- Snowbird proposes replacing both Mineral Basin and Gadzoom with six packs; Brighton plans a six passenger chondola in a new alignment.
- In Quebec, Mont Grand-Fonds plans a new lift for next year.
- Indy Pass adds 20 new North American downhill resorts including Big White, Montana Snowbowl and Shames Mountain.
- SilverStar buys 21 more cabins for the Summit Express Gondola.
- More Omega cabins show up at Homewood for the postponed Madden Gondola.
- Skytrac will build Mt. Ashland’s next new lift.
- Rabbit Hill, Alberta sells to new owners.
- Vail Resorts reportedly shops for another Swiss resort.
- Black Mountain, New Hampshire won’t open this season.
- Sugarbush confirms new Heaven’s Gate for 2024.
- Alterra buys Mike Wiegele Heli Skiing.
- Snowriver’s new map shows several new and removed lifts.
- An Austrian ski resort says its 15 passenger pulse gondola was sold to a ski resort in Canada.
- Smugglers’ Notch will continue studying a gondola connection with Stowe.
- Buck Hill and Red Lodge announce public chair sales.
Lift Blog 
Finally!!!
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As Powdr applies for permits to replace lifts that are 27 and 24 years old, we still continue to get shortchanged at Killington. No permit applications or anything when it comes to replacing Superstar. Just lip service.
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Powdr has a massive backlog of 30-year-old lifts that are due or overdue for replacement:
– Superstar at Killington
– OBX and NWX at Bachelor
– Timberline at Copper
They’re going to have to invest a good amount of cash in new lifts over the next few years.
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And Accelerator at Boreal!
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Timberline is next summer.
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Snowbirds proposal for gadzoom is for a chair barn too. Maybe they’ll make it a bubble
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It looks like Brighton wants to add lights for night skiing in the Milly area. That would be a cool addition.
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I love how Brighton treats their night skiing. Meanwhile, V.R. has drastically cut back Keystone’s hours and days they offer night skiing in recent years.
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They totally did away with park city’s night skiing when they bought it.
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That move really annoyed me. You already have the infrastructure in place, why would you do that? Probably because like 90% of the people visiting the resort have some sort of Epic pass product and night skiing might not be covered idk. Or they’re just lazy. Or maybe it loses money so they’re pressured by their shareholders to do away with it. I love PCMR and am in support of Quicksilver and all of the new upgrades Vail has brought to the table, but this just really upsets me.
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Hi from Europe, I just made an account so i could comment on the Snowbird proposals.
I’ve read somewhere that the Gadzoom lift is over 6000 feet long?
if thats true, it should be a 10-person gondola.
I think its too long for even a six-chair bubble.
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I respectfully disagree.
6000′ is a six-minute ride. Most skiers don’t want to kick off their gear for a ride that short. I know that may not be the case in Europe- and as a mechanic I would love to work on some of the state-of-the-art fleets over there- but that’s the typical attitude here.
For context, at Copper we have seven detachable lifts. B is an 8-minute ride, E is 3, F is 6, H and I are 5, K is 4, and O-1 is 10-11. O-1 is the only one where people might complain about the ride time, but it *is* a bubble at least.
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It’s that attitude that’s at least partly a reason why Snowbasin’s addition of DeMoisey to the Strawberry region this year to provide a chairlift alternative to the gondola already serving that region is a big improvement.
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I like the rule of 8, if the ride gets to be over 8 min ride time to look at a detachable lift or if already a high speed lift look at a bubble if its getting 8+ minute ride. Honestly, I think gondolas should be in areas were they only distribute riders to other lifts terrain pods not for lapping terrain
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Seconding my brother here. ~ 6000′ lifts are super common here, and not an issue at all. I’ve lapped Gadzoom a few days and honestly didn’t realise it was “long”. It’s in a nice spot, out of the wind, and also staying in the elements helps us all regulate body temps. Even bubbles are unnecessary.
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Gadzoom is a lapping lift. It’s not a lift line suitable to a gondola.
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Any guesses where that Austrian pulse gondola is going to in Canada?
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Will the new Mineral Basin Express extend downwards to support the Mary Ellen expansion, or is that idea for sure dead?
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Don’t know if it’s officially dead but it seems it’s been put on the back burner. They had the approval back in 2016, contingent on 2 years of water monitoring before any construction would start, but we really haven’t year anything since then.
I just don’t know if it makes sense financially given that the resort already maxes out its current parking and canyon capacity. I don’t think something like this would make sense unless Snowbird could handle the additional demand with the new terrain, which I don’t think they can with the current throughput of LCC. Maybe once some of these new LCC traffic features and increased bus frequency are implemented then they would consider it, but I just don’t see it being worthwhile.
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I understand the argument of after lapping a run, you dont want to take your skis off. But outside the length of the lift, it could help young kids going up.
The same thing could be said about Sunnyside at Alta. That lift would have been great as a chondola.
You obviously have the other side of the topic. In europe (Zillertal Arena for example), fixed grips get replaced by gondolas on the mountain that are less than 4000 feet long. Thats money-burning right there!
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I wouldn’t describe the Gadzoom terrain as being for young children. Expert skiers are less likely to want high speed lifts, at least on this side of the pond.
I believe that a chondola was penciled in for Sunnyside at one point. Don’t when it changed, but someone probably knows.
Europe lifts are money-burning indeed!
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I believe the decision to make Sunnyside a six pack instead of a chondola happened after Alta decided to remove Cecret and its learning area in favor of an extended Supreme.
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