- Grouse Mountain installs new CWA Kronos cabins on the Red Skyride.
- Despite a pending legal challenge, Park City announces 2027 construction of the long-delayed Silverlode eight place and Eagle six pack.
- Park City also plans a systems modernization on Crescent Express as part of Vail’s approximately $232 million 2027 capital plan.
- Vail reports fiscal year 2026 resort EBITDA down 11.7% and season pass sales for 26/27 down 12 percent in units and 6 percent in dollars.
- Oasis Management increases its ownership stake in Vail Resorts to 9 percent.
- After 15 months and $2.5 million, the Eldora sale requires restructuring and may never close without additional funding.
- Quebec’s CMSQ signs two more mountains to its new multi-mountain pass, La Passe Monts Québec.
- Winter Park replaces the pay-to-play Reserve Pass with “Rope Drop Club,” a free program that rewards passholders who ski early season with line cutting days later in the season.
- The Winter Park community could fund a $120 million gondola from town to the ski area via local taxes.
- International visits to the United States are on track to decline by nearly two million this year.
- Killington explains why maintaining a network of fixed-grip lifts remains important in the East.
- The Forest Service hears objections to the proposed Grand Targhee expansion and eyes resolution.
- Doppelmayr submits the apparent low bid to replace the chairlift at Hogadon, Wyoming.
- Cochran’s, Vermont might be up to something.
- From the classifieds: 1989 Doppelmayr quad for sale.
- Holiday Mountain names its new Partek triple Quickway, renames its Poma triple Neversink.
Killington’s “fixed-grip strategy” has me wondering about Mount Bachelor’s new approach for northwest express … get the carriers off the line, ideally into enclosed storage, and run the haul rope through the storm. Couldn’t that make their detachables more resilient? And do they try anything like that with K1 / Skyeship / Snowdon 6?
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When I worked at Palisades they talked about running the bare haul rope during storms to keep the icing down. They didn’t seem to ever do it though. Or if they did, it was rare.
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@Muni Every Doppelmayr detachable D-Line has a feature that is designed for exactly what you’re talking about. The feature is called “Night Drive Cycle”, and allows for the haul rope to operate overnight at 1.0 meters per second without any chairs on the line. It can only be turned on or off from a key that powers on the lift up in the mornings.
The problem is that only D-Lines made since 2015 have it, as that tech didn’t exist when Northwest Express was built in 1996. I’m not too familiar with Mount Bachelor’s situation, but it seems like they just want a complete overhaul of equipment. It’s possible that a “Night Drive Cycle” made it into the new system and we just don’t know about it yet. Considering Northwest Express is a Doppelmayr, it wouldn’t be too far fetched if it was included with all the upgrades IMO. It does have a chair parking rail at the bottom though!
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They’ve been spinning the rope on Summit sans carriers during storms as long as I can remember, which is back to 1987. I just went back and reread the May update on Bachelor’s website and they specifically say they are adding that function to NWX as part of the upgrade.
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Palmer and Magic mile at Timberline Lodge and Cascade Express at Mt Hood Meadows also have this feature (and indoor chair parking)
i think these east coast resorts may not have the ground space to park the entire chair lineup at night like we do out west
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East or West, I think the opportunity cost of “spending” flat base land on carrier storage is rather high at any ski area with real estate opportunities (the resorts on Mount Hood, interestingly, don’t seem to qualify in that sense). Just look at Jackson Hole and Steamboat moving both storage and ski school ops mid-mountian.
But here again, D-Line comes to the rescue … my understanding is lifts like Ramcharger and Jordan-8 can fit all their chairs into the top and bottom terminals themselves … I assume this requires the ability to decouple movement of the drive tires from that of the haul rope … from which I assume that also means these lifts could probably also just spin the empty haul rope at 1 m/s all night, while the carriers sit in the terminals.
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It’s been possible to park chairs in terminals for a while, definitely before the D-Line came on the scene. A series of clutches can disconnect certain parts of the tyre banks from the rest of the lift and then sequentially activate in the morning to put them back on line. That would definitely allow a ‘night drive’.
Beginner areas have definitely undergone a cultural shift in mountain planning lately. Part of it is real-estate-driven as you say, but I think mountain management and planning has begun to realise that packing all the novices and never-evers into a small area at the base and then having everyone else ski through them to get to the lodge/parking lot isn’t the best look. Steamboat’s Greenhorn Ranch is a prime example, where the new area is pretty large but also self-contained. It’s also no longer at the epicenter of lunch and late-day traffic. I dig it.
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Killington’s strategy is a luxury most mountains cannot afford. Frankly, it is debatable whether it is even worthwhile at Killington. When investment dollars are finite, is it worth building a $7.2 million auxiliary lift over increased snowmaking? Or other primary lift improvements? Especially at a time when newer lifts have parking and night-operation settings that reduce the difference in start-up time on icy mornings.
There’s no right or wrong answer to these questions.
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The Quickway is the semi-official nickname for Rt 17. That chair unloads right near the highway. I like it!
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Enjoyed Killington’s insight to their approach. Refreshing to see and hear a mountain looking at all the aspects of their mountain, not just trying to clear lift lines putting 100s of people on the trails at the exact same time.
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Wonder who will buy the outgoing Elk Chair at Fernie
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