- Deer Valley unveils a brand new map depicting the sprawling East Village expansion.
- The double chair at Saskadena Six won’t operate this season and may need to be replaced.
- Park City elected officials continue to envision a gondola connecting Deer Valley’s Snow Park Village with Main Street and another on the Town Lift alignment.
- Speaking of Town Lift, owners of land the base terminal sits on sue Vail Resorts for breach of contract.
- Alberta politicians look to simplify approval of greenfield ski resorts.
- Snowbasin eyes replacing Porcupine after Becker.
- Three new UNI-G detachable quads with D-Line styling take shape in Deer Valley’s East Village.
- The Shadow Mountain Bike Park proposal in Colorado is voted down.
- Six Flags Great Adventure retires its twin VonRoll gondolas, built in 1964 and the last of 10 such lifts at Six Flags parks.
- Sponsored job: Urban Ropeway Sales Manager at Leitner-Poma of America.
Lift Blog 
That is an impressive map for DV, excited for 2025/26 map!
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The dual Von Roll VR 101s are historical. Came from the 64 Worlds Fair. Eligible for historical status as well as preservation. The removal of the Von Roll Skyrides is causing a big uproar on numerous Facebook pages as well as letters ,e mails to the park.
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That doesn’t matter. It’s on private property and they can do with it what they please. I doubt any amount of uproar will do any good. Especially for a location as popular as six flags, where there are plenty of customers happy to pay to get in and ride, and don’t care about potentially “historical” things.
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but yes it is sad to see these things go. Nothing good lasts forever.
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I think people are more in uproar over the loss of Kingda Ka and Green Lantern.
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Kingda Ka especially. That was GADV’s star attraction for almost two decades and the fact its being removed now is shocking.
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Especially since the park gave zero warning about it happening. It was only enthusiasts trying to warn everyone before it’s too late.
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These stratacoasters don’t really have the best of luck (as seen by Cedar Point’s issues with Top Thrill 2).
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Not surprised about Porky at Snowbasin. It’s sad but they are determined. Snowbasin has become a destination ski hill even though there are not any lodging on site right now. It’s no longer a mom and pop hill that caters to the local residents primarily. And the prices to ski reflect that.
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With Becker going to a high speed quad next year, upgrading Porky doesn’t seem unreasonable when it comes to A) providing a uniform detachable lift fleet and B) drawing some skier traffic back over to that section of the hill. Porky’s likely to be a high speed quad like Becker, unless wind conditions are such that a six pack might be more warranted.
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I think it’s a combination of Snowbasin getting a uniform fleet + modern lifts in time for the upcoming Olympics as they are likely hosting most of the downhill events.
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Needles and John Paul will likely be due by the time the Olympics come around. And maybe littlecat. But Needles for sure.
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Becker obviously got priority on the upgrade list as it’s a much more direct way to access the DeMoisy Express without having to go all the way up the mountain to Needles Lodge, then traverse over on that catwalk to the entrance/exit point below DeMoisy’s upper terminal.
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It hasn’t been a Mom n Pop since they began building up to the 2002 olympics.
I’ll miss Porky and Becker and Wildcat and….
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Yes, me too. I learned to ski off of the 5 stars of the show at SB back in the 80s. Hopefully I can at least make it back there to ski one more time off of Porky before it gets replaced. Won’t make it in time for Becker this season :(
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Love the new DV map and I am so stoked for this expansion. I worked as a liftie at DV years ago, so maybe that makes me biased, but I love skiing there and it’s just so exciting all the development that’s happening. Can’t wait to explore this first phase next month when it opens.
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Based on Deer Valley’s map, it looks like lapping most of the terrain in Keetley’s pod requires taking a ride on Aurora to get back to the lift.
There doesn’t appear to be any cutoff from Lady of the Lake, which strikes me as something that ought to be there. But maybe there is and it’s just not marked on the map for whatever reason.
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DV will be adding a lift next season with the base between All Right and Lone Tree which will solve that issue. I think the reason there is no shortcut from Lady of the Lake to Green Monster is because it would have a southern exposure. The trail network on the expansion seems like it was intentionally placed in the north side of all the ridges or at the bottom of the gulleys, which makes sense given the low elevation.
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The trail map doesn’t really show it, but the terrain in that area is tricky. If you look at Google Maps in 3D, there’s a gully between Green Monster and Lakeshore that without a significant amount of grading, plus a skier bridge, would make a cutoff back to Keetley impossible. Once Galena Express comes online next year (which will start at the bottom of All Right), that lift will enable lapping that pod. Keetley unfortunately will primarily just be an access lift to get on to the mountain.
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Small correction for Six Flags, Six Flags and Cedar Fair merged recently and now both go under the Six Flags brand. Cedar Point is now a Six Flags park, and therefore still runs their Von Roll gondola. California’s Great America also runs their gondola as well
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It’s interesting that Deer Valley released the map only showing 3 new lifts for this season. It’s been a not very secret secret locally that they were going to have at least 4 lifts for this season instead of 3. Peter, it looks like you got wind of it since you’re showing 5 DV lifts now on the 2024 page.
They flew towers for lifts 4 and 5 yesterday. There’s still definitely a good amount of work left on the terminals for 4 and 5, but I bet they’re running this season, just not as early as the 3 on the map.
Also, the first couple carriers are on the line on Keetley. The rope is up on Hoodo with no carriers. No rope yet on Aurora.
There’s still a ton of work left on the base area of the expansion in general. It looks like there’s still a ton of snowmaking pipe that needs to go in the ground around the Keetley lift base. It looks like the parking lot still isn’t paved as well. Hopefully they get it all done soon.
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Galena is certainly a necessity given that it’ll make lapping trails in that pod a bit easier without needing to ride Aurora to get back to Keetley.
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are galena and Neptune opening this year too?
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Will the deer valley expansion be complete by next season, are will there still be some lifts they have yet to put in in 2025-2026
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There’s definitely still several more lifts that were on the original master plan that won’t be in by next year. They have yet to give a timeline for when the remaining lifts will be built.
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If you look at the trail map you’ll see trails painted in above the green expanded 24-25 terrain (top of map). That expansions dates haven’t been provided yet but are shown on the master plan.
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Keetley, Aurora and Hoodoo are opening for certain this year. Galena and Neptune might be completed this year though I think it’s likelier they’ll be completed for next year alongside the gondola, Lower Revelator, Upper Revelator, Pinyon and Pioche.
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