- In a real estate sales presentation, Red Mountain leaders say expansion lifts on Mt. Kirkup and White Wolf Ridge are a higher priority than replacing existing lifts.
- Sasquatch Mountain, BC provides an update on the Green Chair, which hasn’t spun all season.
- An avalanche strikes a closed detachable lift in France.
- Another French avalanche takes out a tower and hits a terminal.
- Rime ice topples a lift tower in Spain.
- A double chair rolls back during operation in China (likely a lift from BHMRI, not a western manufacturer.)
- Also in Asia, a viral video shows a gondola cabin dragging through deep snow.
- Bluewood, Washington upgrades Triple Nickel with Partek carriers, will sell old Borvig ones.
- Anakeesta offers up chairs from its former Chondola but not the gondola cabins.
- The 13 year-old critically injured in an unloading incident at Ski Vorlage, Quebec last week died four days later, her family says. Quebec’s ropeway regulator inspected the lift post-accident and identified several unspecified corrective actions, now completed.
- A five year old is hospitalized after falling from Sunday River’s Jordan Mountain double.
- Groundbreaking could come soon for the Aspen development that includes a new Lift 1A.
- Skytrac to construct both new lifts at Little Switzerland, Wisconsin.
- Five people board a quad chair on the Sourdough Express at Vail, one later jumps off after the lift stops (unclear if they were directed to do so by Vail Resorts staff.)
- Wisp temporarily closes two lifts for separate repairs.
- Tye Mill at Stevens Pass goes out of service.
- Also two lifts at Pico.
- Stratton’s gondola to remain closed into next week due to a maintenance issue.
- Sundance Express at Sun Peaks to be closed this weekend for maintenance.
- Castle Mountain, Alberta temporarily closes the new Stagecoach Express to swap a motor.
- At Marquette Mountain, Michigan, a misload bends apart a Riblet chair (quickly replaced without incident.)
- The Supreme Court strikes down some of President Trump’s import tariffs but not Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs most affecting lift manufacturers. In response to the decision, the President orders a 10 percent global tariff to last 150 days (USMCA compliant goods and items already subjected to Section 232 tariffs are exempted).
Lift Blog 
I’ve always thought those old Riblet center-pole doubles looked incredibly flimsy, and apparently I was right.
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Calling Outpost an orphan lift is a little rich when Killington/Pico murdered it’s parent.
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The original Killington Gondola! Killed C&S and almost bankrupt Killington too.
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I work at Marquette Mountain and was actually in line for the lift off-duty when it happened. There was a massive race last weekend but it was not anyone affiliated with the race. Poor guy mis-loaded twice (breaking it the first mis-load) and got cheered for when he finally made it on. The head of maintenance was stationed at the top of the lift because of the race and I talked to him shortly before he took a chair off the closed for the season Rocket lift and was able to swap the chairs out in roughly 3 minutes. Super quick response times from everyone involved!
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Note from Pico regarding one of the lifts that is down:
The Outpost Double experienced a more significant mechanical failure on Wednesday, February 18, involving the lift’s drive shaft. Outpost is a 1969 Carlevaro-Savio fixed-grip double chairlift. It is considered an “orphan lift,” meaning the original manufacturer is no longer in operation. Because of this, replacement parts are extremely limited and must be specially sourced or custom fabricated. Due to the age of the lift and the complexity of sourcing components, the Outpost Double will be down for an extended period. There is currently no estimated timeline for its return to service.
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Sad to hear that Red isn’t placing any emphasis on existing lifts. Red chair and Tbar were installed in ’71, Paradise in ’76, Topping ’79 (@Big White), Motherlode ’80 (@Blackcomb), Grey ’92 (@Alyeska), and Silverlode new in ’07.
5 of 7 lifts are nearly or over 50 years old, and 3 of those are from manufacturers that are no longer existing. So I guess we can expect more long shutdowns (like Motherlode recently) from unexpected failures as parts for these old lifts become increasingly scarce, or need to be custom fabbed.
For a resort with no high speed lifts, that is charging over $200 for a day ticket, where is the money going? Not into lift renewal, thats forsure.
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It is crazy than Red charges more than most destinations in Western Canada including all others in the Selkirks including RCR resorts and even the Skibig3 resorts in Banff are cheaper. The only advantage is the vibe. My honest opinion is that the lifts are still fine, they maintain limited capacity and the laid-back atmosphere Red advertises non-stop, however, when you pay more than 200, you are expecting lots of laps and a comfortable experience. Long and slow lifts like Motherlode and Grey significantly lower the amount of laps you can do, which is frustrating for the cost. Like Whistler closing lifts at 3PM. It is frustrating to pay a lot and not ski as much. If the maintenance is done and worn out part are replaced, the lifts should be running fine, despite their age, and Topping Creek was refurbished in 2019, so it is already updated. All the money must be going towards real estate with the Crescent in 2024, the Daly almost complete, the Wildwood, planned to be done in 2028 and the Glade, that should be done this year. All of this while the last lift is from 2019. Additionally, the summer biking will start to be more important as Red tries to become a true 4-season resort.
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