- Poma introduces new station and tower elements in Europe with an eco-friendly focus.
- Doppelmayr now offers a third D-Line station design.
- Sugarbush proposes replacing Heaven’s Gate with a fixed grip quad.
- Chairs from Big Red and cabins from Creekside will be sold to benefit the Whistler Blackcomb Foundation.
- Doppelmayr to host the second annual Insights virtual event on May 4th.
- Ski Sawmill, Bluewood and Kelly Canyon become the latest resorts to sign on to the Indy Pass; Marmot Basin leaves after just one year.
- Snow King Mountain joins the Powder Alliance.
- Vail reports a season-to-date 12.5 percent increase in skier visits.
- A new Doppelmayr Wir is out with features on Big Sky and Loon Mountain.
- The first urban ropeway trade show will be held in June in Germany.
- Powder Ridge, Minnesota to sell chairs from a retired double chair.
- Two new lifts are approved for Park City.
- A May deadline looms for 100,000 Vail Resorts employees to join or opt out of a class action lawsuit regarding labor practices.
- Boyne Mountain will sell Disciples chairs on May 2nd to benefit a local charity.
- A public hearing is scheduled regarding the Moosehead Lake resort project.
- Eaglecrest staff visit the gondola they bought in Austria; all systems are go for bringing it to Alaska.
- Seventh Heaven at Stevens Pass closes for the season early for “maintenance/evaluation.”
- Icy Strait Point opens its big Mountain Top gondola for the first time.
Lift Blog 
the new poma station looks like a uni-g
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And ironically, the new D-Line station kinda looks like an old Yan detachable terminal on first glance.
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Here’s another angle: https://www.instagram.com/p/CcqWEA3tPoi/
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That 3rd option would look amazing in Park City colors. Wonder if that will be an option in the States this year?
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Vail Resorts selling off the carriers from Big Red and Creekside is ridiculous, especially the HSQ carriers. They could easily be reutilized for a future lift project down the road.
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In addition, Big Red Express could easily find a new home rather than being scrapped. It’s all Doppelmayr other than the towers and tower masts.
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The creekside gondola cabs have not aged well. Much yellowing on some Plexi, damage to fibreglass and a decent amount of graffiti etc. Plus the tight 6 person seating is not “popular”.
How I wish they would have realigned it to big timber as part of the expansion.
Agree on the red chair carriers. But even still, could have reused all but the towers, and replaced franzs and T-bar.
Photos from their last (public) day of operations, and the gondola cab removal.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/qtSjVMB6rN9PdKkt9
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Big Red Express could have been relocated to Heavenly to become the new North Bowl HSQ. In addition, Heavenly already has two similar HSQs of this vintage.
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the towers on the big red cannot be reused they are not bolted to the footings they are encased in the concrete/footings so they don’t know what state the metal is in
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Correct Tin. However, Vail could have reused the towers from Peru Express for a Big Red Express relocation to Heavenly.
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Even if the Yan components were completely unusable, the chairs, grips and terminals are just like any other early DT series Doppelmayr. I’m honestly surprised Vail didn’t do an Emerald to Catskinner type replacement with Big Red where all the Yan parts were replaced with brand new Doppelmayr. Is Catskinner having any issues with the relocation we don’t know about?
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You make it sound so simple.I’m sure they considered the condition of the equipment and what it would cost to make it operate for another 10-15 years; the cost of replacement parts in that operating time frame; the cost to remove, store, transport, re-engineer, upgrade everything to current ANSI standards, modify the towers from Keystone, etc. etc.and re-install the lift and decided it was not a cost effective option. This is why over half of the relocations discussed on this Site never happen. End of rant.🤓
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Why would the fact that Heavenly has other old chair matter? To me that just means it’s probably time for those to be replaced too.
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Cameron, Reds time was up. A lot of components no longer supported, and any electrical upgrade required total replacement. A ski area looked at it and relocation was going to be 75% of the cost of a new lift. There is no value proposition there that makes sense. I get it that looking from the outside it seems to make sense to relocate these lifts, but after almost 30 years working on these things, and given the hours we put on them, they are just not worth the effort/money to reinstall.
Rob :-)
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creekside gondola . last day of ops, cab unloading, and base terminal demo https://photos.app.goo.gl/7suXhjrpQAT5zy9L9
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I guess reselling the gondola to another operator simply isn’t the Vail way. All their preaching of sustainability and won’t even allow the reuse of their perfectly fine equipment (sans the cabins) to a competitor.
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Would be a hard sell for a resort to buy a well used, 25yr old gondola without its cabins or even a good amount of its towers (the re-used Yan direct bury tower tubes). As Michael and Rob said above, theres lots more to it than just reselling it. Sustainability wise, anything that isn’t able to be re-used for other lifts or sold with the proceeds going to local charities will be recycled
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Noah, Creekside wasn’t perfectly fine. And not reselling lifts is nothing to do with the “Vail way” whatever that is. We didn’t get a sniff of interest in it. As with Red, its’s time was up, no one wanted it, even for free.
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Not really understanding the point of the new poma “eco friendly design”. Most primary drives
on chairlifts are electric motors to begin with so what is being accomplished with helping the enviroment. All I see is a updated detachable chairlift design with a “eco friendly” badge on it with a grass roof on the operators shack.
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1) Reduced environmental impact during production 2)Direct Drive system that uses no gearbox, hence no oil, and lower energy consumption 3) Ability to generate solar power through available special roof panels…
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Spent a lot of time on Heaven’s Gate, will be sad to see to go but definitely needs an upgrade. Really interested to see the rumored upcoming Sugarbush master plan once that’s released.
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Didn’t Marmot Basin have no blackouts for the one year they were on the Indy Pass? Their approach is hilariously absolutist, join the Indy Pass with no blackouts whatsoever, and then leave after one season instead of adding blackout dates. They’re a ways out there and also far from other Indy Pass resorts, I’m shocked to think they got swarmed with Indy Pass visitors.
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Maybe they’re going join another pass, such as Ikon….
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7th is allegedly the top bullwheel bearing. Interesting problem that may be difficult to solve due to location
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quick terminal bullwheel replacement at whistler today ;-)
https://photos.app.goo.gl/2FgthNLRc7QvGZhAA
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I’ve done a few of those on similar terminals. The bullwheels aren’t that heavy, and you can rig off some stout timbers or steel box tubing that you strap to the guidage arms. Getting the rigging up there will be the tough part. If the lift is still operational they can run much of it up on the work chair; if it’s not, there’s no easy road access that I’m aware of.
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Big Timber gondola when?
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