Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
Month: January 2024
News Roundup: Les Otten
- Leitner-Poma places the only bid to modernize the Cannon Mountain Aerial Tram for $29 million, 60 percent more than the state’s $18 million estimate.
- A gondola is considered to connect Dawson City to a neighboring town across the Yukon River.
- This week’s viral video shows a skier inadvertently dragging a net up a chairlift in Poland.
- Val Saint-Côme retires the T-Bar that had a fatal accident last winter.
- Hatley Pointe, North Carolina won’t open this winter.
- Neither will Mt. Timothy, BC.
- Mt. Itasca, Minnesota says it needs to raise $100,000 to continue operating.
- Titus Mountain pays tribute to ski patroller Rick Finch, who is believed to have died when his backpack became entangled with a chair.
- Les Otten, designer of Sunday River and The Canyons, talks about his dream for 23 lifts at The Balsams, building America’s longest chairlift, the Killington-Pico interconnect and more.
- The Busch Gardens gondola in Tampa is set to reopen this weekend after four years closed.
- New York State seeks to force a sale of Toggenburg Mountain to an operator who will reopen it.
- Sugarbush addresses recent lift downtime.
- Whitefish’s President explains recent challenges with the Snow Ghost Express both in writing and video form.
- A guest allegedly spent the night stuck on the Heavenly gondola last night.
New Ski Resort Proposed in Southwest British Columbia
South Anderson Mountain Resort has joined the growing list of new ski resort and scenic gondola proposals in British Columbia. This week Spuzzum First Nation Chief James Hobart detailed plans for the indigenous-owned and operated mountain resort north of Hope. The site sits two hours east of Metro Vancouver and 40 miles north of the Washington State border along existing logging roads.
Spuzzum First Nation would like to build a four season resort primarily to provide jobs and financial opportunities for its members. The band “aims to create an exceptional all-season mountain resort that will allow visitors to experience the beauty and recreation opportunities in the Cascade Mountains in an environmentally responsible manner.”
Ecosign Mountain Resort Planners of Whistler developed the concept for a mid-sized resort capable of accommodating 9,000 skiers per day. Five lifts would be built in phase one with 11 lifts by phase three. Westernmost phase one lies on Wolverine Track Peak where a base-to-summit combination lift would carry 3,000 guests per hour. This would be the largest lift at the ski area with a vertical rise of 2,215 feet. Phase one would also include two six packs, a fixed grip quad and platter lift. Phase two would see a third six pack built on Winters End Peak along with two short connector quads. Finally, a fourth six pack would be constructed on Iago Peak, topping out at an elevation of 1,730 meters or 5,676 feet. A bi-directional quad chair would be required to connect Iago Peak to Winters End Peak that would feature a mid-loading station in the valley between the two mountains.
The resort would cater primarily to guests from the Lower Mainland but also Western Washington with a total drive to population nearing 3.1 million. Vancouver and Seattle are currently adding about 100,000 people per year and a study showed increased population in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley alone will generate an additional 329,000 skier visits for local mountain resorts by 2032. South Anderson Mountain Resort would be designed to host around 150,000 skier visits its first season and up to 400,000 in year ten.
While British Columbia is much more accommodating to resort development than Washington State, numerous proposals have come and gone without being funded or built. Garibaldi at Squamish, a megaresort proposed near Whistler, recently fell into receivership. Whistler Blackcomb itself has an ambitious master plan to expand west that Vail Resorts has yet to start. Two competing propoents are vying to build on crown land near Chilliwack – the Cascade Skyline Gondola and Bridal Veil Mountain Resort. Nearby Sasquatch Mountain Resort has approval for a $1.5 billion expansion that has yet to get off the ground. Elsewhere in British Columbia, Valemount Glacier and Jumbo Glacier both fizzled in recent years.
The Province of British Columbia is expected to review the Spuzzum First Nation’s initial Expression of Interest and make a positive or negative recommendation in the coming months.
Instagram Tuesday: Northwest
Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
Ski Santa Fe to Reopen Lift Tuesday Following Grip Slip Incident
A full triple chair slid into another chair carrying three people at Ski Santa Fe, New Mexico Saturday, leading to a partial rope evacuation of the Tesuque Peak lift. No injuries were reported and the lift was taken out of service. “Ski Santa Fe experienced a mechanical issue on the Tesuque Peak triple chair, resulting in a prolonged stoppage of the lift,” the resort posted to social media. “Patrol crews responded quickly to evacuate the affected chairs and all other riders were unloaded from the lift.”
General Manager Ben Abruzzo told the Santa Fe New Mexican an investigation revealed the affected chair had been removed over the summer for nondestructive testing and incorrectly reinstalled. A subsequent pull test on the grip did not catch the mistake.
Tesuque Peak is a 1983 Doppelmayr fixed grip triple with 163 chairs. Over the past few days workers removed and re-checked the 20 percent of chairs that were removed last summer and completed a visual inspection on the rest of the lift, which is expected to reopen tomorrow at 11:00 am.
