- Another real estate access lift called Powdercrest is on the horizon at Big Sky.
- The Whitetail Express at Whitetail, PA goes down until further notice after just one day of operation this season.
- Wildcat’s Snowcat lift, which missed all of last season, won’t reopen for a bit longer.
- A viral video from Austria shows gondola cabins surging up and down, blamed on speed and changed drive parameters.
- A grip slip incident claims a life in Montenegro.
- A skier is hospitalized after falling from a lift at Sunshine Village.
- Powderhorn performs a rope evacuation of the Flat Top Flyer.
- Following Washington floods, Crystal Mountain reopens at full capacity and Stevens Pass will open Monday with a four hour detour from Seattle.
- Workers at Le Massif, Quebec reject a contract proposal and authorize a strike beginning January 2nd.
- Eaglecrest’s used gondola project will cost at least five times initial estimates.
- A worker is seriously injured in Italy when wind lifts a safety net into the path of a chair.
- The sale of Eldora is taking longer than expected.
Lift Blog 
The whole Vail/Wildcat, Snow Cat lift saga thing is an embarrassment to the ski industry. Between lift accidents and downtime the situation is pathetic. They had a year to get the 52 year old lift ready for operation. Now there doing an acceptance test in late December?? and it failed, Really! I wouldn’t let those guys put air in my tires.
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I see it’s been a rough week for many resorts. My heart goes out to the ski area personnel at Whitetail, Crystal, Stevens Pass and Le Massif; to the workers and skiers alike at Sunshine Village and Powderhorn; and even more so to the families and friends of the victims in Italy and Montenegro.
Things are stable out here, at least. But this is a sobering reminder to me that the world of ropeways has its risks, and the consequences of an oversight or mistake can be life-changing. Or worse.
Stay safe out there, everyone.
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Major props to WSDOT and their contractors for the speedy repairs to 410 which allowed the full reopening at Crystal. They did a hell of a job. The resort thought it might take until the end of January to fix, but they got it done in a week!
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I love how German speakers just smoosh random words together lol. partygondeln. amazing.
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For those of the followers who do lift maintenance, how common is it for a lift to fail a load test? And are there signs ahead of time? I’d expect mechanics would know whether or not it’d pass before the state shows up.
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Glitches can arise during acceptance tests. But typically they can be resolved during the testing even if the test takes a little more time to complete. Glitches and necessary adjustments to meet compliance are not uncommon. But a problem big enough to cancel the testing indefinitely is not. Typically the electricians and mechanics do as much pre-testing as possible before the load in applied to the lift to insure a successful test. The last thing you want to do is look incompetent when surrounded by inspectors, engineers and other industry professionals. And now add in social media.
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