- A new park map shows where Legoland New York’s gondola will go.
- A skiing preview of Deer Valley Expanded Excellence.
- The Colorado Sun embeds with departments who work all night to make Winter Park run.
- Afton Alps removes Chair 18 to make way for a tube park.
- Vail Resorts reports season-to-date skier visits are down 9.7 percent and lowers earnings guidance.
- From the classifieds: a 1987 Poma Quad for sale.
- Doppelmayr assumes patents needed for Autonomous Ropeway Operation (AURO) installations in the USA.
- Kimberley, BC files a new master plan.
- MND to make an announcement on April 16th.
- Upon learning of a young guest named Reid with a phobia of chairlifts, Stevens Pass staff spring into action, giving him a full day tour of mountain operations and making him an honorary lift operator.
- Red Lodge Mountain closes the Cole Creek quad due to a component failure within the lift terminal structure.
- A high speed quad is rope evacuated at Burke Mountain.
- Flat Top Flyer at Powderhorn remains closed awaiting delivery of parts.
- Sugarloaf closes King Pine for whatever this “mechanical problem” is.
- Guests were stuck on Blackcomb’s new gondola for hours yesterday.
- The OITAF World Congress for Ropeways is coming to Vancouver June 17-21.
- Leitner has reportedly paid more than $16 million in settlements to families of victims of the 2021 Stresa-Mottarone tram disaster.
- A D-Line gondola in Austria will run entirely on solar energy produced on site this summer.
- Grouse Mountain provides a gondola construction update.
- A raccoon rides Sugarbush’s Village quad.
- Costs double for the proposed gondola-served transit center at Steamboat.
- Also at Steamboat, Leitner-Poma appears to have won the contract to replace Sunshine Express.
- Leitner-Poma also appears to have upcoming projects at Big Bear Mountain Resort, Snowbasin and Wasatch Peaks Ranch.
- Chapman Hill will replace its main rope tow with a Leitner-Poma platter.
- Wachusett nears a decision to replace Polar Express with a six pack.
- The Town of Alta passes a resolution opposing the Little Cottonwood Canyon gondola.
- Red River shares renderings of its upcoming Copper Chair, will sell retiring Riblet chairs.
Lift Blog 
I like the reference to Hans Burkhart’s book – did you know him? Great stories in the book and floating around palisades about him – quite an interesting guy and did so much in the lift industry.
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Pretty sure thats a pic of Lee’s Hill ropetow on the Chapman Hill article.
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Is it wrong for me to wish that Mt. Hood Skibowl (OR) would buy that 1987 quad (Jackson Hole Sublette according to picture) for the Lower Bowl? Relatively mature, but 12 years younger than Bowl’s newest current lift. Fewer stops, more capacity…. And Sublette would appreciate it too, way less wind at Skibowl….
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It’s hard to imagine skibowl without center pole Riblets
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Kudos to Stevens Pass!!!!!
That was so kind of them, to give Reid a tour! Great job!!
In my opinion, the best way to dispel a fear of a machine is to get to know it.
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With Leitner poma hiring ski lift installers for snowbasin. My guess is becker is gonna be replaced with a high speed lift, probably a quad chair. I don’t think snowbasin needs a high speed six pack for becker.
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I could see Becker being a high speed quad. On the other hand, depending on what the wind exposure is like in this area, I could also see them going with a high speed six pack with nine second intervals between chairs. Either way, Becker being the most direct route to get from the base area over to DeMoisy definitely means upgrading it is a priority.
Maybe while they’re at it, LPA will also add some extra chairs to Middle Bowl to boost that lift’s capacity (since I believe Middle Bowl was designed so that extra chairs could be added).
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According to Peter’s spreadsheet, Becker will be upgraded to a 6 pack.
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Probably for the wider chair intervals as well as wind resistance. I’m guessing Becker will probably have the same 2,400 pph and nine second intervals of Wildcat, but I could also seem them giving it 2,800 pph to match DeMoisy.
