- Centennial Park, Ontario permanently closes with its Hall T-Bar up for removal.
- Sun Peaks dismantles the West Bowl T-Bar in preparation for a new chairlift.
- An update on Kimberley and Leitner-Poma’s efforts to get the arson-damaged Northstar Express back in service.
- Al at A-Basin provides an update on Lenawee Express project, which is a few weeks behind schedule.
- Loon Mountain’s Seven Brothers Express project also faces delays.
- Steamboat’s new Wild Blue Gondola will undergo a 30 day commissioning process before opening.
- The Palisades Base to Base Gondola will open on schedule.
- Mt. Shasta and Doppelmayr load test the big Gray Butte expansion lift.
- Chair 9 and the terrain it serves disappear from the Alpine Valley, Michigan trail map.
- More new maps: Big Boulder, Camelback, Greek Peak, Heavenly, Jack Frost, Lookout Pass, Nordic Valley, Steamboat and Whistler Blackcomb.
- The new red cabin is successfully installed on Snowbird’s tram.
- White Pass eyes a new lift.
- Mt. Rose will open this weekend, then close midweek to continue work on the new Lakeview Express.
- An analysis of Little Cottonwood Canyon public comments shows 61 percent of respondents against the project with 35 percent pro-gondola.
- Doppelmayr launches a new global website.
- Snowshoe to replace Powder Monkey with a fixed grip quad in 2023, manufacturer TBD.
- Indy Pass will add two Colorado resorts next.
I wonder what new lift White Pass is eying?
Something new, or replacing an older lift?
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Any ideas on when a new map for boyne mtn will drop? they’re supposed to open in like 2 weeks
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The Little Cottonwood coverage really annoys me. Analyzing the set of people who comment on a project is very different from conducting an unbiased poll. Any project that leads to change or creates winners and losers will find its public meetings thronged by the opposition, while the contented supporters tend to stay home.
The opposition also just doesn’t seem to be in good faith. They cite environmental concerns. But it sounds like they’re merely commenting on the *visual* environment: lift towers and cables are worse, in their opinion, than more lanes of highway. In reality, many continuous miles of blasting and regrading down in the riparian zone is probably the worst thing you can do in a canyon. They claim they want buses, but without dedicated lanes, buses would be stuck in gridlock traffic just like all the personal vehicles. Would they truly support banning cars without a hotel reservation from the canyon?
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I love arguing with people on this here joint, but I can’t here. You make salient points. Their comfy status quo just is not sustainable. For myself, I’d add that 6 lanes of bumper to bumper traffic is worse by far on the eye and the psyche than a gondola.
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There is also a lot of folks in Utah who are upset that Utah is being considered for a future Winter Olympics. It’s a shame. Utah did a great job hosting the olympics previously and most of the infrastructure is still in place and in great shape.
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In the context of such a high profile infrastructure project that’s unpopular with The Groups (TM), 61% negative is actually not too bad of a number. I’d have guessed that the proportion would be way higher.
As to the bad-faith comments about road-widening, it’s worth noting that activists and NIMBYs would also be up in arms about that. What the hardliners really want, but can’t say publicly, is to allow fewer people into the canyons in general. They romanticize nature and view human activity as an inherently dirty pollutant.
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I think we had something kinda similar going on with the NIMBY opposition that killed the Eagle 6 and Silverlode 8 projects this year at PCMR. Although there, I think their big issue was more “a couple people holding the lift projects to ransom over parking, an issue that isn’t solely on Vail Resorts to fix”. But that’s just my assessment.
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Grand Targhee’s new ski map is up as well.
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I do hope that the traverses one takes to and from Sacajawea aren’t too much of a deterrent to those intent on going over to the Colter pod.
IIRC, I think they’re adding chairs to Sacajawea this season as well to give it a capacity boost.
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Very blah compared to their old Niehues map. I know some people like the VistaMaps but they all look the same. 😢
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Same. I kinda wish Vail would go back to the Niehues maps they used prior to expanding into Blue Sky Basin.
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Millcreek Traverse to Sac is fine, it’s mostly downhill and relatively wide. Powder Reserve is not fun, that’s the problematic one. Most people who ski places like Targhee are used to flat cat tracks and traverses, I wouldn’t be too worried.
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Al sounds like one of our longtime state lift inspectors. ‘Yup, looks like a chairlift’ is what he would say when he rolled up to the bottom of the lift.
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Centennial Park, Toronto was where I learned to ski :(
Sad to see it go.
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