- A video shows the Kicking Horse incident was exacerbated by running the damaged hanger to a tower, causing the lift to de-rope. The gondola will be closed at least a week and likely longer; the resort will allow guests to hike or skin to Stairway to Heaven.
- The snowboarder who died after falling from Red Lodge Mountain’s Triple Chair on Monday is identified as 37 year old Jeffrey Zinne of Billings in an incident described as a “malfunction.”
- A child was airlifted to Denver after falling 35 feet from the Purgatory Village Express the same day as the Kicking Horse and Red Lodge incidents.
- Leitner-Poma posts jobs for ski lift installers at Bretton Woods, Loveland, OZ Trails Bike Park, Powder Mountain, Snowmass, Snowbasin, Taos and Wasatch Peaks Ranch.
- New York State wins its case against a ski resort owner for buying Toggenburg to close it and reduce competition.
- Snowbasin to sell chairs from the Becker lift for charity.
- Loup Loup, Washington ends its season early due to a required motor repair.
- Vail’s Riva Bahn Express has been closed all week due to a gearbox issue requiring a rebuild.
- Vail Resorts reports solid results with season-to-date skier visits down 2.5%, lift ticket revenue up 4.1%, ski school revenue up 3.0%, dining revenue 3.1% and retail/rental revenue down 2.9%. Net income for the quarter ended January 31st increased 11.9%.
- Tenney Mountain, New Hampshire still plans to reopen the Hornet some time this winter following a gearbox issue.
- Another lawsuit is filed against the Little Cottonwood gondola proposal.
- Attitash reopens the Flying Bear five weeks after a chair fell from the line. Draft minutes from the New Hampshire Passenger Tramway Safety Board suggest multiple damaged carriers were found and Attitash was approved to reduce capacity from 82 to 64 carriers. Update Monday 3/17: Vail PR sent me this statement, emphasis theirs: “During our inspection process, we made the decision to reinspect all our chairs and grips, haul rope, sheaves, terminals, and more. Following our inspection, we are taking the opportunity to replace parts on some chairs unrelated to the incident as a part of routine upgrades. These chairs will remain temporarily out of service until the parts arrive. This was a decision made by the resort, that the Passenger Tramway Safety Board unanimously approved at the March 3rd board meeting. We have been given permission to run the lift between the manufacturer’s minimum and maximum design specifications.”
- Ober Mountain, Tennessee opens the new Sky Village Express.
- Whistler Blackcomb completes a mid-season rope inspection and splice due to a broken haul rope strand on the Emerald 6 Express.
- WB also pulls the plug on summer skiing due to glacial recession and its impact on lift access.
- A community co-op effort was unable to submit a bid for Mt. Bachelor.
- Vista Ridge, Alberta closes both its chairlifts indefinitely to conduct a review following several evacuations.
- Alpental will close two weeks early so crews can work to build the new Chair 2 over snow in a roadless area.
- Ditto for Explorer at Big Sky as it’s replaced with a gondola.
- After running on diesel generators for a decade, the Sea to Sky Gondola‘s upper terminal is connected to grid power for the first time.
- Whaleback, New Hampshire says it needs to raise $250,000 to fund off season maintenance and chairlift repairs.
- Titcomb Mountain looks to retire and replace T-Bar 2.
- Powder Mountain to build a private, homeowner only Leitner-Poma detachable quad this summer.
- Snowbird’s Mineral Basin reopening is further delayed due to “unforseen additional issues“.
- The Forest Service approves Alta to replace Supreme with a new lift and no eight degree bend.
- Pending approval of its members, Bryce Resort plans to install a third Skytrac on the backside of the mountain this summer.
Lift Blog 
So I don’t want to be mean to a resort operator or it’s employees… But what is going on at RCR?!? Mont Sainte Anne was already a bad enough gondola incident that demanded scrutiny and got it from the Quebec government… Now I guess they’re trying to get on BC’s radar?
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At this point, I’m done arguing that KMR failure is an ACCIDENT.
Although, you are right about MSA gondola, that was lack of maintenance.
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So RLM incident was the result of a “malfunction” now I suppose it becomes was the malfunction that of the lift, and if so, how? or was it a occupant malfunction for perhaps not being seated right in the chair? or perhaps both?
