- A video shows the Kicking Horse incident was exacerbated by running the damaged hanger to a tower, causing the lift to de-rope. The gondola will be closed at least a week and likely longer; the resort will allow guests to hike or skin to Stairway to Heaven.
- The snowboarder who died after falling from Red Lodge Mountain’s Triple Chair on Monday is identified as 37 year old Jeffrey Zinne of Billings in an incident described as a “malfunction.”
- A child was airlifted to Denver after falling 35 feet from the Purgatory Village Express the same day as the Kicking Horse and Red Lodge incidents.
- Leitner-Poma posts jobs for ski lift installers at Bretton Woods, Loveland, OZ Trails Bike Park, Powder Mountain, Snowmass, Snowbasin, Taos and Wasatch Peaks Ranch.
- New York State wins its case against a ski resort owner for buying Toggenburg to close it and reduce competition.
- Snowbasin to sell chairs from the Becker lift for charity.
- Loup Loup, Washington ends its season early due to a required motor repair.
- Vail’s Riva Bahn Express has been closed all week due to a gearbox issue requiring a rebuild.
- Vail Resorts reports solid results with season-to-date skier visits down 2.5%, lift ticket revenue up 4.1%, ski school revenue up 3.0%, dining revenue 3.1% and retail/rental revenue down 2.9%. Net income for the quarter ended January 31st increased 11.9%.
- Tenney Mountain, New Hampshire still plans to reopen the Hornet some time this winter following a gearbox issue.
- Another lawsuit is filed against the Little Cottonwood gondola proposal.
- Attitash reopens the Flying Bear five weeks after a chair fell from the line. Draft minutes from the New Hampshire Passenger Tramway Safety Board suggest multiple damaged carriers were found and Attitash was approved to reduce capacity from 82 to 64 carriers. Update Monday 3/17: Vail PR sent me this statement, emphasis theirs: “During our inspection process, we made the decision to reinspect all our chairs and grips, haul rope, sheaves, terminals, and more. Following our inspection, we are taking the opportunity to replace parts on some chairs unrelated to the incident as a part of routine upgrades. These chairs will remain temporarily out of service until the parts arrive. This was a decision made by the resort, that the Passenger Tramway Safety Board unanimously approved at the March 3rd board meeting. We have been given permission to run the lift between the manufacturer’s minimum and maximum design specifications.”
- Ober Mountain, Tennessee opens the new Sky Village Express.
- Whistler Blackcomb completes a mid-season rope inspection and splice due to a broken haul rope strand on the Emerald 6 Express.
- WB also pulls the plug on summer skiing due to glacial recession and its impact on lift access.
- A community co-op effort was unable to submit a bid for Mt. Bachelor.
- Vista Ridge, Alberta closes both its chairlifts indefinitely to conduct a review following several evacuations.
- Alpental will close two weeks early so crews can work to build the new Chair 2 over snow in a roadless area.
- Ditto for Explorer at Big Sky as it’s replaced with a gondola.
- After running on diesel generators for a decade, the Sea to Sky Gondola‘s upper terminal is connected to grid power for the first time.
- Whaleback, New Hampshire says it needs to raise $250,000 to fund off season maintenance and chairlift repairs.
- Titcomb Mountain looks to retire and replace T-Bar 2.
- Powder Mountain to build a private, homeowner only Leitner-Poma detachable quad this summer.
- Snowbird’s Mineral Basin reopening is further delayed due to “unforseen additional issues“.
- The Forest Service approves Alta to replace Supreme with a new lift and no eight degree bend.
- Pending approval of its members, Bryce Resort plans to install a third Skytrac on the backside of the mountain this summer.
News
News Roundup: Pass Edition
- Ikon Pass adds Ischgl, Austria; loses Windham Mountain Club, New York and makes Arapahoe Basin unlimited with no blackouts. Full Ikon also adds two bonus days at Buck Hill, Minnesota; Cranmore, New Hampshire; Jiminy Peak, Massachusetts and Wild Mountain, Minnesota.
- Arapahoe Basin leaves the Mountain Collective Pass.
