News Roundup: Back at It

8 thoughts on “News Roundup: Back at It

  1. Gustave's avatar Gustave January 30, 2026 / 7:22 pm

    Lee Canyon had some sort of issue with Bluebird last weekend. It abruptly closed at 3:10pm on Saturday for the rest of the day, then reopened in the morning, but was off again just after 10am for the rest of the day. Not sure what happened. -Gustave

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  2. carletongebhardt's avatar carletongebhardt January 31, 2026 / 7:03 am

    Ragged Mountain’s Barnyard Triple is down and in a FB post said a drive replacement may be necessary (which they do have onsite) if they can’t resolve the electrical issues.

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  3. Kirk's avatar Kirk January 31, 2026 / 10:47 am

    Red Mountain, Yan Motherlode Lift. As others have stated an eclectic motor issue/maintenance is pretty common no matter who the manufacture is. This type of lift is belt driven similar to CTEC’s and others. The front bearing on a belt driven lift sees a big radial load due to belt tension. Sometimes the belts can be over tensioned. But in any case it requires a lot of belt tension to keep them from slipping under full load. Typically on a belt driven lift a roller bearing is used in the front and a roller bearing in the rear. Yan style electric motors are pretty easy to remove and lower into a snow cat and haul to the base.

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  4. Kevin's avatar Kevin February 1, 2026 / 12:25 pm

    I don’t recall seeing anything on here about Lift 2 at Loveland Colorado either. It’s been closed for over a week now with no estimated reopening: From their website:

    “Lift 2 Closed for Maintenance; Beginner Terrain Open at Loveland Valley

    January 23, 2026/in The Snow Down/by Loveland Ski Area

    Loveland Ski Area would like to share an important operational update for our guests.

    Lift 2 is currently closed for maintenance, effective immediately, and will remain closed until further notice. While maintenance work is underway, we’re ensuring beginner skiers and riders continue to have a great on-mountain experience by directing all beginner traffic to Loveland Valley.”

    https://skiloveland.com/lift-2-closed-for-maintenance-beginner-terrain-open-at-loveland-valley/

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  5. Chris's avatar Chris February 2, 2026 / 2:56 pm

    A question for the learned commenters;

    Next to the ski resort of Åre, Sweden, there is another mountain called Mullfjället with two resorts; Duved and Tegefjäll.
    As it is now they only use the lower part of the mountain and they are separated (although a couple of T-bars connect them).
    I have an idea that you could use a gondola that would go from one of the resorts base area, to the top of the mountain, and then back to the other resort base area.
    It would follow the main chair lifts where they are today, perhaps it could be a chondola for parts of the lift to not have everyone always having to take their skis off

    Is there such a gondola doing a similair situation in existence?
    The different green forts are stations; Town Square in Duved, the current chair station in the ski area, the current top of the ski area, the top of the mountain, the current top of the Tegefjäll area (and proposed gondola station over to Åre to the east), the current bottom of the chair lift and down to a future base area by a future rail station.

    I hope my wall of text makes any sense. Thanks for all the potential input.

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  6. LH's avatar LH February 2, 2026 / 9:05 pm

    Probably the most similar gondola to what you are envisioning is the Base to Base Gondola at Palisades Tahoe:

    https://liftblog.com/base-to-base-i-palisades-tahoe-ca/

    https://liftblog.com/base-to-base-ii-palisades-tahoe-ca/

    But it doesnt come cheap, every midstation and turn requires a terminal that detaches and attaches the chair, and all the machinery and electronics (monitoring) to safely do that adds up. The base to base cost us$65 million.

    Would you consider the upper mountain to be skiable? (terrain and weatherwise)… if so it might be feasible for them to expand with chairs to the top and folks could ski down to the other base. This is assuming that the resorts are under common ownership, otherwise they wont want their guests heading over to the restaurants,etc at the other base and lose that revenue.

    The top station as you drew looks like it would be a great sightseeing spot, so there could be some opportunity for summer revenue if a gondola ever were a reality.

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    • Chris's avatar Chris February 3, 2026 / 5:30 am

      Thanks for your input.
      Yes, its skiable, sometimes the wind is to strong up there which is why a detachable with mid-stations is needed (and why there is no lifts there now). Neighbouring Åre has the same issue but the upper part is much bigger which is why there are lifts there already.

      Yes, its all under same ownership.
      The resorts are “close” to the North Atlantic, and because of that it sometimes gets strong winds that can either shut down the upper mountain or the entire resort. Flexibility is key.

      It is quite beutiful up there. Would probably get non-ski visitors year round.

      wVirHiUlf4I

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