Some comments on the other thread about there needing to be a safety bar or whatever. “safety bars” may help in some situations but not all. And anyone care to elaberate more on a “safety bar” vs a “foot rest” type of setup? What is a true safety bar? I was under the impression that safety bars are those like at sky rides at amusement parks that actually LATCH into place, vs that traditional foot rests and free swinging bars that you find on ski lifts. Or perhaps those that latch into place are considered restraint devices?
Would like to see your comments/clarification on this. I believe some are under the assumption that “safety bars” are not quite as safe as some assume them to be.
Regardless, a skier lost their life and for that I am truly sad for both the family/friends of the deceased, as well as resort operations. That is not something anyone wants to have to endure. God speed.
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you mean “restraint device”.
Educate yourself and then come back.
Thank you
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You go right ahead and educate me, and whomever else is paying attention to you, JS. You go right ahead. We are all waiting.
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“Safety Bar – Restraint Bar” Safety Bar was the original wording in the ANSI Standard long ago. Many of the early American and European lift manufactures used the wording safety bars on there chair drawings. The wording was later changed to Restraint Bar for obvious reasons, but the definition remained the same. ANSI B77.1 2022. 4.1.4.5.4 Chair safety details. Each chair shall be equipped with a passenger restraint device that will not open under forward pressure. This is found in the ANSI design section and does not apply to lifts that were built prior to this becoming a requirement. “Grandfathered” Some states have regulations that require restraining bars on all lifts no matter what. I would consider these type of devices a passive restraint.
Chair lifts with automatic, closing, opening and latching, restraint bars are similar to the type of restraining bar design used on some flat amusement rides. The operation of non-automatic restraint bar is totally rider dependent. When and if to close and when open. Slow running chair lifts used at amusement parks typically have latching restraint bars. The lift operator opens, closes and latches the restraining bar for each rider.
A non-latching restraining bar can perform poorly in a vertical shock load to the haulrope, such as a deropement or tree strike. The vertical shock can cause a non-latching restraining bar to open violently. Rides have been hit in the teeth with the restraining bar and then fell out of the chair after a violent shock to the haulrope.
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Were the riders hit in the teeth incidents for lifts with footrests or without? As a European I always find the bars without footrests used on many lifts in the USA pretty weird, not only because footrests are really nice to have after hard skiing, but also because they both reduce the chance of slipping under the bar and the risk of the bar accidentally opening. Or in other words I’m not sure how useful bars without footrests (and using the footrests) are.
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has powder mountain backed away from installing new publicly accessible lifts this summer? Or next summer? Now it appears that there will be a new homeowner lift this summer but nothing else for the public. Didn’t take long for Mr. Hastings to go the Yellowstone club road
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They didn’t make any mention of a new public lift in their season pass sales materials. They say passholders will only have access to Lightning Ridge, Paradise Express, Timberline, Sundown, Hidden Lake, Sunrise, Sun Tunnel, and Saddle Horn.
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So Alta is going to actually replace Supreme and not re-use it in the new alignment?
Well now, that should spark some interesting conversation on where this 2017 vintage lift might end up if Alta isn’t going to keep it. 5100ft roughly in length, yeah remove the turn, but that’s simple enough. Keeping in Utah, maybe an ideal replacement for Porky at Snowbasin since they want to upgrade that to a HSQ, or Powder Mountain seems rather gun-ho on building new lifts lately.. let the speculation begin.
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Yea, I find this quite baffling and they could just build an actual detachable mid-station there, like what The Canyons did with its gondola, Red Pine.
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We heard that specifically the grips had been damaged by the canted sheaves. Best to replace the grips, but the rest should still operate just fine.
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I have an inquiry in to Alta about this. The DM makes it sound like a whole new lift. I wonder if they would go back to Doppelmayr.
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LOTS of news this week so I’ll just pick one thing I find interesting:
Those renderings for Explorer no longer seem to include that desperately-needed big new on-mountain restaurant between the Explorer top terminal and the Tram bottom terminal. When I was at Big Sky a couple years ago I was blown away that the Mountain Mall/Exchange was the only main dining option.
For all of Boyne’s investments in recent years at Big Sky, it’s still got some pretty big flow and skier experience issues.
