- Granite Peak will announce a plan this fall for new runs and multiple new lifts.
- Crystal Mountain pushes back Kelly’s Gap high speed quad to 2021.
- James Coleman purchases Hesperus, adding to his collective that includes Arizona Snowbowl, Pajarito, Purgatory and Sipapu. A 1961 Riblet double from Mt. Bachelor is Hesperus’ only lift.
- Fatzer opens a new production plant.
- The United States overtakes France as the world’s most popular ski destination. The U.S. is the fourth largest lift market.
- Austin’s NPR station dedicates more than seven minutes to a discussion about urban cable. “Once we went to La Paz, we were up and running within 12 months,” Doppelmayr’s Randy Woolwine tells listeners.
- A six-pack rises at Arizona Snowbowl.
- Eagle Point unveils Vision 2020 with new lifts and expanded terrain planned.
- Next season might be the last for Blackcomb’s Horstman T-Bar due to glacial recession. This video demonstrates one of the pitfalls of the sinking T-Bar.
- SAM reports how Jay Peak employees have made the most of a bad situation amidst a federal fraud investigation.
- Mont Bellevue gets a Doppelmayr Eco quad with a return station design we haven’t seen before and two different-style bullwheels.
- Le Relais’ $5 million six-place chair is just about finished.
- Vail Resorts loses $65.3 million in the fourth quarter.
- Big Sky’s new six-pack will be named Powder Seeker.
- The first Poma EEZII-model compact detachable terminal is assembled in France.
- Whistler-Blackcomb releases Conflicted Obsessions documentary about climate change. “The gorilla in the room is the long-distance travel required to get to these special places,” admits W-B’s environmental resource manager.
News
Vail Nears Completion of New Sun Up Express
With construction underway on a new lift for the ninth time in ten years, Vail Mountain will have only three fixed-grip chairlifts this winter. Adding to what is already the largest detachable lift fleet in the world outside of Europe, Vail and Leitner-Poma are now building the mountain’s 19th high-speed lift in the famous Back Bowls to replace the Sun Up #17 triple. This is a major milestone for a mountain that in 1984 operated a whopping 19 fixed-grip chairlifts. Following on the heels of two new six-packs from Doppelmayr USA in 2013 and 2015, Vail switched back to Leitner-Poma for its newest high speed quad, which will be designated Lift #9. With its production facility down I-70 in Grand Junction, Leitner-Poma also supplied Vail’s Gondola One in 2012 and seven high speed quads in a row before that. Vail regulars will note that number 9 used to belong to the Minnie’s lift from 1972 until it was removed without being replaced in 2008.
The Sun Up Express will achieve 65 percent higher capacity than the 1992 triple version it replaces, which was actually one of the original lifts Doppelmayr built at Beaver Creek in 1980. Fun fact: B.C.’s Centennial was originally two separate triple chairs. What became Sun Up at Vail was the upper lift called Horseshoe. The triple chair is now history and will probably find a third home somewhere in the Vail Resorts empire or beyond.
Sun Up Express’ uphill capacity will be 2,400 skiers per hour which should help alleviate crowding on lifts 5 and 9. The Back Bowls and Blue Sky Basin will now have a combined seven high speed quads. Lift 9 will feature 82 quad chairs and 14 towers, most of which were set last week by helicopter. The lift will have a vertical rise of 1,115 feet and will be 3,865 feet long with a 670 HP AC top drive located near Two Elk Lodge. Sun Up Express will be Vail’s third lift with the new LPA (Leitner Poma Automatic) grips and terminals.
Sunday River Delays Spruce Replacement Until 2017
Things were looking up Aug. 18th, when Sunday River proclaimed “Make Spruce Great Again,” announcing a brand new Spruce Peak triple would be installed as soon as possible to replace the Borvig triple that was heavily damaged in a July foundation failure. I was optimistic that the announced $2.1 million Doppelmayr triple could be built this fall and open sometime after Christmas. Unfortunately, yesterday Sunday River revealed that a new lift will not be built until at least next summer, leaving the top portion of Spruce Peak without lift service for the coming winter.
A number of factors led to the setback. Doppelmayr already had a busy construction season building 17 lifts in the US and Canada this year. The old lift could not be torn down until the accident could be investigated and MountainGuard could complete its claims process. Complicating things further, CNL Lifestyle Properties wants out of the ski business, has listed Sunday River for sale and is unlikely to want to invest in capital improvements. In a letter to pass holders, Sunday River said engineering for the new lift is complete and manufacturing could begin soon but, “decisions from our insurance carrier and commitment from our financial partners” are holding things up. As NewEnglandSkiIndustry.com reported this weekend, the old Spruce lift is still standing two and a half months after the incident, minus the last tower and top terminal that fell over.