- Vail makes minimal changes to Epic Pass for next year.
- Indy Pass adds Burke Mountain, Vermont and Tenney Mountain, New Hampshire.
- The family behind Wisconsin Resorts Inc. want to buy Burke Mountain but the resort’s receiver says he has a better buyer.
- Wisconsin Resorts-owned Searchmont, Ontario teases multiple future terrain expansions on a new trail map.
- The group behind Perfect North Slopes, Indiana will operate Swiss Valley, Michigan
- A rope evacuation at Norway Mountain, Michigan.
- Fresh off building four new lifts, Powder Mountain has two more in the pipeline.
- Ski Cooper, Colorado slashes midweek tickets to $45, revenue surges.
- Also at Cooper, a skier is airlifted to the hospital after falling from a lift.
- Vail settles a lawsuit with a woman who fell from a lift at Stevens Pass.
- Park City gets Pioneer going for the first time this season.
- Woods Valley, New York to replaces its T-Bar with a CTEC quad ending higher on the mountain.
- 7th Heaven at Blackcomb suffers from delayed openings, closures and reduced speeds due to an electrical issue.
- Snowbird’s Mineral Basin Express repair timeline is extended due to storms.
- Whaleback Mountain’s only chairlift is closed all week due to mechanical.
- Sandia Peak works to revive mothballed Chair 2.
- A 2005 Doppelmayr Funifor suffers a serious incident in Italy involving a severed haul rope and cabin colliding into the bottom terminal. The lift was outside operating hours and one operator suffered minor injuries.
News Roundup: Lynx Express
- June Mountain closes for two days due to issues with againg J1.
- Loveland proposes replacing Lift 7 with a quad.
- Indy Pass plans more resort additions through the spring and fall.
- One of them is Tenney Mountain, which also looks to build a high speed quad.
- Tenney’s Hornet double needs a gearbox rebuild, will be closed until mid-March.
- Skeetawk, Alaska seeks state funding to develop electrical infrastructure for a future Lift 2.
- Burke Mountain’s receiver says a sale may be near.
- The proposed Burnaby Mountain Gondola in metro Vancouver would include significant transit oriented development.
- Mt. Seymour, BC removes the Brockton chair from service for an unknown amount of time.
- Manning Park, BC closes the similar Blue Chair for inspections due to the incident at Mt. Seymour.
- Marble Mountain, Newfoundland hits the market.
- Chair 8 at Bear Mountain suffers a grip slip incident with passengers.
- Rezoning paves the way for more development at Powder Mountain.
- Leitner to build a seven station gondola in Iraq.
- Poley Mountain, New Brunswick works to repair its triple chair.
- Bretton Woods applies to build a new lift, Attitash seeks to reduce capacity on the closed Flying Bear.
- Solitude completes a mid-winter bullwheel bearing replacement on Sunrise.
- The first terminal and towers go up for the winter build Saluda Skyride in South Carolina.
- Mt. Crescent, Iowa rebrands as Crescent Hill.
- An inside look at operating the largest lift fleet in the country.
- And one of the smaller ones.
- Mineral Basin at Snowbird to be closed for a week-ish due to a machanical issue.
Instagram Tuesday: Bachelor
Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
News Roundup: Windstorm
- Killington’s Superstar lift replacement will cancel the 2025 Killington World Cup; chairs from Superstar will move to Golden Express at Pico.
- An unseated passenger is successfully caught in a deceleration net at Killington.
- Powderhorn plans a detachable replacement for West End.
- Gunstock loses its summit chairlift for much of the holiday week due to gearbox failure.
- Silver Mountain, Idaho rope evacuates Chair 4 due to a power outage and evacuation engine failure (now back open).
- A falling tree in high wind causes a three tower deropement on the Belleaye Express at Belleayre, New York (scheduled to reopen some time tomorrow).
- The same storm leads to a deropement and rope evacuation at Pats Peak, New Hampshire (back open).
- And the roof blows off Stratton’s gondola top terminal (also back open).
- Following three recent incidents in the state, New Hampshire clarifies how its tramway oversight works.
