- Big Moose, Maine hints at reviving summit lift access.
- Austria’s KitzSki and SkiWelt could connect to form the world’s largest ski area.
- Lake Louise cuts trails for the long-awaited Richardson’s Ridge expansion.
- Hatley Pointe decommissions the SLI-built Laurel double.
- Telluride seeks approval to replace its last two SLI doubles.
- Big Sky to be the North American launch customer for the Doppelmayr S-Line surface lift, replacing the Bear Back Poma.
- Big Sky will also enclose the Lone Peak Tram‘s top terminal this summer.
- Doppelmayr releases its latest customer magazine featuring projects at Big Sky and Deer Valley.
- Snowmass to keep the Elk Camp quad spinning for bikes through August 4th while work begins on its replacement.
- Eldora seeks approval for unspecified projects from its master plan.
- A court blocks the proposed Los Angeles Dodgers Stadium gondola for now.
- Wachusett looks to sell the Polar Express to another ski area.
- I stopped by Deer Valley for a quick look at the progress to build two gondola sections and four detachable chairlifts this summer.
Lift Blog 
Ski Cooper also looking for a used high – speed quad, but the cost of a trip across the midwest would probably not be within the budget.
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That would be huge, the ride up the front side is so slow. I find it better to lap Piney Basin or Little Horse. Although the Tennessee Creek Basin addition was great, the overall terrain is still lacking for upper intermediate, advanced, and expert skiers. Although the Piney Basin addition was great. Has there been anymore chatter about a lift up Chicago Ridge or restarting the cat operation at least? With a high speed quad on the front side and then a lift up Chicago Ridge, Ski Cooper could become an actual destination.
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That would be huge, the ride up the front side is so slow. I find it better to lap Piney Basin or Little Horse. Although the Tennessee Creek Basin addition was great, the overall terrain is still lacking for upper intermediate, advanced, and expert skiers. Although the Piney Basin addition was great. Has there been anymore chatter about a lift up Chicago Ridge or restarting the cat operation at least? With a high speed quad on the front side and then a lift up Chicago Ridge, Ski Cooper could become an actual destination.
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Since Ski Cooper is a 501(c)3, the the Crowley family could donate the lift to them as a tax write off under Polar Beverages. It may also be able to do be able to write off the transportation costs too.
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Ski Cooper is a 501(c)4 and not a 501(c)3 like Bogus Basin. Therefore, it’s not possible for the Crowley family to donate the lift as a tax write off. A 501(c)4 is a social welfare organization, like a sports league.
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I was just at DV east village a couple days back, and all I can say is that it’s ridiculous that Alterra is putting (at the very least) hundreds of millions of dollars into a ski resort. Meanwhile even Palisades only has gotten around one lift every five years. All that money that could be spent elsewhere is going to 9 lifts in a year, a new village, and new terrain at a mountain that doesn’t even have snow in mid April. Whatever. It’s not my money.
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Alterra is just the operator. Extell Development Company Is the owner and developer of the DV expansion formally known as Mayflower and the one footing the bill. It is a partnership.
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I actually don’t think we know for sure who is paying for the lifts and other mountain infrastructure. It is a reasonable assumption that Extell is paying something, but we do know that DV/Alterra specified the Doppelmayr equipment.
This would be a very interesting nugget to find out.
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Even though Alterra did make some specifications as for what equipment to install, Extell is paying for the infrastructure, which includes the lifts. Any increase in cost for Extell is more than offset by having the Deer Valley brand attached to the project.
Alterra is paying for operational expenses, which includes actually running and maintaining the lifts.
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As far as I can tell palisades management is a complete umm well you know. They rushed the B2B gondola on a wind prone line and spent a TON of money already, it seems like Alterra might have reservations of spending even more money over there.
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Yeah I think the amount of money spent on the base to base is insane. Most locals didn’t want it anyway. It could have been better spent on another lift replacement (like maybe resort chair to a quad or hsq) or something like bubble chairs for headwall or sibo. Pat, thanks for the reply, that makes a little more sense.
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Having skied a couple days at both sides of Palisades I’m not too interested in the B2B gondola just like my local friends (or because of them?).
But to me Palisades seem pretty uptodate for an American ski resort. What do you think is missing?
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Alterra has done a pretty good job spending money at all of their resorts out west. Full Steam Ahead at Steamboat, connecting Alpine/Olympic at Palisades Tahoe (with additional lifts beyond the gondola), the ongoing transformation of Winter Park, replacing the two busiest lifts at Mammoth (with more projects coming up), etc. The two notable exceptions are Crystal, where they have had regulatory issues, and June, which frankly struggles to attract enough skiers to warrant a large investment.
You may not agree with how the money is being spent, but plenty of money is being spent.
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If Bear Back 2.0 is the first S-Line in NA, what is the model of other Doppelmayr surface lifts built recently?
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The KitzSki article is paywalled…. do you have the whole thing? (German is fine.)
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https://snowbrains.com/talks-underway-in-austria-to-merge-kitzski-and-skiwelt-to-create-worlds-largest-ski-area/
The word of mouth here (I’m in the same state but about 1-1/2 hours away) is that no one is thinking of a full merger, but there is talk of a proper lift connection again and improving the already existing set of common passes.
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