In addition to Spruce, Sunday River will replace the top terminal of the Locke Mountain triple which is of similar design. The upper portion of Locke Mountain typically opens around Halloween with the first lift-served skiing in the East. Unfortunately the terminal replacement project means that Locke Mountain will not open until at least Thanksgiving. Instead, Sunday River will attempt to open the much longer Aurora quad as soon as possible. Even though there will be no lift to the summit of Spruce Peak this year, the trails will remain open for those want to hike and may even get snowmaking and grooming. Chairs have been removed from the Locke Mountain triple in preparation for the new terminal installation. A contractor (likely SkyTrans of nearby Contoocook, New Hampshire) will remove the Spruce equipment before the start of the season so it is not a hazard to skiers.
While these developments are disappointing, Sunday River’s release notes, “We remain committed to a new Spruce Peak Triple and will keep you updated on when construction for this new lift will start.” As the saying goes, it’s always better to be safe than sorry and Boyne Resorts cannot risk another Borvig lift failure in Maine.
News Roundup: Leitner
- Michael Seeber takes a ride on Berlin’s new mile-long gondola built for the International Garden Exhibition.
- Guests can now view bears and gorillas from gondolas with glass floors in Spain.
- Paris launches study of 2.8 mile, €120 million urban gondola.
- The press takes a tour of the Partek-built State Fair Flyer in North Carolina.
- Regional district approves rezoning for Valemount Glacier.
- The future of the Grand Canyon Escalade will likely be decided Oct. 17th, construction could be complete by 2020.
- Follow this thread to see LST’s very first detachable lift take shape in La Plagne.
- NewEnglandSkiIndustry.com posts a grim progress report from Sunday River.
- Waterville Valley cuts the lift line for Green Peak.
- Good news for Leitner-Poma: Ruapehu Alpine Lifts in New Zealand plans another quad chair for 2017, gondola in 2018 that will likely be built in Colorado.
- The Teleférico do Alemão in Rio unexpectedly shut down Thursday for at least six months following the discovery of abnormal wear in the haul rope which now needs to be replaced.
- As Snowbird plans for construction in Mary Ellen Gulch beginning in 2018, environmental group takes the media on a tour of abandoned mines there. The 500-acre expansion will likely include a two-stage gondola, Sunday Saddle lift and a new, longer Mineral Basin six-pack.
- Jan Leonard, of CTEC and Skytrac fame, will be inducted into the Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Park City tomorrow.
- Big Sky posts lots of pictures as their new lifts near completion.
- Grouse Mountain is for sale, including two aerial tramways and four quad chairs.
- Doppelmayr signs agreement with the United Nations Human Settlements Programme to collaborate on mobility solutions worldwide.
- Yet another city in Mexico – El Marqués – looks at building a gondola.
Mexico’s Big Urban Gondola to Open in October
Commuters in a Mexico City suburb will take their first flights on a two-stage, $26 million gondola system called Mexicable in a few short weeks on Monday, October 3rd. State of Mexico Governor Eruvio Ávila announced the city of Ecatepec will join the growing list of cities in the Americas building ropeways over congested neighborhoods. The Governor’s Facebook Live test run video has been watched more than 461,000 times. Mexico joins Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela that operate (or will soon open) gondolas for urban commuters.
In Ecatepec, two loops will combine to serve seven stations and up to 3,000 passengers per hour in each direction. The State of Mexico and its private operators Grupo IUSA and ALFA Group awarded Leitner Ropeways a contract to build the two gondolas in January 2014 and construction began later that year. The lifts were largely completed in 2015 but station build-out and testing took longer than expected and the opening comes a few months late.
The new lifts will transit three miles over 32 towers in 17 minutes, replacing a bus line that takes 45 minutes. 185 10-passenger Sigma Diamond cabins painted in Mexico’s national colors will move up to 26,000 commuters each weekday. Line speed is 5 m/s and the span of service will be 17 hours per day. A ticket will cost eight pesos (43 cents) and the line will complement the Mexibus line 4, a 20-mile Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line currently under construction.
News Roundup: Losses
- Wire Austin gets some attention from folks who matter – the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority.
- Peak Resorts loses $7.9 million in the first quarter (it owns Alpine Valley, Attitash, Big Boulder, Boston Mills, Brandywine, Crotched Mountain, Hidden Valley, Hunter Mountain, Jack Frost, Mad River Mountain, Mt. Snow, Paoli Peaks, Snow Creek and Wildcat.)
- The deropement and evacuation of the pulse gondola between the Aiguille du Midi and Pointe Helbronner makes CNN.
- Austria’s Foreign Minister meets with former London Mayor Boris Johnson to talk Brexit. The mayor says the Doppelmayr cowbell that came with the Emirates Air Line is one of his most prized possessions.
- Federal receiver hopes to sell Jay Peak in the spring, says resort President Bill Stenger was duped.
- Laurel Mountain’s new Skytrac is complete.
- Maine’s Attorney General sues the owner of Big Squaw Mountain for not operating the ski area as promised.
- Tamarack Homeowners meet to discuss the future of Idaho’s newest ski resort ahead of an October lift auction. Owner Credit Suisse and its operator Replay Resorts appear to be on the way out.
- The owner of Montana Snowbowl tells the Missoulian he started construction on a new TV Mountain lift a few weeks ago and there’s a chance it will be completed in time for the coming winter season.
