- Vail Resorts officially takes ownership of Seven Springs, Laurel Mountain and Hidden Valley.
- Vail faces a mountain of criticism for operational struggles from Colorado to Washington, Ohio, New Hampshire and beyond.
- Vail slashes operating days and/or hours at Crotched Mountain, Hidden Valley, Snow Creek, Boston Mills/Brandywine/Alpine Valley and Mad River Mountain due to employee shortages.
- Stevens Pass rope evacuates two chairlifts in one day citing power outages.
- Park City Chief Operating Officer Mike Goar sits down for an extended interview to explain some of the issues facing Vail.
- The Park City ski patrol union rejects Vail Resorts’ latest contract offer, fundraises for a possible work stoppage.
- Beaver Creek will open the McCoy Park expansion Monday.
- Vail applies with the Forest Service to replace the Summit Triple at Attitash with a four or six passenger detachable.
- Waterville Valley proposes building an MND T-Bar in the former World Cup Triple alignment.
- Monarch Mountain advances the No Name Basin expansion.
- No link but I’m told Montana Snowbowl is moving forward with building a lift from the base area up TV Mountain.
- Ditto for Windham Mountain replacing the Whiteway triple with a Doppelmayr D-Line detachable.
- Sandia Peak management says tram icing which led to a 14 hour evacuation was unprecedented.
- Crystal Mountain announces a lift reservation system, quickly changes course to parking reservations instead.
- Another of Iowa’s ski areas transitions from private to public ownership.
- Some 80 containers arrive from Europe for the Caribbean’s next big urban gondola.
- Sunshine Express at Steamboat is closed all week for a motor repair.
- Magic Mountain’s Red lift passes another inspection and load test, will reopen Saturday.
- Charles Skinner takes full ownership of Lutsen Mountains.
Lift Blog 
Regarding the evacuation of 2 lifts at Stevens Pass, it would be interesting to know why the backup couldn’t be used. I’ve been on several lifts when power failed over 51 seasons of skiing and it always gets going again on backup after less than an hour.
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I can see 2 possible scenarios right now.. 1- they are unable to get the back up motors started.. it’s happened a few times before at various mountains- the back-up motor starts for the daily/weekly test but when it comes time to try to get it started for an evac, it won’t start. Especially on the older fixed grip lift. Second- If the issue was with a transfer/drive coupling of some sort that transfers power to the bullwheel then that won’t be easily bypassed…
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3) They laid off everyone who actually knows how to use the backup system to save right around about like tree.fiddy outa 1.5 billion.
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If its the first scenario, well, such is technology for you: doesn’t work when you need it, works when you don’t need it.
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I’m also interested. Part of my job involves weekly testing of said APU/EPU systems; if they won’t start/run or operate the lift I need to fix them post-haste.
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Vail actually laid off the backup motors and replaced them with a new app that the main motor can use to help diagnose its own issues.
Some drive terminals have reported issues with the new app but Vail promises to have those fixed in due time…
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say what!?
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All hail the app! Who cares about skiing when you have an Epic app
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Some modestly interesting nuggets in the fine print of those Waterville and Attitash documents. The new poma at Waterville appears as though it will run up the current line of the Exhibition poma but will extend further up the hill to the merge with Psyched Out and Lower White Caps. Not sure I love that idea b/c you are going to create some new cross-traffic if people are trying to get over to Sel’s Choice and Lower World Cup, but what do I know.
At Attitash, I found it interesting that despite the “Epic Lift Upgrade” announcement pledging a quad chair to replace the double doubles, Vail is leaving themselves wiggle room by retaining the option of putting a triple there instead. I’m sure that would thrill Attitash skiers who are already overjoyed with the fantastic mountain management Vail has brought to the resort.
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Not looking at the document so don’t know if that triple is planned to be new, but maybe they’ll HSQ on Summit and move the triple over to the double-double. Feels too soon for them to do that though..
