News

Sugarloaf Announces Lift Safety Upgrades and Website

Peter Landsman1 Comment

Yesterday Sugarloaf Mountain Resort, the site of two of the worst lift accidents in recent memory, announced $1.3 million in lift safety upgrades including a new Doppelmayr drive terminal for the lift that rolled back in March.  The mountain will also launch a new website devoted solely to lift safety and maintenance with a tip line for anyone to submit questions and concerns about lifts.  All of this is moving forward despite Sugarloaf’s looming sale.

The King Pine Quad's bottom drive terminal will be replaced with a new Doppelmayr one.
The King Pine Quad’s bottom drive terminal will be replaced with a new Doppelmayr one.
In December 2010, the Spillway East double, built by Borvig in 1975, experienced a de-ropement that caused numerous chairs to hit the ground and drag approximately 40 feet.  Eight skiers were injured and the last legal claim was settled just last week.  The State of Maine’s investigation found inadequate maintenance records, poor training, high winds, and component failure as probable contributing factors.  The full report is here.  Spillway was replaced by a Doppelmayr quad the following summer and renamed Skyline.

The King Pine Quad, a 1988 Borvig, rolled-back approximately 460 feet on March 21, 2015, resulting in numerous injuries.  Skiers went around the bottom bullwheel at high speed and many others jumped off.  Sugarloaf’s internal investigation found that the drive bullwheel’s drop dog failed to deploy due to a faulty switch and the lift was eventually stopped by an operator who manually activated the lift’s emergency brake.  The state has not yet released its investigation into this incident.  King Pine and its sister quad called Timberline were both closed for the remainder of last season.

King Pine's new drive terminal will be similar to Skyline's.
King Pine’s new drive terminal will be similar to Skyline’s.
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News Roundup: New Controls

Peter Landsman2 Comments
Doppelmayr USA has redesigned all of their controls for 2015.
Doppelmayr USA has redesigned all of their controls for 2015.
  • Apparently Doppelmayr has redesigned their controls for 2015.  A new pedestal pictured above looks like an improvement, especially the speed selector replacing slow/medium/fast buttons.
  • Willard Mountain, NY files for bankruptcy, proving once again it is best to control all of the land your ski resort sits on.  The area has a Borvig and Partek doubles.
  • Saddleback Maine has put the drive terminal for its main lift up for sale on Resort Boneyard for $200k.  Hopefully a new lift is on the way.
  • Vail Resorts voluntarily raises the minimum wage it pays lift operators and other workers to $10 an hour.
  • Lots of improvements coming to Powderhorn in addition to their first detachable lift.
  • Whistler-Blackcomb to test snowmaking as a means to preserve summer skiing on Horstman Glacier, home to the only glacier-anchored lifts in North America.
  • West Mountain, NY is moving forward with making one old lift into two new ones.
  • Singapore opens its second Doppelmayr gondola line with three stations and 8-passenger cabins.

New Trail Maps

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Park City and Jackson Hole just started building new lifts but trail map illustrator James Niehues is already finishing illustrations for their 2015-16 trail maps.  Niehues planned to retire last year but apparently some projects are too good to pass up.  There is no question Mr. Niehues is the best in the business and I hope he keeps painting as long as possible.

Jackson Hole’s new Teton lift will open up a handful of new trails in between the Apres Vous and Casper areas this coming winter.  Mr. Niehues is repainting the portion of the map that was previously known as The Crags while the rest will remain true to his original 1991 painting.

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Jackson Hole’s new map showing the Teton lift pod. Photo Credit: James Niehues

Vail Resorts contracted James to paint an all-new, unified map of Park City Mountain Resort and Canyons Resort which will operate as one from 2015-16.  I was surprised and pleased to hear they were going with a painting instead of the awful computer-generated maps that Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Northstar have gone to.  Niehues admits he had to get creative with portions of the map to show 37 lifts and 7,300 acres of terrain acres in one view.  The final result below is impressive and shows why paintings make more compelling trail maps than satellite photos.

Illustration for the new Park City Mountain Resort. Photo Credit: James Niehues
Illustration for the new Park City Mountain Resort. Photo Credit: James Niehues

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Jumbo Glacier Resort is Dead

Peter Landsman8 Comments

British Columbia’s Minister of Environment has finally killed the Jumbo Glacier Resort, proposed to rival Whistler in the Purcell Mountains of British Columbia.  Jumbo Glacier is a spectacularly-remote place up a dirt logging road from Panorama Mountain Village and Invermere.  It’s more than 200 miles from Calgary, the nearest major city and airport.  The plan was to build 20+ lifts on 3,000 hectares of public land above 5,000 feet.  You can read the full master plan here.

Leitner-Poma poured some footings last fall in a last-ditch effort.
Leitner-Poma poured some footings last fall in a last-ditch effort.

The project was first submitted to the BC government in 1991 and received environmental approval in 2004.  The resort claimed they would get 2,700 skiers per day. This was always a red flag to me as 2,700 skiers is not a big number for a destination ski resort.  Take for example a mid-sized area like Mt. Sunapee in New Hampshire.  It has six lifts and a comfortable carrying capacity of 5,220 skiers per day.  2,700 could justify perhaps three or four lifts at Jumbo, not 23.

BC has no shortage of large ski areas struggling due to remoteness. Kicking Horse and Revelstoke are perhaps most similar to the Jumbo proposal. Revelstoke was supposed to have 21 lifts; they built three before running out of money in 2008. Lucky for them, the 27th richest person in Canada bought in and paid off over $100 million in debt.  Kicking Horse was in similar trouble when it was rescued by Resorts of the Canadian Rockies in 2011. Both of these resorts are on the Trans-Canada Highway, not 50 miles from a town.

