- Bogus Basin proposes replacing Coach with a quad servicing a new, longer alignment.
- Maine reaches its second highest skier visit total ever.
- Vermont also reports strong results with visits up 10 percent over last year.
- The new owner of Holiday Mountain intends to install not one but two used chairlifts next summer.
- West Mountain looks toward building a detachable in 2025.
- Stevens Pass to sell center pole chairs from Kehr’s.
- A court decides Vail Resorts doesn’t owe Epic Pass holders refunds for the Covid-shortened 2020 season.
- Burke Mountain gets a purchase offer.
- Mechanics and electricians at Crested Butte will vote whether to unionize on June 30th.
- Two new lifts for next winter are already nearing completion at Loon Mountain and Massanutten.
- Deer Valley-Mayflower talks continue.
- Le Massif gives up trying to purchase struggling Mont-Sainte-Anne.
News
News Roundup: Reimagining
- The Canyons Village Management Association budgets $8 million for a Cabriolet replacement and $9.24 million toward a new gondola on the Canyons side of Park City Mountain.
- The Summit at Snoqualmie adds more chairs to Armstrong Express at Alpental.
- Mt. Bachelor offers Skyliner Express chairs for sale.
- Keystone releases an all new trail map showing the Bergman expansion.
- New owners of Holiday Mountain, New York will host a stakeholder meeting tomorrow to outline rebuilding plans.
- The Whistler Blackcomb Peak 2 Peak Gondola may open late for the summer due to an issue related to ice buildup.
- A former employee who fell 30 feet from a Riblet double without a safety bar while downloading accuses Stevens Pass of negligently operating an old, unsafe chairlift.
- Colorado reports a record 14.8 million skier visits.
- New Hampshire also reports strong results from last season.
- Vail Resorts says season pass sales are trending up 6 percent in units and 11 percent in dollars for next season.
- Le Massif will operate two of its longest lifts for a unique night time sound and light show this summer.
- Highland Mountain Bike Park to close its chairlift for a week to replace the communications line.
- Snowmass receives approval to replace Coney Glade with a realigned and extended detachable quad in 2024.
- Five years after closing, Deer Mountain, South Dakota will reopen as a private club.
Instagram Tuesday: Up and Down
Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
News Roundup: Big Numbers
- Vail Resorts declines to voluntarily recognize the Crested Butte lift maintenance/electrical union, triggering a National Labor Relations Board election process.
- Eaglecrest offers an updated pulse gondola construction timeline with opening targeted for summer 2025.
- Magic Mountain plans to finish the Black Line Quad this summer after four years of trying.
- Utah skier visits rose a whopping 22 percent this season to 7.1 million.
- Quebec reports its strongest season in 16 years with 6.6 million skier visits.
- A single round trip ride on Europe’s newest 3S gondola will cost a whopping $265.
- Big Sky posts more photos of its new tram cabins taking shape in Switzerland.
- Smugglers’ Notch adds a section to its website about the proposed Stowe connector gondola.
- Holiday Mountain, New York sells to a new owner with plans to revive lost ski terrain.
- Park City begins loading new Sigma cabins on the Red Pine Gondola.
Alterra Buys Schweitzer
Alterrra Mountain Company today announced an agreement to acquire Schweitzer Mountain Resort, the largest ski mountain in Idaho. Already an Ikon Pass partner, Schweitzer features a fleet of nine chairlifts on 2,900 acres of private land near Sandpoint. The mountain will become the 17th owned destination for Alterra across the United States and Canada. “With an incredible mountain in one of the most beautiful settings in the country and a world-class operating team, Schweitzer has everything we look for in a destination,” said Jared Smith, President and CEO of Alterra Mountain Company. “The mountain has been a valued partner on the Ikon Pass for several seasons, so we’ve been able to see the exceptional team, community, and opportunities for continued investment up close.”
Tom Chasse, who has been with Schweitzer since 2006, will stay on as President and CEO under Alterra. He will oversee Schweitzer’s continued growth, which includes development of a new base area called Schweitzer Creek Village. A new Leitner-Poma high speed quad is already under construction and will debut on that part of the mountain next winter.
MKM Trust, which has been the owner and developer of Schweitzer for the past 18 years, will retain non-ski operations and will continue to lead future real estate development. The transaction is expected to close later this year.
News Roundup: Stop and Go
- Multiple companies take big losses removing the VonRoll skyride in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
- Snowbird will debut new rooftop tram balconies June 17th.
- Eight people are expected to be charged in the 2021 Italian tramway disaster that killed 14 people.
- Crested Butte lift mechanics file a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to hold a union election.
- British Columbia still hasn’t decided whether to permit a sightseeing gondola or competing ski resort proposal near Chilliwack.