- Brattleboro Ski Hill in Vermont closes due to an electric motor issue.
- Arkansas adopts the ANSI standard in advance of its first chairlift installation.
- Pioneer at Park City still hasn’t run this season but may soon.
- Cannon’s tramway is still on track for $19 million in upgrades.
- Sugarloaf confirms plans to install Big Sky’s former Six Shooter to replace Timberline, a two year project.
- Stevens Pass rope evacuates the new Kehr’s quad at night.
- Echo Mountain, Colorado also has a night rope evac.
- Timberline closes the Molly’s detachable quad due to damage to a tower from a snow cat.
- Tenney Mountain, New Hampshire loses its main lift due to a mechanical issue.
- Hersheypark, Pennsylvania retires its chairlift ride.
News Roundup: Valentine’s Edition
- Vail Resorts reaches an agreement with Crested Butte lift mechanics, averting a strike.
- A window falls from a cabin on Stowe’s Mansfield Gondola during operations.
- Mission Ridge acknowledges three different chairs have detached this season from Chair 4, a 1971 Riblet double (all empty and no injuries).
- Waterville Valley completes a midseason splice on the High Country T-Bar.
- A new owner looks to reopen Crystal Mountain, BC via crowdfunding.
- Winter Park’s High Lonesome Express is back after a four week maintenance closure.
- Still no Slide Brook Express at Sugarbush but hopefully soon.
- The Glade Triple at Catamount will miss the rest of the season.
- Badger Pass, California won’t open this season.
- Ditto for Cedar Pass, also in California.
- Park City gets serious about a gondola connecting Main Street to Deer Valley.
- President Trump imposes 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports with potential impacts on lift manufacturers.
- The US Forest Service, landlord to 124 ski areas, lays off 3,400 employees.
- A bipartisan group of Senators sponsor a bill that would direct the Forest Service retain some of the fees resorts pay to the federal government for ski purposes, such as processing resort improvement projects.
- The gondola in Moab, Utah which sat for 25 years without ever opening, is finally being removed.
- Solitude demystifies lift maintenance for customers.
News Roundup: Change at the Top
- An avalanche hits the top of Swift Current 6 pre-opening, resulting in the rope evacuation of seven staff members and damaging several chairs.
- An empty chair falls from Mt. Bohemia’s Riblet double.
- Diamond Peak provides a primer on how lifts are de-iced of rime.
- A guest is injured falling from the new Coach chair at Bogus Basin, Idaho.
- Ditto for a lift at Mt. Holly, Michigan.
- Telluride-area residents seek to have the new gondola election results thrown out.
- British Columbia sues the operator of closed Tabor Mountain, seeks a new operator.
- New Hampshire provides an investigation update on the Attitash chair detachment, Flying Bear to remain closed.
- Wolf Creek forges on independently – selling reasonable walk up tickets, partnering with only one other mountain and building lifts in house.
- Cannon Mountain rope evacuates the Peabody Express due to a bolt failure.
- Pacific Group Resorts transitions from an operating lease to controlling owner of Powderhorn.
- Leitner-Poma is selected to build a new chairlift at Spirit Mountain, Minnesota.
- Middlebury Snowbowl opens Bailey Falls for the first time in two years.
- Whistler Blackcomb nears reopening the Glacier Express after a two week repair.
- Katharina Schmitz to depart as CEO of Doppelmayr USA, be succeeded by current VP, Operations Keith Johns.
News Roundup: Shortest and Longest
- Vista Ridge, Alberta rope evacuates the Wilson quad.
- Lutsen rope evacuates the Caribou Express (*despite what the link says, customers did receive lift ticket vouchers)
- Summit Express at Keystone has been down since last Saturday.
- Both Snowcat and Bobcat are inoperable at Wildcat, New Hampshire.
- The problem with Blackcomb’s Glacier Express is gearbox-related; WB airlifts a new electric motor into the Big Red Express terminal by helicopter with minimal down time.
- A number of lifts are also inoperable at Seven Springs, PA.
