- Whaleback’s chairlift is back in action after being closed all season.
- Angel Fire performs a mid-season splice on the Southwest Flyer, now back open.
- A child is okay after falling from a chairlift at Blue Knob, Pennsylvania.
- Another child falls from a chair and is airlifted from Sierra-at-Tahoe.
- Telluride sues several current and former elected officials seeking millions of damages incurred during the December patrol strike.
- The latest Eaglecrest gondola complication: cabins shipped on their side rather than upright.
- The Mighty Argo Cable Car in Colorado will soft open next month.
- OZ Trails Bike Park to open with Arkansas’ first detachable chairlift in June.
- BC’s Okanagan Gondola set to open in April 2027.
- Vail Resorts reports an 11.9 percent decline in North American skier visits and lowers financial guidance.
- Park City Billionaire Matthew Prince still wants to buy Park City Mountain from Vail.
- Alterra CEO Jared Smith steps down.
- Vermont considers regulating both lift operator breaks and staffing levels.
- Leitner to build the world’s first jig-back tramway with a direct drive in Italy.
- Both the Green Mountain Express and North Ridge Express go down at Sugarbush’s Mt. Ellen, leaving hiking as the only access to the summit.
- Black Mountain, New Hampshire won’t become a co-op after all, will continue to be managed by Entabeni Systems.
- Mt. Sima, Yukon to reactivate its T-Bar after many years.
- A massive nearby rockslide closes Whistler’s Peak Chair indefinitely.
- Magic Mountain, Idaho won’t open this season.
Lift Blog 
Definetly going to follow the Mathew Prince story; if he manages to buy Park City from Vail.
Would be interesting to see how that would go about practically and how it would affect PC and Vail.
Living in Sweden and having my favourite mountain, Åre, being mismanaged by our equivalent to Vail – Skistar – I have similair thoughts as Prince does on a daily basis. :)
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He has been trying since May, after buying the town Lift plaza (where the town lift is located)
It’s a big ongoing story.
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Cottonwood Butte, Id also announced they wouldn’t open this winter.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AsX1kgxPZ/
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Some big news in the PNW this week – Oregon legislators passed a modified version of an outdoor recreation liability bill. This has the potential to be a huge deal for ski areas in the state struggling to get or keep insurance coverage. Good article about it here:
https://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/politics/2026/03/06/oregon-lawmakers-pass-liability-bill-to-save-outdoor-rec-industry/89018771007/
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What is the real story behind Jared Smith stepping down at Alterra?
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Alterra struggled tremendously this year, beyond what would have been expected in a poor snow year. Jared Smith did a fine job running the company in good times, but he was completely unprepared for this year, and he failed to salvage the season at all.
Anyone can steer the ship when the sea is calm.
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I think Eaglecrest should drop the gondola project.
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Eaglecrest… What on earth. Something north of 37 million for a used, fixed grip gondola install that isn’t even close to being done. Something like 15-20 million of that is directly related to the complications/mismanagement/delays in progress. 20 million already spent.
But diving deeper… Since this process began, Eaglecrest lost Black Bear, which imo was the sneaky best chair to lap on the mtn, and Ptarmigan has had multiple significant breakdowns. Even considering the necessity of alluring Goldbelt and local taxpayers with “Big New Gondola” there had to be a better way to spend 35+ million on lifts.
Some not-so-crazy ideas when compared to reality;
Any of this would have cost less, and been done or been actually in the process of being done. Every one of these options wouldn’t have the random “whoops we need an extra 500k, actually 2 million, actually 7 million” that’s happened multiple times in only a few years.
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