Deer Valley Unveils Phasing for Eastward Expansion
Deer Valley Resort today detailed plans to open a two stage gondola and eight chairlifts for the 2025-26 season in phase one of Expanded Excellence. Deer Valley also revealed the new village portal along U.S. Route 40 will be named Deer Valley East Village. Previously known as Mayflower, the expansion is a collaboration between Deer Valley owner Alterra and Extell Development Company of New York. In August, the two companies came together and announced all new terrain would become part of Deer Valley rather than a separate ski resort.
Deer Valley East Village will cater to both day skiers and destination guests. The project includes a skier services facility with ski school, children’s programs, rentals, retail, and dining options along with 1,200 new skier parking spaces. The village will also be home to the upcoming Grand Hyatt Deer Valley and two additional hotels totaling more than 800 rooms.
A burly 10 passenger gondola will anchor mountain expansion, traveling from the East Village to 9,350 foot Park Peak. This 15,000 foot long lift will feature an angle station on Big Dutch Peak, servicing a variety of trails which return back to the village. Two six place chairlifts are also planned to terminate near the gondola on Park Peak, one for beginners and the other geared toward intermediate and advanced skiers. The larger of the two, Park Peak Express, will feature a mid-loading station for repeat upper mountain skiing.
Also opening by the 2025-26 season are two lifts on Sultan’s Nose unloading near Deer Valley’s existing Sultan Express and Mayflower. One of these lifts is a six pack from the new village and the other a high speed quad starting mid-mountain. Finally, four quad chairlifts are planned on the lower reaches of the expansion servicing the East Village, Marcella and Velvære communities. Many of the lift alignments have already been cut and graded and lift construction is likely to begin this summer. Deer Valley has not yet announced a manufacturer for the nine lifts in phase one.
While the majority of terrain will open in 2025-26, full buildout will continue over several years. Future phases will see three additional connector lifts to legacy Deer Valley terrain, two quad chairs on Hail Peak, two quads on South Peak and a high speed quad on Big Dutch Peak. In total the expansion adds 16 lifts and more than 3,700 acres to Deer Valley. Upon completion, the resort will offer over 5,726 acres of skiable terrain accessed by 37 chairlifts serving 238 runs.
“At Deer Valley Resort, we are proud of our legacy as a top-tier ski destination, and we’re staying true to our founding principles set over four decades ago,” said Todd Bennett, President & COO of Deer Valley Resort. “This expansion improves our resort’s accessibility and enriches the guest experience with additional world-class amenities. We will honor our history and strengthen our ties to the community as we expand over the next several years.”
News Roundup: Rough Week
- A ski patroller dies at Titus Mountain, New York in an accident involving a chairlift.
- Bittersweet, Michigan says last week’s lift incident was caused by high winds.
- A 15 year old dies after falling from a lift at Sommet Morin Heights, Quebec.
- Hickory, New York to open this weekend for the first time in years.
- Sandia Peak works toward doing the same.
- Sleeping Giant, Wyoming won’t open this season.
- Neither will Misty Ridge, Alberta.
- A viral video shows chairs stacking up on a de-roped lift in France.
- Nordic Valley reopens after a lodge fire shuttered the resort.
- Doppelmayr and Mantis Ropeway Technologies secure regulatory approval for unmanned chairlift unloading stations in Austria and Switzerland.
- The Mantis system is also undergoing testing in Canada.
- Leitner Ropeways provides significant compensation to the families of 14 people who died in a 2021 Italian tram incident.
- Vail Resorts reports North American early season skier visits declined 16.2 percent but lift and ski school revenue were up.
- Hundreds sign a petition urging Powder Mountain to maintain public access to two existing and one future chairlift planned to go private.
- PowMow asks the public to weigh in where the outgoing Paradise Quad should be reinstalled.
- Double Diamond/Southern Cross at Stevens Pass closes for repair.
Instagram Tuesday: Making Repairs
Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
Chair Falls From Lift at Bittersweet, Michigan
An unoccupied chair fell from Bittersweet’s new Snow Flyer lift today according to a post on Reddit. It appears one of the lift’s communication lines became entangled with several chairs, causing one of them to detach from the haul rope. No injuries were reported and the lift was evacuated by ski patrol and closed. Weather at the time was unsettled with high winds and snow.
Snow Flyer is just over one year old. The Leitner-Poma detachable quad rises 319 vertical feet with 40 chairs.
News Roundup: Peak 9
- Breckenridge proposes building a new C-Chair and gondola to mid-mountain learning center on Peak 9.
- Park City’s Sunrise Gondola project receives unanimous support from the local planning commission.
- Whitefish’s one year old Snow Ghost Express misses the holiday period due to continued mechanical issues.
- A teenager who fell 25 feet from a Wachusett lift secures a $3.3 million verdict.
- A viral video shows an unseated passenger travelling the entire way up Copper’s Woodward Express.
- Vandals continue to damage haul ropes at a ski resort in Italy.
- Vermont taxpayers are on the hook for $16.5 million going to Jay Peak investors and their attorneys under a settlement.
- A French-Swiss company which recently purchased two Quebec ski areas forms Quebec Ski Mountain Company (CMSQ) and looks to invest in more mountains.
- The Forest Service publishes a draft decision approving Jackson Hole’s Sublette replacement project.
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