Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
Author: Peter Landsman
News Roundup: City to Mountain
- Leitner-Poma assures the public that recent stopping and swinging on the Roosevelt Island Tram pose no safety issue.
- Doppelmayr secures a five year maintenance and operations contract for the Sterling Vineyards gondola.
- Attendants and mechanics working for Doppelmayr at the Portland Aerial Tram may unionize.
- Garaventa completes the first Auro autonomous operation aerial tramway in Zermatt.
- A gondola in Raleigh, North Carolina?
- Officials release a 360 degree preview of the proposed Burnaby Mountain Gondola.
- Belleayre’s new quad will be called Overlook.
- Snow Valley shortens Chair 2 into a beginner lift with the drive terminal from old Chair 1.
- In Quebec, new owners of Mont Grand-Fonds plan a six seat detachable.
- No link but Mammoth tells me Chair 1 will be replaced in 2024.
- Sun Valley plans to replace Seattle Ridge with a six place detachable in ’24. Christmas is next but no timeline yet for that project.
- A judge will decide whether Park City Mountain’s Eagle and Silverlode upgrade projects can proceed in the future.
- Homewood bails on going private, potentially allowing the delivered Madden Gondola to be installed next summer.
- County officials order the nonprofit attempting to reopen Cuchara to stop work, citing safety concerns.
Ski Santa Fe to Build High Speed Quad
A detachable chairlift will join Ski Santa Fe, New Mexico’s lift fleet for the first time next year. The Forest Service recently completed analysis of the new lift, which will replace the 1988 Santa Fe Super Chief fixed grip quad. “The project is needed to upgrade declining infrastructure, ensuring efficient operations and improved user satisfaction,” the Forest Service wrote in an October 13th decision. Ride time will improve from 10 minutes to just over four minutes.
The new lift will be called Santa Fe Express and be built by Leitner-Poma, the manufacturer for most of Ski Santa Fe’s existing chairlifts. The high speed quad will run just over 4,000 linear feet and serve 865 vertical feet of beginner, intermediate and advanced terrain.
Construction will begin in April 2024 and is expected to be completed in time for the 2024-25 ski season.
Instagram Tuesday: Flying Squirrel
Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
News Roundup: Gondola Gallery
- Troll, British Columbia secures a million dollar grant to double ski terrain with a new T-Bar next year.
- Snowbasin may not host events for a second Utah Olympics but Deer Valley and Park City are on board.
- Baltimore explores building a harbor crossing gondola.
- Big Sky’s stunning new tram will open December 19th.
- Vail Resorts debuts gondola cabin artwork by diverse artists at Park City and Stowe with Whistler Blackcomb up next.
- Vail brings lift mechanics from Indiana, Minnesota and Ohio to help finish the Mountaineer at Attitash.
- A rigging mishap sets back reopening of Chair 4 at Cuchara.
- Sugar Bowl replaces two damaged towers on the Crow’s Peak triple.
- Sierra at Tahoe modifies lift towers due to wind load changes from Caldor Fire tree removal.
- Discovery, Montana completes a solar power facility adjacent to the Anaconda triple capable of providing 65 to 70 percent of the lift’s energy needs.
California Mountain Resorts Company Acquires Bear Valley
Canadian-Israeli investment firm Skyline has sold Bear Valley, its last remaining ski resort holding. The buyer is Invision Capital-backed California Mountain Resorts Company, the group behind Mountain High, Dodge Ridge and China Peak. CMRC CEO Karl Kapuscinski and President Tim Cohee have been pursuing Bear Valley for some time because it adds to a compelling group of California resorts up and down the Sierra Nevada range. Bear Valley will immediately join the multi-mountain Cali Pass but not the Indy Pass, which other CMRC mountains participate in. Tim Schimke, whose grandfather helped develop Bear Valley, will remain General Manager.
Located in the central Sierra, Bear Valley spans 1,680 acres with a 1,900 foot vertical drop. The mountain’s seven chairlifts range in age and capacity from 1967 Riblet doubles to the Mokelumne Express, a 2017 Leitner-Poma six pack. California Mountain Resorts Company has been actively consolidating and upgrading lifts at Dodge Ridge and China Peak and will likely undertake similar efforts at Bear Valley. Perhaps the biggest capital opportunity lies on the backside of the mountain, where a long-envisioned detachable lift could connect Bear Valley Village with the mountain’s summit. This area is currently skiable but with no return lift service. A shuttle bus runs skiers back up the mountain but costs extra on top of a lift ticket.
CMRC already unveiled a new logo for Bear Valley and indicated more improvements are coming. “The journey ahead is riddled with challenges, but I am optimistic, noted CMRC president Tim Cohee in a press release. “With the dedication of our team and Tim’s unparalleled leadership, we are poised to meet and surpass these challenges. Our goal remains steadfast: to revive and amplify the Bear Valley legacy for one and all.”
Instagram Tuesday: Hero’s
Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
News Roundup: The Notch
- Snow Ridge plans to spin all five lifts this season despite extensive tornado damage sustained in August.
- Mt. Holly postpones completion of the Lightning Express to next summer.
- Cockaigne, New York won’t open this season.
- Norway Mountain, Michigan begins maintenance on lifts in preparation for reopening next season.
- Whiteface’s new trail map shows the new Notch lift and angle station.
- Park City shares more details on the upcoming Sunrise Gondola.
- The New York Times profiles Vietnam’s record-breaking ropeways.
- A trial is set for January for eight defendants implicated in the 2021 Italian tram disaster.
Instagram Tuesday: Mountaineer
Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
News Roundup: Modernizing
- Skytrac modernizes a Hall double at Snow Trails, Ohio.
- Arapahoe Basin eyes transport gondolas and a new chairlift.
- Arkansas may get its first lift.
- Black Mountain, New Hampshire will operate this season after all with support from Indy Pass.
- Residents seek a restraining order to halt construction at Wasatch Peaks Ranch.
- Quebec’s government pours cold water on funding Mont-Sainte-Anne upgrades with Resorts of the Canadian Rockies.
- Big White teases future lift and terrain expansion.
- Cannon Mountain’s tram modernization will go out to bid soon.
- Okanagan Gondola eyes a 2025 opening.
- More expansion maps are out: Sugarloaf, Keystone, Schweitzer, Red Lodge, Trollhaugen.
- Okemo seeks a five year extension on approval of a Jackson Gore beginner quad.
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