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Donald Reif, good buddy. can you please not go on a rampage and add six of seven comments on different pages on the same day. It has the result filling up the RECENT COMMENTS link with only your stuff, which some of us find less than desirable. One or two comments per day please. When IO log on I like to read other people’s stuff too, not just yours. Thanks.
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And who appointed you to be the forum police?
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Agree with @Donald Reif, People can post comments as they please!!!
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That’s wasn’t very nice, commenting exists so then anyone can share whatever they wanna share to the lift community about ski lifts. Personally, I find a lot of Donald’s comments to be rather interesting and useful.
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I am sorry I upset so many people. I don’t want forum police either. I was trying to point out that Peter has kindly given us a quick link box on the right hand side of the page called RECENT COMMENTS that allows all of us to browse the stuff that other have read. I like to do that and I am sure others like to do that too. . I was merely pointing out that when one person spends an evening commenting on almost every topic posted, all in a short time period, it floods the Recent Comments box and makes it hard for others to read stuff that is not Donald Reif. Simply be aware that how you use the website has an effect on how other people get to use it too. If you find my request offensive, that is unfortunate. Comment all you want, but let others talk to, and be seen, by spacing out your stuff. Please.
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Wish they would’ve gone with doppelmayr to match nearby little cat and wild cat terminals.
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Snowbasin went with Leitner-Poma for Middle Bowl and DeMoisy. It makes sense to stick with them for Becker.
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I mean, that’s just how it is, that most resorts gravitate towards one manufacturer over another. Snowbasin seems to like Leitner-Poma more these days, in much the same way that Vail has gone with Leitner-Poma for new lifts since 1999 with the exception of Gopher Hill and their first two high speed six packs. It’s rare to see resorts go back and forth between the big two manufacturers, with rareties including Jackson Hole (LPA for Casper, Doppelmayr for Teton and Sweetwater, back to LPA for Thunder and Sublette) and Steamboat (LPA for their 2000s projects, then Doppelmayr for Elkhead, the new gondolas and Greenhorn Ranch, and back to LPA for Mahogany Ridge).
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As I’ve been saying and a few others for awhile now, brand loyalty is no longer there for many resorts. It’s all about who comes in with the best bid and who can get it done in the time frame needed. Note I did say many resorts, not all. To some, they’ll stick with 1 manufacture even if it takes an extra year or two.
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I have to say, what a tour even if you can’t see all that is out there at Deer Valley East, but still love the look of the new area and seeing some of the runs…I’m so jealous, i wish i could have done a tour like that when I was out there, but then again I can also wait for the opening in the near future…(I also hope my father will be up to going that way when it opens. I know my niece is already ready to go exploring….
Way to go Stevens Pass to go out of the way to show how a chairlift and emergency procedure works, and allow the kid to see and do stuff….WAY TO GO!!!!! Wish I could have done that as a kid, as a matter I wish I could do that now for that matter….
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Also in the news…Hesperus announced they will not operate next year.
https://www.ski-hesperus.com/blog/
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That 1987 Poma Quad for sale might go well at Nordic Valley?
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Nordic announced today they plan to do an overhaul of the existing Apollo lift
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What a shame. Just going to be a lot more problems for it.
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I guess because that’s cheaper? 🤔
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Yeah. Perhaps they can’t raise the capitol to replace the lift. I’m sure they would love to. It’s a critical lift!
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Shout out to Stevens Pass for helping Reid overcome his fear of chairlifts. That’s among the most heartwarming things I’ve ever came across on this blog.
Stevens Pass is the GOAT 🐐
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Sugarloaf’s website King Pine is now open, but it looks like they were testing the structural integrety of the foundation. It appears as it has significant chipping which leads them to drill 5 bore holes. Probaby got it tested and came back cleared or good enough, but they are going to probably be repouring the upper foundation this summer.
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They should probably soon consider replacing this with a Doppelmayr quad using the existing drive.
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