- Poma publishes a new urban gondola highlight book.
- A group opposed to the privatization of Homewood says the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency has paused permitting for the project, set to include a new D-Line gondola.
- Critics want Taos’ base to base gondola proposal to go through more detailed environmental analysis than the Forest Service has planned.
- Utah leaders vote to include the Little Cottonwood Gondola in a regional transportation plan.
- Kelly Canyon plans multiple lift upgrades this summer.
News Roundup: Birds of Prey
- A pair of osprey nest atop a tower on Beaver Creek’s Riverfront Express, preventing maintenance work for now.
- New York’s Olympic Regional Development Authority plans to spend $80 million on lifts and snowmaking each of the next four years.
- The first 29 cabins will debut on Park City’s Red Pine Gondola June 30th with 26 more to follow next winter.
- SilverStar adds 21 new cabins to the Schumann Summit Express gondola.
- The first urban gondola in Canada could go out to bid in 2025.
- Leitner-Poma secures a tax credit for its upcoming facility in Utah.
- White Pass retires the Pigtail II double, the second oldest chairlift in the country dating back to 1958.
- The asking price for closed Toggenburg Mountain drops to $1.995 million.
- Leitner and Poma partner with a solar energy company to offer photovoltaic panels on detachable lift terminals.
- Lake Louise formally announces the Upper Juniper Express, to be built by Doppelmayr over the next two summers.
- A worker dies in a fall from an Italian aerial tramway while performing maintenance work.
- Chair 2 at Snow Valley is being shortened to become a beginner lift.
- Mt. Holly’s second detachable quad will be called Lightning Express.
- Snowmass seeks Forest Service approval to replace Coney Glade and Cirque.
- Cannon Mountain looks to announce a new tram on July 7th, the 85th anniversary of the original tram.
News Roundup: Record Investment
- US skier visits jump 6.6% to an all time record of 64.7 million with accompanying record capital investment.
- Copper Mountain says it’s in negotiations with both major lift manufacturers for new Timberline and/or Lumberjack lifts.
- Ditto for Sugarbush with Heaven’s Gate and North Ridge.
- In Germany, a paraglider flies into moving aerial tram, necessitating his rescue plus an overnight evacuation of 60 passengers and restaurant patrons.
- A proposed new ski area in Valdez, Alaska gains preliminary approval.
- Vail Resorts trucks its first eight pack from Utah to British Columbia for installation.
- A bill in the Florida legislature targets Walt Disney World’s monorail and gondola systems with new inspection requirements in possible retaliation for the company’s political statements.
- Doppelmayr chairs from retired Challenger will be used to replace Yan teardrop chairs on at Sun Valley’s Christmas and Frenchman’s lifts.
- The contractor removing the Tulsa Skyride backs out half way through the project.
- Belleayre to sell chairs from outgoing Lift 7.
News Roundup: Sigma
- The three New York State-owned ski areas report record skier visits.
- Doppelmayr launches a new customer magazine called Up.
- Sigma Cabins has a new website.
- Park City’s outgoing Red Pine Gondola cabins go up for sale with an asking price of $25,000 each. New Sigma cabins have already started arriving.
- Lake Louise cuts the lift line for the future Upper Juniper Express.
- The Forest Service approves China Peak to reinstall Jackson Hole’s old Thunder quad.
- Snowshoe takes bids for retired triple chairs.
- Poma inaugurates the world’s fastest and highest capacity urban gondola in the Dominican Republic.
- No link but an end of season email from Sugarbush teases multiple upcoming lift replacements.
- Mont Blanc, Quebec to retrofit a second quad chair with a loading conveyor.
- The new triangle gondola in California wine country gets set to open in October.
News Roundup: East to West
- Demolition begins on the only lift in Oklahoma.
- Utah’s new Wasatch Peaks Ranch now includes five lifts but will remain private and members only.
- Skeetawk, Alaska looks at used lifts in Europe for expansion.
- The project to bring a used gondola to Eaglecrest, Alaska is delayed until the 2025-2028 timeframe.
- Ikon Pass profiles a lift operator who has spent 20 years sleeping at the top of Mammoth’s Panorama Gondola.
- Mt. Shasta joins the Powder Alliance.
- Alta Sierra, California struggles to stay in business due to storms and road closures this season.
- Vail promotes the General Manager of Perisher to lead Whistler Blackcomb.
- Alterra names a new President and COO of Crystal Mountain, teases “new and upgraded ski lift infrastructure” and “the potential for expanded terrain.”
- Schweitzer lists Musical Chairs for sale.
- Two new investors take ownership stakes in Windham Mountain, promising new investment.
- An April update on Loon Mountain’s South Peak expansion.
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