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News Roundup: Small Mountains and Big Cities

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Doppelmayr load tested Snow King Mountain’s new Rafferty Quad this week.
  • Construction on The Balsams Resort in New Hampshire may begin late this summer.  We could see new lifts there next summer.
  • A bit further south, Waterville Valley started cutting trees for its Green Peak Expansion.  Unfortunately they don’t have funding for a new lift or even a used one.
  • Also in New Hampshire, Tenney Mountain plans to reopen next season after being closed since 2010.  The mountain has a 1964 Stadeli double and 1987 Borvig triple
  • You can own one of Oregon’s ski areas for only $1.25 million.  Includes lifts with charming names like “Happy” and “Echo.”
  • The Harbour Skylink would be a four-stage gondola in one of the world’s great capitals.
  • Poma is currently building five gondolas in Latin America, two for the Metrocable system in Medellin, Colombia and one each in Bolivia, Chile and Mexico.  They recently received €1.3 million from the French government to lead a consortium promoting ropeway transportation in cities.
  • The world’s tallest observation tower is coming to Brighton, England, courtesy of Poma, who also brought us the London Eye and the High Roller in Las Vegas.
  • Sigma takes on CWA with 3S gondola cabins developed by Italian car designer Pininfarina, set to debut in 2018 on the world’s highest 3S in Zermatt.

News Roundup: Projects and Plans

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https://instagram.com/p/3kGV5wiue-/?taken-by=pcski

7,000 Vertical Feet in Ten Minutes

Peter Landsman1 Comment

Two new aerial tramways are about to open on the Italian side of Mont Blanc that will be among the steepest in the world.  This is Doppelmayr’s largest project ever on Leitner’s home turf.  The €110 million contract was awarded in late 2011 and construction began in 2012.  Two sets of 80-passenger cabins will ascend a crazy 7,093 vertical feet in ten minutes.  For comparison, Palm Springs’ tram does 5,873 feet in 12 minutes, Jackson Hole’s 4,084 feet in nine minutes.

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Mont Blanc will have CWA’s first fully-rotating cabins.

Mont Blanc can be accessed from both the Italian and French sides.  There is also a highway tunnel under the mountain, but that’s not nearly as cool.  The existing setup on the Italian side requires riding three lifts built in the 40s and 50s to reach Point Helbronner at 11,358 feet.  The French side has two tramways, the famous Aguille du Midi 1 & 2 that reach 12,392 feet.  Connecting the French and Italian summits is a 3.1 mile bi-cable pulse gondola that opened in 1957.

Both new trams will have the world’s first 360-degree rotating cabins (others like the Palm Springs Tramway have only rotating floors.)  Built by CWA, these 80-passenger cabins will feature heating, air conditioning and video screens showing live camera views.

System Statistics
System Statistics

Both sections will be in new alignments as shown in Google Maps above.  The first section ascends from the village of Entreves to a mid-station called Le Pavillon with three towers along the way.  It will move 600 passengers per hour with a four minute ride.  The second section from Le Pavillon to Point Helbronner has only two towers and ascends over 4,000 feet in six minutes.  Both sections will operate year-round once they open in mid-June.

News Roundup: Getting There

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Moving along at Snow King Mountain, WY.
Getting there at Snow King Mountain, WY.
  • Fire at Misery Mountain (A movie title if I’ve ever heard one!)
  • Another urban gondola proposed, this time in Belgrade, Serbia
  • Poma makes it clear they don’t have a deal with Israel to build a gondola in Jerusalem.
  • Speaking of conflict-torn places, Myanmar may gets its first aerial tram.
  • Another Midwest ski area closes.  Anyone need a Hall double, Riblet quad or VonRoll triple?
  • Environmental group files objection to Eldora’s master plan that includes building 3 new detachables.
  • How does a ski hill with 200 vertical need $15 million to stay afloat?
  • Someone in business development at Doppelmayr has some very dramatic music and a lot of time.
  • Red McCombs’ 28-year battle with the Forest Service over the Village at Wolf Creek may be coming to end.  A private lift would access Wolf Creek Ski Area, although the owners of the ski area do not support the Village.
  • Powderhorn is moving along with their refurbished detachable quad from Marble Mountain, Newfoundland.

The Next Big Resort?

Peter Landsman3 Comments

Last Wednesday, New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan signed a bill that may create the largest resort in the east out of a tiny, closed ski area called The Balsams.  The resort hotel and Wilderness ski area have been closed since 2011 when the owners began renovations and ran out of cash.  Now Les Otten, founder of American Skiing Company, has partnered with the Balsams ownership group to create the next big eastern ski resort.  The bill the governor signed allows the state to back $28 million in development loans for the $143 million project.

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The Balsams Wilderness ski area has been closed since 2011. Photo credit: NH Public Radio

Otten is perhaps best known for turning Sunday River from a one-lift operation to a 525,000 skier visit beast of the east.  Circa 2002, his empire included Sunday River, Sugarloaf, Cranmore, Attitash, The Canyons, Killington, Sugarbush, Mount Snow, Heavenly and Steamboat.  After leaving the ski industry, Otten created a renewable energy company and ran for Governor in Maine.  He lost.  Now, six years after selling The Canyons, he’s back in the lift business.

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The master plan includes 22 lifts in three phases.

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News Roundup: Lifts in Strange Places

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Chair 7 at Mt. Baker, WA
Chair 7 at Mt. Baker, WA