriving.
- Telluride confirms it has ordered a Doppelmayr detachable quad to replace Plunge/Lift 9 in 2022. The existing triple will be sold to another resort.
- Chairs for Welch Village’s new Cannon Valley Quad arrive after a delayed journey from Asia through Canada.
- Alyeska’s tram will remain closed through December due to ongoing maintenance.
- Doppelmayr says its global market share stands at 55 percent.
- The gondola at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay will reopen in Summer 2022 after a more than two year Covid closure.
- An interesting tidbit from the Colorado Passenger Tramway Safety Board: a suspected bullet damaged the haul rope of Game Creek Express at Vail, requiring a repair.
- Vail Resorts sells more than 2.1 million season pass products, 700,000 more than last year.
- The 2022 Epic Lift Upgrade expands from 19 to 21 projects with additional lifts announced for Jack Frost and Big Boulder.
- Indy Pass will add yet another Western resort next week.
- Former Palisades Tahoe President Andy Wirth signs on to advise Alpine-X.
- Sundance says the Outlaw Express opening is delayed until December 22nd due to weather and construction timing.
- Doppelmayr flies towers in December for Juniper at Lake Louise, set to open in January.
- Steamboat considers a fourth gondola connecting the base area to town, Greenhorn Ranch will include a chairlift and eight passenger chairs are in play for future lift replacements.
- Maine’s Bigrock Mountain fundraises to purchase a Doppelmayr quad.
- Les Otten partners with Provident Resources Group to revive the Balsams redevelopment (same firm involved in reopening Big Squaw, Maine.)
- Boyne Highlands becomes The Highlands at Harbor Springs with lift improvements planned, starting with the southern end of the mountain.
Lift Blog 
The additional quad at Jack Frost will replace East Mountain I & II. The additional quad at Big Boulder is replacing Merry Widow I & II. Total of 5 new quads replacing 9 doubles and triples.
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Peter, on your database for 2022 new lifts, all the lifts at Jack Frost are new ones, what happened to the used triple, the old green triple chairlift from okemo?
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Peter, sorry you answered most of my ? In the Twitter feed, do you have any insights where the green triple will go?
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My guess is the scrap yard. I heard it was going to take a lot of work to get it up to current code.
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Peter, thanks for the update,
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Hopefully they’re holding off for a high speed lift for where the D double double resides. Surprised they’re doing Eastside first, never much of a line over there.
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High speed at Jack Frost?
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Camelback, Blue and Shawnee all have at least 1. A man can dream! But yeah, probably not happening.
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I doubt Jack Frost gets a high-speed lift.
D I & II are slightly younger than E I & II, so that could factor in why they are getting replaced first. However, in all honesty, I am surprised E is getting replaced at all given its age. If the goal is to remove all Borvig lifts, why not replace A? If the goal is to remove redundant lifts to reduce maintenance or the number of employees needed, why not replace D I & II?
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little disappointed looking at the future plans for Boyne Highlands (or Highlands at Harbor Springs-why?). they have one of the worst lift networks I’ve ever seen with their newest lift being a HSQ installed 1990, with the rest being 1960’s and 70’s Riblets. their site has almost nothing on any ski upgrades in the near future.
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nevermind. I looked into it a little more and they do have some plans out with an 8 coming in a couple years. sorry
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After riding the 8 at big sky, not sure I like them, the lift towers are just huge and I think distract from the beauty of the ski resort, in my opinion
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Random question, does Vail’s entire ski resort portfolio in the East combined even have more acreage than the actual Vail Ski Resort in Colorado?
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My Guess no, I added up all the open resorts in Vermont, a few years back, a couple of changes since then, but that came to 7300 acres if my memory is correct, remember killington is huge in acreages.
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7300 is bigger than Vail then.
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But that’s every resort in Vermont, Stratton ,killington , Smuggs, jay peak etc
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Vail doesn’t own Killington, I was referring to just Vail owned resorts in the east
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VT: 1717 acres, NH: 868 acres, NY: 320 acres, PA: 454 acres (not including the new additions). That would be 3,359 acres as of now. Vail is 5,317 acres, and no three PA resorts will boost the east coast total enough to match.
For some comparison, Snowmass is 3,342 acres, so that is about the same size as all of Vail’s northeast and mid-atlantic portfolio.
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That just shows you how big vail is, one mtn, or any big western resort
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That is true. However, I will add that Vail is missing some of the largest resorts in VT. Killington, Stratton, Smuggs, and Sugarbush combine to be 3,779 acres, which beats all of Vail’s east coast resorts as well.
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Till vail buys Smuggs and combines them into a larger Stowe ski resort
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Let’s hope that never happens. That would be a tragedy.
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Vail selling 2.1 million Epic Passes is 50% more than last year. Assuming average price dropped 20% like their prices, revenue increased by 20% relative to last year. That also excludes people who upgraded from Epic Local to a full pass (or some other upgrade) with the lower prices.
Would Epic Pass sales have jumped 20%+ without the pass price cut? I guess Vail thinks not.
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That Comp Hill T Bar at Sugarloaf will fill the gap when the double runners get replaced with a fixed quad ending at the bottom of the Spillway quad. The new T-Bar will get you up to the bottom of Bateau on wind hold days.
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