- A fallen tree forces the evacuation of a tramway in Italy.
- The Stresa-Mottarone cable car which crashed in May may be replaced by a gondola.
- Doppelmayr hosts a webinar all about urban mobility.
- Sugarloaf will update the public on the West Mountain expansion Monday.
- The latest Indy Pass additions are Marmot Basin, Montage Mountain, Snow Valley, CA and Titus Mountain.
- Big Sky posts sneak peak photos of premium chairs for Swift Current 6.
- Spirit Mountain lists the Double Jaw double for sale with an asking price of $1.
- Voting is open for the Rise Up Challenge; one of six lift mechanics will win $3,500 from Leitner-Poma of America and Ski Area Management.
- A Quebec appeals court judge writes in a dissenting opinion that a mountain biker left on a chairlift at Bromont should be held partially responsible because he did not carry a cell phone.
- TikTok drives record ridership on London’s Emirate Air Line.
- Caberfae Peaks plans to build a Doppelmayr triple in 2022 replacing Shelter.
- After lengthy repairs, the Purgatory Village Express is open.
- Crested Butte will auction chairs from Peachtree.
- Vail Resorts details plans to boost wages significantly across its resorts.
- Sunshine Village provides an update on it long range plan, including a second Goat’s Eye chairlift.
- The State of New Hampshire may seek federal funding to upgrade or replace the Cannon Mountain Tramway.
- Hear the story of how Rick Schmitz acquired three Wisconsin ski areas beginning at age 22.
News
News Roundup: Naming
- Jackson Hole’s Tram Maintenance Manager explains why Big Red is closed this summer.
- Wildcat Mountain says scenic chairlift rides will resume on 7/31 following a lift upgrade project.
- A Salt Lake TV station devotes a half hour to exploring the gondola and bus options for Little Cottonwood Canyon.
- UDOT extends the public comment period for the LCC project to 70 days, ending September 3rd.
- The renaming of Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows is pushed back to early Fall.
- Okemo reports great progress on two new lifts.
- The Forest Service says at least two of Grand Targhee’s proposed expansion lifts will not be approved and a decision on others won’t come until late 2022.
- The new high speed quad on Peak 7 at Breckenridge will be called Freedom SuperChair.
- Four more mountains will join the Indy Pass next week.
- New Hampshire reports solid pandemic skier visits similar to pre-pandemic numbers.
- Local politicians oppose a direct route for the Burnaby Mountain Gondola.
- Pittsburgh considers an urban gondola to connect two downtown districts.
- Both Doppelmayr Canada and Leitner-Poma offer to finance the Cascade Skyline Gondola.
- Sun Peaks shutters mountain operations due to regional wildfires.
- Progress report from Leitner-Poma and Skytrac’s big project at Snow King Mountain:
Instagram Tuesday: Room for 8
Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
News Roundup: 685 Cabins
- New owners launch Granby Ranch Rising, a set of capital improvement initiatives.
- Seven Springs’ new lift may be completed as soon as the end of this month.
- Mexico City will launch the Doppelmayr-built Cablebús Line 1 on Sunday, followed by the Leitner-built Line 2 on July 24th with a system total of 13 stations, 121 towers and 685 cabins.
- Mt. Hood Meadows proposes replacing the Mt. Hood Express with a Leitner-Poma six place in 2022 or 2023.
- Lookout Pass begins cutting trails on Eagle Peak with installation of Sundance’s former Ray’s quad set to commence in 2022.
- A Breckenridge developer proposes a short gondola to bring skiers from the Gold Rush parking lot to the BreckConnect Gondola.
- Sunlight tables construction of the East Ridge expansion lift, citing “soaring costs of materials such as steel due to ongoing supply chain challenges.” The mountain says “new lift installations are happening at a premium price right now,” and will prioritize more immediate needs such as upgrades to existing lifts.
- Speaking of premium lifts, more towers arrive for the Squaw-Alpine Base to Base Gondola.