- A minor holder of Vail stock calls for executive firings and publishes a detailed presentation why.
- A teenager is injured and airlifted after hitting a lift tower at Mohawk Mountain.
- Killington has looked at replacing Ramshead with a bubble lift.
- Burke Mountain removes its J-Bar from the snow report entirely.
- Sitzmark, Washington won’t open this season.
- The Forest Service green lights Brighton to replace Milly Express and shorten Explorer.
- Looming tariffs on both Canada and the European Union could impact both lift manufacturers and their customers.
- The world’s shortest T-Bar – with no towers and just five carriers – begins spinning tomorrow.
- The world’s longest gondola reaches 60 percent completion with 290 workers on site.
News Roundup: Short Films
- Homewood’s new gondola is finally approved.
- Eaglecrest receives a key gondola construction permit.
- The Wall Street Journal covers several challenges facing Vail Resorts.
- Unionized Crested Butte lift mechanics authorize a strike should they be unable to reach a contract agreement with Vail.
- Breckenridge lift staff stage a one day sick out in protest of employee housing conditions, closing several lifts on Wednesday.
- Pioneer at Park City hasn’t opened this season due to an offseason deropement still being repaired.
- Blackcomb’s Glacier Express to be closed a week or longer due to a possible gearbox issue.
- Mount Snow’s Challenger has been inoperative since January 13th.
- Mammut sponsors a short film exploring the transformation of Shames Mountain, British Columbia into a community co-op.
- British Columbia opens public consultation for the proposed Bridal Veil Mountain Resort.
- A gondola transit network in Oshawa, Ontario could cost CA$1.1 billion.
- Reed Hastings explains his sweeping changes at Powder Mountain including four new lifts in one summer and partial privatization.
- Chicopee, Ontario explains why its three new lifts aren’t spinning yet.
- Bristol Mountain partially rope evacuates the Comet Express.
- Ditto for the Mt. Hood Express at Mt. Hood Meadows.
- The Balsams extends approval for long-delayed redevelopment.
- Mont Farlagne, New Brunswick reopens its only chairlift after a month-long closure due to a bullwheel issue.
- Ischgl invites guests to help build a life size replica of a 3S gondola cabin with Lego bricks.
- The latest New Hampshire tram board minutes hint at a possible new lift for Bretton Woods.
- Mountain Village and Telluride begin planning their new gondola in earnest.
- Vermonters ask Why hasn’t Burke Mountain sold? as receivership fees surpass $12 million.
- Sugarbush gets all but one of its chairlifts going after a challenging start to the season.
- Several videos show the chaotic aftermath of the bullwheel detachment in Spain last week.
- Colorado releases the Winter Park gondola crack incident report, a full report of investigation remains in progress.
News Roundup: The Bar
- Vail Resorts reports a 0.3% decline in North American skier visits through 1/5 with revenue up 4.5%, ski school up 1.1%, dining up 6.6% and retail/rental down 5.4%.
- Park City offers guests who visited during the patrol strike partial credit toward a season pass next year.
- Park City businesses report a drop in business following the patrol strike.
- Kimberley, BC’s Tamarack chair goes down for awhile.
- Another snowboarder falls from a lift in Colorado – this time at Copper.
- A man who fell from Willamette Pass’ Peak 2 triple in high winds seeks $3.6 million in damages.
- Europeans poke fun at the lack of bars on lifts and Americans’ refusal to use them on lifts that are equipped.
- A trial in British Columbia finds proper signage increases bar use dramatically.
- The Atlantic runs a story on ski industry consolidation, labor relations and cheap season passes.
- Mt. Hood Meadows provides an update on Heather Canyon, which has yet to open this season.
- An Alaska windstorm blows a lift shack over on one lift and sends a chair into the bullwheel on another at Arctic Valley.
- Sugarbush apologizes for not having Castlerock and Slide Brook operable at this point in the season.
- Leaders approve a large development at Nordic Valley, Utah; likely to coincide with a new out-of-base lift.
- The municipality of Whistler to study a valley gondola transit line.
- Castle Mountain seeks a name for its first high speed quad.
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