- The proposed Bridal Veil Mountain Resort in British Columbia signs a letter of intent for a Bartholet Ropetaxi gondola system.
- Another proposed BC ski resort project changes hands, must begin construction soon or face losing environmental approval.
- Community members look toward reopening lost Big Tupper, New York.
- MND’s majority shareholder seeks to take the company private.
- Construction of MND’s prototype Orizon detachable moves along in France.
- Highlander Lift Services and Wasatch Peaks Ranch settle a lawsuit in which both parties sought close to $1 million in damages over a difficult and late lift install.
- Ski Sundown will auction retired chairs.
- Whistler Blackcomb to sell Jersey Cream chairs for $600.
- A deep dive into private equity’s dominance in unincorporated Big Sky, Montana.
- Deer Valley’s proposed Lift 7 bubble remains in limbo.
- Alta prefers metered traffic lights over a gondola in Little Cottonwood Canyon.
- A Sun Valley property owner sues Sun Valley Resort over noise and visual impacts of the new Flying Squirrel lift, seeks its removal.
- Mountain Capital Partners acquires La Parva, Chile, its 12th ski resort.
- Mt. Ashland’s top lift replacement priorities are Ariel followed by Windsor.
- Mt. Ashland will also leave the Indy Pass.
- The Forest Service met today with objectors to Monarch Mountain’s proposed No Name expansion in hopes of resolution.
- Berkshire East to remove the Mountain Top triple.
- Beartooth Basin Summer Ski Area won’t open this year due to low snow.
- Winter Park seeks environmental approval to replace Gemini with a 10 seat gondola, upgrade Endeavour and Discovery to quads, remove Looking Glass and install the Copper Creek South six pack as proposed in the 2022 master plan.
Lift Blog 
Bogus Basin is auctioning old Riblet doubles as they replace two lifts with fixed grip quads.
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Imagine how disconnected from reality you have to be to buy a house 75 yards away from a ski resort, then complain about the noise generated from the ski resort. Also, i kind of doubt that the new flying squirrel, a brand new HSQ, is making more noise than a 1988 Yan/Doppelmayr conversion. Didn’t those things use locomotive engines as prime movers?
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A Ketchum property owner has asked a judge to order Sun Valley Co. to pull the plug on its new Flying Squirrel chairlift and rebuild the base terminal away from her lot.
Marda Phelps, of Seattle, is asking for a ruling from 5th District Judge Ned Williamson that would require Sun Valley Co. to remove and rebuild the Flying Squirrel loading area “a reasonable distance” from her property—and stop all Flying Squirrel lift operations until that happens. Phelps is also asking for a minimum of $25,000 in compensation, including at least $10,000 for lost earnings and $15,000 for attorney’s fees, and a jury trial to resolve the matter, according to her lawsuit, filed with the court on March 6.
The property in question is located at 121 Picabo St., about 75 yards from Warm Springs Day Lodge and adjacent to the eastern side of the Lower Warm Springs run, according to the lawsuit. The half-acre property includes a triplex with three “ski-in ski-out” apartment units. Phelps purchased the lot in 2013 and primarily rents out the units to non-family guests, her attorney, Chris Brown, wrote in the original complaint.
Brown wrote that the property’s main appeal is its “unobstructed” views of Bald Mountain and its two access points that allow guests to ski directly from the backyard to the Warm Springs lifts. But since the new Flying Squirrel lift opened last December, he wrote, the base loading area has blocked views, generated excessive noise and light, and generally prevented “the comfortable enjoyment of [Phelps’] property.” Phelps’ earnings have also decreased, he wrote.
“In its present location, the Flying Squirrel base loading terminal causes the Phelps property unreasonable levels of sound pollution while the chairlift is in operation,” Brown stated. “The sound pollution includes sounds emitted from the terminal engine, the noise of crowds congregating a short distance from Ms. Phelps’ back door, loud music being played at the loading terminal, and the noise of maintenance and repairs.”
The Flying Squirrel base loading area has also caused “unreasonable levels of light pollution” due to its lighting system that is active through the night, Brown stated. Furthermore, the loading terminal has blocked guests’ views of “the previously unobstructed” Bald Mountain, he wrote.
I’m siding with what Sun Valley’s attorney is saying: this woman has no case.
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Yes, but the original Squirrel wasn’t one of those, and it was a top drive- as is this one. So that gives the plaintiff (in my book) even less of a leg to stand on.
You can see a residence in the background of one of the photos of the new lift. After reading the article, I suspect it belongs to the plaintiff. If that was my place, I’d market the hell out of being able to walk directly to the lift. Being as this is a return terminal, it has the hum of the rope and the occasional clunk from a carrier on entry. Not much noise. Also, the lift hasn’t been there long enough for much maintenance to happen so I doubt they even know what that sounds like. Snowmobiles, certainly, but there’s another lift there so even if the lift wasn’t there there would be traffic. I try not to post opinions on things like this but it seems completely frivolous to me.
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How do we think Copper Creak South will look. Its only 365 vertical so I don’t see many people lapping it. It may get used more than Looking Glass for access. It could be used as a park. I could see moving the railyard from Allen Phillips to Copper Creak South adding a nice groomer and helping spread people out. At 2,800 PPH they must think it will be used a lot more than Looking Glass.
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I’m pretty sure that lift will be primarily for egress out of the Vasquez mountain area once they expand West from the Spur. The master plan also calls for a ski back trail from the top of cooper creek.
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Cool to finally see pictures of what WPR looks like in the Tribune article
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After removal of the Mountain Top Triple at Berkshire East, any word on when they plan to reinstall it on the north face?
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Correction to your Winter Park post. As stated in the article “Replace the Endeavor fixed-grip triple chairlift with a detachable quad lift” so not a fixed grip as you mentioned.
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The person who filed a lawsuit again Sun Valley is delusional. It’s borderline laughable. I legit had some friends stay at her property this year for a week and absolutely LOVED it. They loved the ski-in/ski-out access. They couldn’t stop talking about it.
Maybe her revenue was down because Sun Valley had a very slow start to the year. No snow.
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Exciting news for Winter Park, difficult to visualize the path of the Gemini gondola, if the current top station will be an angle station for the gondola, that will be a sharp turn. I definitely applaud the upgrading of Discovery to a FGQ. Not sure if the Endeavor upgrade is needed though, it is short and does not run on weekdays anyway. It seems as if detachable lift resources would be better used elsewhere on the mountain, maybe on the Jane side. Overall it sounds good though, hopefully the beginner terrain will have better skier circulation
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Honestly, I wish High-Lonesome could be at the top of the priority list, same with Olympia.
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Unfortunately it looks like Olympia will be around for quite some time. It’s getting a new haul rope currently.
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I wonder if La Parva will get added to the Ikom pass. I was in the area last year and mostly used the Icon at Valle Nevado but also bought tickets at the other two resorts. You can easily ski between all three even if the short connection trails weren’t fully groomed.
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