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That restaurant is still happening! The render is depicting the site as it will appear next winter, but everything is built with that building in mind.
We would love to build it all at once but it just isn’t feasible unfortunately.
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Wooohooo!! Happy to hear. That will be a very welcome addition.
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Everything makes sense except having beginners ride a Gondola each run. Should be a Chondola where you have a choice how to ride it. Chair or cabin. I wouldn’t want to be an instructor having to deal with 6-8 students, especially kids getting in and out of and carrying their skis & poles every run on the main teaching lift. We’ll see how it works out and whether it really takes the presure off Swiftie. Seems like poor planning unless they run another teaching lift to replace Explorer.
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The beginner gondola works very well at the places that have it, such as Beaver Creek or Jackson Hole. Especially for newer snowboarders it removes one of the biggest pain points. I’ve seen places dedicate an extra employee to loading and unloading skis so that skiers simply have to walk into the cabin. Especially for ski school, it makes sense.
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As a dedicated lift for beginers/students like in Beaver Creek it might make sense, but I’m talking about skiers with more moving parts than a snowboarder. They are all over the Alps, but they tend not to service the upper mountain as this one will. It is also supposed to take pressure off Swifty, which even with the upgrade can get crowded on the busier days. We shall see how it all sorts out.
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Gondolas for beginners are a big thing in Europe, especially so that ski instructors can supervise a larger group without relying on strangers getting kids on a chair. Besides summer operations and allowing more flexible lines this is one of the reasons for more and more gondolas being built. (Something I personally do not appreciate).
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Gondolas make great beginner lifts. We joke sometimes at JH that all lifts should be gondolas. Easy to load, whole lesson groups can ride together, warm and dry, no risk of falling out. Our gondolas sometimes go an entire day without stopping. Unheard of for beginner chairlifts.
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Am I correct in assuming that the new Taos lift is the Lift 7 replacement?
Moreover, is it going to be a standard Quad or a High Speed Quad?
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Peter has lift 7 listed on the 2025 new lifts list. But he hasn’t filled in if it’s detachable or not yet. Their 2021 master development plan also doesn’t seem to specify.
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Peter is knows the lift being replaced as the grips for the current lift are for sale on his site and LPoA is looking for installers for a Taos project, no announcement has been made hence no details such as lift type.
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It will be an Alpha fixed quad in the same alignment with the same capacity. Year of the Alpha! Taos, Angel Fire, Sunlight, Loveland, Spirit Mountain and maybe one more.
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Trying to find out.
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I would love to see a HSQ, but we will see what they decide on doing.
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It would be a little wonky but kind of nice if they’d replace 7 and 7A with a single HSQ.
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How about this: 7 gets upgraded to a High Speed Quad in existing set-up while 7A gets replaced with a new lift starting from near the top of the new restaurant? Imagine skiing Treskcow to then take the new 7A back up…
Make both High Speed, please.
It is not possible to have one lift replacing both 7 and 7A due to the route.
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Well, it could be possible, just put an angle station or just put it in a strait alignment from 7’s base to 7A’s summit.
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Very interested to hear about a new lift project at Loveland, I didn’t think they’d be considering a new lift so soon after replacing 6 – I’m crossing my fingers for lift 10!
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Lift 7 on the Valley side. It’s on the 2025 list. Sorry to disappoint.
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No basis in this but I think mineral basin stays closed the rest of the year. Powdr Corp loving that they dont have to run 2 lifts but still getting the same amount of visitors.
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Yeah, no basis in that. No resort operator wants one of their most popular lifts out of service any longer than necessary.
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Vail PR sent me this re: Attitash Flying Bear, emphasis theirs:
“During our inspection process, we made the decision to reinspect all our chairs and grips, haul rope, sheaves, terminals, and more. Following our inspection, we are taking the opportunity to replace parts on some chairs unrelated to the incident as a part of routine upgrades. These chairs will remain temporarily out of service until the parts arrive. This was a decision made by the resort, that the Passenger Tramway Safety Board unanimously approved at the March 3rd board meeting. We have been given permission to run the lift between the manufacturer’s minimum and maximum design specifications.”
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”routine upgrades” ?? That’s funny.
Wanna bet those parts are DT104 grip jaws…?
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