News Roundup: Breaking Ground
- Utah’s transportation department will host an open house July 13th to explain as solicit feedback on the gondola and enhanced bus alternatives for Little Cottonwood Canyon.
- Loon and Doppelmayr fly the towers for Kancamagus 8.
- A brown bear did not ride a chairlift at Vail as you may have read on Facebook.
- Welch Village’s new lift will be called the Cannon Valley Quad.
- The first test of UpBus, a passenger-carrying pod which transitions between wheel and cable propulsion, takes place at Doppelmayr headquarters.
- Mt. Southington replaces chairs and towers on the Avalanche double.
- The asking price is reduced for the defunct Plymouth Notch ski area in Vermont.
- Beaver Creek breaks ground in McCoy Park.
- Gondolas arrive at Snow King Mountain.
- Pueblo, Colorado considers building a $20 million sightseeing gondola.
- The investigation into the Mottarone disaster widens to 12 people including Leitner employees and the company itself. Leitner says in a statement that it is cooperating with investigators and that its maintenance operations were done in full compliance with the law and contractual obligations.
News Roundup: Preferred Alternatives
- Colorado reports an estimated 12 million skier visits, slightly below the recent average.
- Yellowstone Club founder Tim Blixseth will seek millions in damages from the State of Montana related to the Club’s bankruptcy a decade ago.
- Indy Pass signs Eagle Point, Utah and Sundown Mountain, Iowa.
- Arizona Snowbowl pauses summer operations due to fire danger.
- Alterra looks to build a village surrounding Mammoth’s Main Lodge, which would include two pulse gondolas and two new chairlifts.
- Vail Resorts indefinitely postpones summer ops at Attitash and Wildcat, citing maintenance on three different lifts.
- A citizen group forms to advocate for the Pandora’s expansion on Aspen Mountain.
- The Utah Department of Transportation selects enhanced bus service and a gondola with La Caille base station as the two preferred alternatives for Little Cottonwood Canyon.
News Roundup: Full Steam Ahead
- Steamboat shares a timeline for the Wild Blue Gondola project, relocation of the Christie Peak Express base terminal, Pioneer Ridge construction and Greenhorn Ranch.
- Utah breaks its all time visit record despite the pandemic and a drought.
- Marshall Mountain is now set to sell to a group intending to maintain public access.
- The former owner of Jay Peak and current operator of six Quebec ski resorts agrees to pay the Vermont ski area $100,000 without admitting any wrongdoing.
- Mayflower Mountain Resort breaks ground, sort of.
- We now know where Kelly Canyon’s new Skytrac triple will go.
- The Indy Pass will announce its 67th and 68th resort partners next week.
- Purgatory permits mountain bikers to shuttle themselves in private vehicles while Lift 1 undergoes repairs in June and July.
- Aspen invests over a million dollars to replace the haul rope on the Silver Queen Gondola.
- The Stresa-Mottarone tram disaster was captured by two surveillance cameras. Caution, the footage is very disturbing to watch.
- Progress continues on the Squaw-Alpine Base to Base Gondola.
News Roundup: Chairless
- Wildcat plans to replace the chairs on the Wildcat Express.
- Jay Peak and Burke Mountain could receive more than $9 million under a proposed settlement with the law firm of former owner Ariel Quiros.
- Here’s another chance to own a classic double chair.
- Mayflower Mountain Resort secures up to $260 million in bond financing.
- Catamount’s second new lift this year will replace the last SLI in the Northeast.
- The United States tallies 59 million skier visits in 2020-21, 5th most in history.
- Aspen Snowmass had a tough season with traffic 20 percent below average.
- Digging into the unsolved Sea to Sky Gondola crimes.
- Two Disney Skyliner cars bump into each other, causing some down time.
- Vail Resorts reports strong earnings, continues to look at strategic acquisition opportunities and will be aggressive at reinvesting across its resorts post-pandemic.