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The documents, although recently posted, are several months old, so I think Vail’s announced quad at Attitash will move forward. In the document, they mentioned wanting to complete both lifts for the 22-23 season, but it looks like they are holding off on the Summit unless there is a later announcement by Vail.
WV’s document also indicated completion for the 22-23 season, but Peter confirmed with them that it won’t happen this season, but for the 23-24 season. They also have a fixed grip quad approved that was in the same FS approval as the new six-pack – that is to replace Sunnyside – but no word on when that will happen.
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Surprised to see Whiteway going D-Line. Only 1,700 feet long. 1.7 minutes feels way too short for a bubble or even a nice D-Line six pack. I’m surprised they wouldn’t have put that in on Westside Six line or Wonderama, since those are 2-3x as long.. Will this be the first D-line on the continent without bubbles? First quad maybe even?
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As far as bubble-less D-Lines go, I think Silverlode will beat it to the punch (and if it doesn’t, Silverlode will at least be the first eight-pack to not have bubbles).
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disciples 8 will be up first I think
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Pretty sure the smallest carrier you can get in the D-line is a six.
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I think it is in the cards for Whiteway replacement to extend further up, past the Wheelhouse Lodge and terminate on or near Wanderer. This would tie into their vision of another base area east of the existing base, with new trails cut downslope of Wanderer. Extending Whiteway will allow for access to that area. This was discussed on a Storm Podcast last year.
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The new peaked lift at targhee and disciples 8 will be D-Line without bubbles
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Both being built this summer
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Just emailed Lake Louise with an email about their new detachable. Here’s what they responded:
So it sounds like it’ll be a little while longer until it’s open. From the one Instagram photo they posted, it looked like the towers and terminals are in (not sure about the haul rope), but they still need to hang the chairs.
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Sounds like vail resorts is going into a death spiral….. They took ownership of lots of ski resorts and now they are falling apart, just like the roman empire.
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We can hope!
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Vail’s demise would be detrimental to the ski industry. Does anyone remember skiing at an ASC resort during their downfall (2001ish onwards)? The best we can hope for is for Vail to learn from their mistakes this year. They have a new CEO, many relatively new resorts, and a lot of talented people (even after firing many individuals with local knowledge).
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I have mentioned this prior elsewhere, but I strongly believe that directly replacing the Summit Triple at Attitash with a detachable lift is a bad idea. There are three total trails from the lift’s terminus, only one of which is less than a black diamond. Given that a detachable lift will attract more skiers, many of whom will be intermediates, the top of Upper Saco will be a congested sheet of ice. Putting a detachable lift in the old Top Notch Double alignment would at least split these skiers in two between Saco and Northwest Passage. Wilfred’s Gawm and Humphrey’s Ledge would both be better accessed from a new expansion lift from Stony Brook up to Little Attitash Mountain’s summit (similar to what was proposed in the 90s).
I feel as though Vail Resorts has a history of not seeing the bigger skier flow picture when installing lifts. There was a good op-ed in the Vail Daily last week about this, how the new Sun Down Express is going in the wrong direction because the High Noon congestion builds as people are trying to move towards China Bowl and Blue Sky Basin. Park City and the Canyons need to be connected? Build a gondola from the already congested Silverlode to the middle of nowhere at Canyons. Mountain House is too congested at Keystone? Upgrade Peru and throw the crowds up the mountain to an already packed lift at Montezuma. Creekside and Big Red are too congested at Whistler? I am sure replacing both lifts in the exact same alignment to continue forcing all Creekside skiers onto Big Red will solve this problem for years to come as skier visitation increases! Sometimes, a simple lift upgrade is the right solution to a congestion problem. However, given that they are trying to sell millions of Epic Passes and rapidly grow skier visitation, they need to think beyond this and figure out how to better spread skiers out. For every Bergman Bowl at Keystone that shows them thinking about spreading skiers out, they announce Eagle Express at Park City that takes the congestion at the main base and dumps it at two of the biggest pinch points at the resort (King Con and Silverlode).
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