Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
Month: July 2025
News Roundup: Independence Day
- The owner of Cape Smokey, Nova Scotia to acquire Ski Martock, also in Nova Scotia.
- Titcomb Mountain, Maine seeks final funding to replace its second T-Bar.
- Keystone proposes replacing A51 with a detachable quad.
- Yet another excellent Deer Valley construction update.
- Mantis Ropeway Technologies to install Assistance software on five lifts in Austria to detect misloads using AI.
- The BC Okanagan Gondola project hits a snag related to water.
- Mission Ridge, Washington launches an expansion website.
- Mountain Capital Partners to buy a majority stake in four more Chilean mountains.
- Sun Valley proposes more Bald Mountain lift upgrades.
- Four Seasons, New York looks to be liquidating its ski operations.
- A storm causes an aerial tramway to derope in Dornbirn, Austria. Even the rescue ropeway de-roped, requiring the use of a helicopter to save 19 passengers and a dog.
- Skeetawk, Alaska completes preliminary geotechnical work for a proposed upper mountain lift.
- Big Moose Mountain, Maine performs similar work with the goal of returning lift service to the summit.
Park City Looks to Replace Canyons Village Cabriolet
Park City and the Canyons Village Management Association today announced plans (pending approval) to retire the aging Cabriolet, which carries guests from a lower parking lot and transit center to Canyons Village. The new lift would be a gondola, though specifics on cabin size and design will be detailed later this month. The one year build is expected to follow closely behind the Sunrise Gondola, slated to open this coming winter between Canyons Village and Red Pine Lodge.
Open air cabriolets became popular in the 1990s as a way to efficiently move guests over relatively short distances. These lifts were usually chosen to quickly move crowds between parking lots and villages. On the plus side, they’re efficient people movers and rarely stop. On the less great side, they require guests to remain standing while exposed to the elements and don’t easily accommodate bikes.
Intrawest installed four cabriolets between 1994 and 2008 (at Tremblant, Mountain Creek, Panorama and Winter Park) while American Skiing Company’s lone cabriolet debuted at The Canyons in 2000. At opening, The Canyons Cabriolet carried 3,000 passengers an hour in 40 eight place carriers. Talisker Corporation inhereted the lift when it acquired The Canyons in 2007 and Vail Resorts took over operations in 2013 while combining Park City and The Canyons into one mountain. The Cabriolet kept spinning through all this change, reliably transporting thousands of skiers each day from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm.
The new gondola would be designed to “enhance mountain accessibility for lodging guests, base and mid village area residents, and day skiers and snowboarders,” Vail Resorts said in an email to media. This opens up the possibility of an intermediate station. The new lift would also likely feature larger cabins to service the new Canyons Village Parking Structure. Park City broke ground on the expansive new garage and pedestrian plaza this spring. The first phase will open in 2025-26 with 653 parking spaces. The full five story, 1,850 stall facility is expected to debut in winter 2026-27 alongside the new gondola, again pending approval.
Residents can learn more about the project at an Open House on July 14th.
Instagram Tuesday: Argo
Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
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