- Arizona Snowbowl converts the Arizona Gondola combination lift into a pure gondola for the summer.
- The bike park at Purgatory will open many weeks late due to an unspecified problem with the Purgatory Village Express.
- Doppelmayr releases a 30 page urban brochure.
- France may provide the financing for a six station, 180 cabin urban gondola in the Filipino capital of Manila.
News Roundup: Dollars and Euros
- Blackcomb Glacier won’t host skiing this summer.
- Snow King Mountain sells $150,000 worth of retired chairs in one hour.
- Poma unveils the first 34 passenger cabin for the new urban 3S in Toulouse.
- Okemo’s new lifts will be called Evergreen Summit Express and Quantum Six.
- Former Ticketmaster chief Jared Smith is named President of Alterra overseeing mountain and hospitality divisions.
- The latest on the Stresa-Mottarone disaster:
- Numerous pictures surface showing brakes blocked with passengers aboard as far back as 2014.
- An employee says pre-operational checks were skipped entirely on the day of the crash.
- Two of the three men arrested are released.
- A lawyer for the manager still held alleges Leitner was slow to respond to service calls.
- Leitner was paid €127,000 ($155,000) per year to perform major maintenance on the tram under a long-term contract, though officials do not consider the company or any of its employees suspects.
- The owner of the operating company is also under investigation over two injury incidents on a Wiegand mountain coaster at the facility.
- Eitan, the little boy who survived, is released from intensive care.
- Cannon Mountain opens its tramway for the first time in 14 months.
- Europe’s largest ski operator plans to spend €200 million ($244 million) per year through 2025 to catch up on investments sidelined by the pandemic.
- The Pandora’s expansion on Aspen Mountain notches another approval.
- Anakeesta’s chondola lift breaks down for a bit.
- New Zealand’s first 8 passenger chairlift is complete and she’s a beauty.
- With 35 percent of jobs unfilled, Whitefish Mountain Resort cuts summer operating days.
- Schweitzer raises $80,000 for local charities through the sale of chairs from Snow Ghost.
- The Sea to Sky Gondola outlines some of its security plan.
- Los Angeles Aerial Rapid Transit (LAART) unveils more on its planned 3S: four stations, three towers, 44 cars and underground cabin storage at Dodger Stadium.
- Steamboat’s gondola building comes down after 35 years.
- Trollhaugen will sell chairs from Chair 1 next week.
- Quebec records 6.1 million skier days in 2020-21, slightly above average.
- The State of Texas commits $10 million towards a replacement Wyler Aerial Tramway in El Paso.
News Roundup: Reopening x3
- New York lost ski area Hickory Hill may return next winter.
- Snow King’s former Summit double could live on at Sleeping Giant, although Snow King is selling the chairs today. Also here are some new renderings of the gondola.
- A hearing is ordered to determine whether Wachusett management knew an employee falsified lift operator training records following an accident.
- Even before Virginia’s indoor ski resort breaks ground, developers explore more locations.
- Just like that, the cool new 2S gondola in Germany is open.
- The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania commits $10 million to revive Denton Hill but needs a private partner.
- Deer Mountain in South Dakota is sold and plans a reopening after four years shuttered.
- For the fourth time in its short history, the Sea to Sky Gondola receives a shipment of new cabins and will announce a reopening date soon. Finding criminal(s) who twice destroyed the lift remains the top investigative priority for Squamish police.
- Pictures of the Steamboat Gondola station move.
- A Loon Kanc 8 update.
- Canada’s first new gondola in three years will be named the Atlantic Gondola.
- The BC Ministry of Forests will choose between the Cascade Skyline Gondola and Bridal Veil Mountain Resort proposals, which have significant overlap.
- Leitner releases a third statement regarding the Stresa-Mottarone disaster. The manufacturer will join a civil lawsuit against the tramway’s operator and any compensation for damages will be donated to families of the victims.
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