- Homewood will miss the 2024-25 ski season.
- Closed Big Tupper, New York to be auctioned November 7th.
- A ranch owner in Nevada’s Ruby Mountains explores building the region’s first ski resort.
- Black Mountain, New Hampshire is sold to Indy Pass, may become a community co-op.
- San Francisco to assess an urban gondola route between a light rail station and hospital.
- Bloomberg explores broad community benefits from Mexico City’s growing gondola network.
- The No Boundaries Pass won’t return this year, citing Indy Pass exclusivity policies.
- Killington’s new owners share details about the future.
Lift Blog 
Man that is very depressing news regarding Homewood! Maybe something will happen at the last minute but doubtful. What shame.
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I doubt it, considering this is really just JMA throwing a massive fit.
The ONLY thing that TRPA and Keep Homewood Public changed in their process, the mechanism that Homewood says triggered JMA and whatever other investors to pull the plug, was codifying some kinds of framework to prevent Homewood from ever being a private mountain.
There weren’t deadlines, there weren’t strict regulations or restrictions, there was a conversation led by TRPA asking for options. As of the end of any meetings, Homewood was technically still free to pursue installing their new d-line gondi, new lodges and restaurants, and still eventually go full private. Everyone made it pretty clear that’s not something TRPA or the community would support. But materially, nothing had changed. For this season or any others.
The mere NOTION that JMA might not get its bay area billionaire enclave, cuz the existing millionaire enclave isn’t good enough, pissed them off to the degree of shutting down.
All the subsidy and operating at a loss talk is… Exaggerated and stems from self-inflicted damage, in my opinion. They don’t open half the mountain most days, they’ve announced very much needed gondola years ago and it’s sitting in Reno, and they openly discussed taking their resort private in the past… And they wonder why their revenue ends up at Diamond, Sugar Bowl, Boreal and Sierra.
Maybe that rancher in the Rubies can buy Homewood too.
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Did homewood already take delivery of the gondola components? If so, I wouldn’t be surprised if the “financial partner,” which I assume is the Bay Area developer that owns homewood, sells it and whatever land they own at homewood and concentrates on trying to turn a profit at red lodge.
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Yes the gondola was delivered last year. It’s been sitting in an empty lot in Reno under 24 hour security.
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I think the financial partner this is referring to would be Discovery Land Company. But I guess their ownership group could be more fractured than just JMA.
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Tenney, Mt. Abram, and Granite Gorge were the three No Boundaries Pass partners last year. I’d say a pretty strong chance we see at least one of those joining Indy. We could see another independent previously unaffiliated with either pass joining Indy as well. Sounds like some new areas might have been expressing interest in both products, and ultimately chose Indy.
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Mt. Abram rejoined Indy a few months back.
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It feels like Indy Pass has started to strong-arm the other coalitions. These exclusive contracts are pretty shady and anti-competitive. Some animals are more equal than others, maybe? The verbiage around acquiring Black Mountain is also a bit disingenuous: “We’ll help you stay independent by folding you into our portfolio.” I guess we’ll have to wait and see if they end up like the old-school unions where they existed on funds from people they were supposed to help without actually helping the those people. At the moment, I am happy my local haunt is the only indy in the region that is not part of Indy, which is exactly the opposite of how I felt a few years ago.
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Interesting that Killington is going with Doppelmayr for the Superstar replacement.
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Not really all things considered…
Doppelmayr not only was able to suggest a profile that excludes the tower in the middle of Preston’s Pitch which is a big issue with the FIS, but they also have a far better track record of completing projects on time which is a necessity for hosting the 2025 World Cup. And on top remember the issues last year sourcing parts for Needle’s Eye (a Poma HSQ) while Doppelmayr is known for supporting older lifts.
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What exactly is the 700 foot, 800K skier/rider visits Blue Mtn. referred to in the Killington release?
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Great Gulf, the developer behind the upcoming Killington Village, also developed the Village at Blue Mountain, Ontario. They were demonstrating how a vibrant village can drive a ton of skier visits at even a small mountain.
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Ontario. Closest decent sized place day-trippable from Toronto. https://www.bluemountain.ca/
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