- Preservation group calls abandoned mines in American Fork Canyon a “ticking time bomb,” calls on Snowbird to turn private land over to the Forest Service where the resort plans to build two new lifts.
Bartholet Completes Zero Gauge Tramway in France
What if you could squeeze a large double-reversible tramway into the footprint of a much smaller single-haul system? The city of Brest, France and Bartholet of Switzerland will open such a tram in October. Because its two cabins are never on the same half of the line at the same time, the Téléphérique de Brest has only one dock at each end and cabins pass directly on top of one another near a 270-foot tall center tower. Other lifts have been built with zero-gauge sections before (notably in Caribbean rainforests) but never on this scale or for their entire length. The new ropeway is also France’s first lift in a true urban environment.
Facing a need connect two points high over The Penfeld river in this Navy port, the City of Brest selected a ropeway instead of a massive bridge or expensive tunnel. The government held a design competition in 2014 and selected the Swiss firm Bartholet Maschinenbau Flums (BMF) together with the French construction conglomerate Bouygues. Fellow BMF Group subsidiary Gangloff supplied two ultramodern 60-passenger cabins. The project cost €19 million versus an estimated €30 to 60 for a new bridge. BMF also recently built two double-reversible tramways in Mexico.
The system has four track ropes, two haul rope loops and four drive motors. The cabins are hung like those on a funitel and can operate in winds up to 70 miles per hour. Each loop is driven by two 135 horsepower motors but if one fails the loops can be mechanically connected and run using the remaining three motors to ensure near 100 percent uptime. The slope length of the tramway is a short 1,352 feet with a line speed of 7.5 m/s. The system will transport up to 1,220 commuters per hour in each direction starting in October. Check out videos of system testing here.
News Roundup: Champagne
- Doppelmayr is reportedly working on a concept 3S gondola that can switch between being cable-driven and self-propelled along elevated guideways.
- The Mexican coastal town of Manzanillo plans to build a sightseeing gondola in 2017.
- Videos of child falling from a six-pack in New Zealand make the rounds.
- Transport for London wants to serve champagne to riders aboard the Emirates Air Line.
- Newly-named Arthur’s Seat Eagle unveils innovative gondola cabins with removable windows.
- Les Otten talks about what he hopes will become the largest ski resort in the Northeast.
- The Green Peak expansion is progressing rapidly at Waterville Valley.
- A new, longer Sunrise lift from Park City’s Canyons Village will likely be built next summer.
- The Rio Grande National Forest seeks public comments on the Meadow lift at Wolf Creek, also likely to go in next summer.
- A progress report from Suicide Six where Leitner-Poma is building a new quad chair.
- More than 32,000 people submitted comments to the Navajo Nation last week regarding the proposed Grand Canyon Escalade.
- Sweetwater Gondola is on schedule at JHMR.
County Schedules October Auction of Tamarack High Speed Quads
The sale is scheduled for Monday, October 17th at 1:00 pm with no reserves for the items. The two lifts cost nearly $6 million new from Leitner-Poma in 2004.
Grand Canyon Escalade Debate Heats Up
This week could prove pivotal in the fight over the future of the Grand Canyon and the proposed gondola adjacent to one of America’s most treasured National Parks. On Monday, a member of the Navajo Nation formally submitted legislation to authorize $65 million for construction of a road to the site and infrastructure for the Escalade near the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado Rivers. Confluence Partners LLC, a non-Navajo corporation based in Scottsdale, proposes a 1.4 mile gondola and related facilities to be located entirely on Navajo land but within a quarter mile of Grand Canyon National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Escalade idea is nothing new. Confluence Partners has wanted to build a gondola from the canyon rim to the bank of the Colorado for years. Under the proposed arrangement, the company will give the tribe between 8 and 18 percent of the Escalade’s revenue depending on ridership. In addition to the gondola, the Escalade site plan includes a hotel, elevated river walk, amphitheater, restaurants and a gift shop. Most of the 420-acre development would be on the canyon rim with the gondola connecting to a smaller complex 3,000 feet below along the Colorado. The gondola could carry up to 10,000 passengers per day to the bottom of the canyon that today can only be reached by foot, boat, mule or helicopter. Confluence Partners says it will create 3,500 jobs on a reservation that suffers from 44 percent unemployment. The jobs number sounds extremely optimistic to me.
Under Navajo Nation law, a five-day public comment period lasts through Saturday and then the 23 members of the Navajo Council will vote on the bill. For comparison, public comment periods for ski area master plans in National Forests last 30 days. The President of the Nation has vowed to veto the Escalade bill but that could be over-ridden by a two-thirds majority, creating a mad dash by groups on both sides attempting to sway undecided members of the council.
The Grand Canyon Trust, American Rivers, Save the Confluence and others are circulating petitions this week and soliciting public comments to send to the tribe. There’s no question the gondola is technically feasible and would provide a unique experience. Whether such a development is appropriate for this particular location is an entirely different question. You can tell the Navajo Nation what you think by emailing comments@navajo-nsn.gov by 5:00 pm Saturday, September 3rd.
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