- The VonRoll skyride at California’s Great America to close next September along with the entire park.
- Wisconsin’s Crystal Ridge, Nordic Mountain and Little Switzerland join the Ikon Pass two day bonus tier; Ikon Base holders also now get three days at Deer Valley.
- Indy Pass adds Cherry Peak, Utah; Le Relais and Mont Blanc, Quebec; and Mt. Cain, BC plus a 25 percent discount on window tickets at Gore, Whiteface and Belleayre.
- Fernie replaces chairs, controls and more on the White Pass quad.
- A study concludes Eaglecrest should reactivate Black Bear, replace lifts as needed with fixed-grips and possibly replace Ptarmigan with a chondola.
- Mt. Ashland completes fundraising to replace the Windsor double with a Skytrac triple.
- Snowstar, Illinois won’t operate skiing this winter and may close completely after this season.
- Sugar Bowl’s new gondola won’t be ready until January.
- Alterra sells Aspenware.
- A new gold mine near Stewart, BC proposes a tramway to transport workers and ore.
- A trial is set for October 2027 in Vancouver, BC between Ski Bluewood, Washington and used lift broker Steelhead Systems.
So.. The company doing the study at Eaglecrest doesn’t know why Black Bear was decommissioned?
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It almost doesn’t matter, it changed how the whole mountain skied. It opened an alternate route to the top, created its own pod of terrain, and was part of some pretty great out-of-bounds routes. It added capacity at a mountain that consists of 3 other doubles. It really was core to the layout, even if it took years to show up in the first place. It made the mountain ski bigger and began to feel like a small but worthy regional destination/powder chasing enthusiast area instead of a community hill.
The mountain’s footprint has always been great but they’ve never had the infrastructure to attract 3 day weekend skiers from Portland, Seattle, or Vancouver.
Meaning Eaglecrest should be bending over backwards to replace it. A new triple would have been so much and already installed vs the gondola fiasco. It turns the mountain and Juneau into a niche and unique place to visit as an alternative to Whistler, Alyeska, or the Seattle/Portland area mountains. Which then gives Eaglecrest the chance to actually be self sustainable and make bigger moves like replacing Ptarmigan and a better planned expansion.
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*would have been so much cheaper than the gondola plan
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Quite the round up of swindled by steelhead this week
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The strategic plan written by SE Group for Eaglecrest is quite excellent work. I know they have a great reputation but the quality of the analysis still shocked me. If I were paying for a consultant, I’d feel like I struck gold if I received that work product.
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Should probably specify Vancouver BC not Vancouver WA 😅
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It’s going to be interesting to see what happens at Great America as Santa Clara has stated several times, that property is not zoned for commercial use. “The 112-acre California’s Great America property in Santa Clara is currently zoned specifically for theme park use (under a Planned Development: theme park designation), meaning it is not automatically zoned for commercial, office, residential, or industrial development.” Funny how a hot dog stand created this park, Marriott.
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