- Its been six weeks since the Berry family, owners of Saddleback, Maine, said they would close the resort if they could not find financing to order a new lift by August 1st. Regardless of the outcome, this has been a PR disaster with a desperate announcement and then silence. Not a good sign when the general manager refuses to talk to the state’s largest newspaper. My take: despite the bluff they will find a way to open.
- Ligonier Construction awarded $4.6 million contract to re-build the State of Pennsylvania’s Laurel Mountain Ski Area. The project includes a new quad chairlift but I could not find a lift manufacturer identified in the bid documents. Nearby Seven Springs Mountain Resort will operate the ski area on behalf of the state.
- Snow Summit proves again that snowmaking systems can save lifts and buildings from wildfires.
- What if Aspen had a gondola from Ajax to Buttermilk and Snowmass?
- Not one but four 15-passenger gondolas proposed to link a cruise terminal with George Town in the Caribbean’s Cayman Islands. I’m thinking even that won’t be enough when Royal Caribbean’s newest ship shows up with 6,000 passengers tired of being on a ship with 6,000 passengers.
- “No one has contributed more to the task of transporting skiers and snowboarders up the ski mountains of the United States than Jan Leonard,” said the President of the NSAA in the Salt Lake Tribune’s obituary. Services will be held tomorrow.
News
Jan Leonard, 1946-2015
Jan Leonard, founder of CTEC and a 40-year veteran of the lift-building business, died unexpectedly this morning at the age of 69. Most recently, he was Director of Sales for SkyTrac Lifts in Salt Lake City and previously was President of Doppelmayr USA.
After graduating from Penn State in 1968, Jan went to work for American Bridge in Pittsburgh before meeting the manager of Killington on a ski trip and getting into the lift business. He went to work for Vic Hall in Watertown, New York in 1971 before moving to Logan, Utah in 1973 to join Thiokol Ski Lifts. When Thiokol wanted out of the business a few years later, Leonard and Mark Ballantyne bought the company’s designs and started CTEC (Cable Transportation Engineering Corporation) in 1977. CTEC built its first complete lift in 1981 and by 1992 was the largest lift manufacturer in North America with 450 employees. CTEC built 144 lifts as a privately owned American company.
Leonard and Ballantyne sold CTEC to Garaventa of Switzerland in 1993. Doppelmayr merged with Garaventa in 2002 to form today’s Doppelmayr/Garaventa Group, which ironically included Hall, where Jan Leonard started his career decades earlier. Leonard stayed on as the President of Doppelmayr USA until 2007, when he left to be an independent ropeway consultant. He was was off a lift company’s payroll for less than three years before joining SkyTrac in 2010 as director of sales. “I don’t like losing. The thrill of getting the sale is phenomenal,” he told SAM earlier this year.
News Roundup: Eco-Friendly
- Leitner-Poma flies concrete for Loveland’s new Ptarmigan lift, a triple which will replace two lifts in a new alignment.
- Aerospace Engineer Michael Bouchard is determined to reopen Tenney Mountain after five seasons being closed.
- Season pass sales have been suspended at the troubled Magic Mountain in Londonderry, Vermont. The classic New England ski resort is down to two working chair lifts (in 1990 it had five.)
- Poma has a new brochure about its urban lift projects.
- Mt. Rose is relocating the Ponderosa quad (1993 Garaventa CTEC) to become the Wizard beginner lift. It also looks like their James Niehues trail map is out and a Gary Milliken VistaMap is in.
- One of Garaventa’s retired engineers has written an 834-page book called Ropeway Technology. It can be yours for only 125 Swiss Francs (plus $32 for shipping to the USA.)
- Sugarloaf pours foundations for their new terminal on an old lift.
Is This Doppelmayr’s New Detachable Terminal?
Back in November, Seilbahntechnik.net posted some interesting pictures of a prototype lift being built at Doppelmayr’s headquarters in Wolfurt, Austria. The lift is detachable with at least one six-pack bubble chair and 8-passenger gondola cabin on the line. More interesting are the terminals, which are different from any production model I have ever seen. They look similar to the Uni-G (the current standard terminal used worldwide) but are definitely different. Doppelmayr has been rumored to be working on a more economical detachable lift and this could be it.
Remember Doppelmayr CTEC tried using a less-expensive detachable terminal in North America called the Uni-GS from 2003-2010. It was discontinued it in favor of the Wolfurt-designed Uni-G, which made its North American debut in 2000. The terminal model used before that, what I call the “Spacejet,” lasted from 1995-2001, so the Uni-G may be due for a refresh.
News Roundup: Glass Floors and Rainbow LEDs
- In Aspen, the Lift 1A saga continues.
- Poma has begun construction on a 13,000 foot gondola to the ancient Peruvian fortress of Kuelap. The $18 million system will span 2,170 vertical feet in 20 minutes and open by July of next year.
- Despite having a bunch of brand new lifts that haven’t spun since the Olympics, Russia is spending $76 million to build four new lifts in 2016 at Rosa Khutor.
- Sun Peaks Resort, already Canada’s second largest resort, is cutting new runs in preparation for a new West Morissey lift. If you haven’t gotten the chance to ski there, Sun Peaks has a very cool 360-degree layout with three mountains circling the village.
- Berkshire East’s former Summit triple is up for sale. It’s a 1988 Poma that was previously at Magic Mountain, Vermont. The other lift on there is from the defunct Ascutney Mountain.
- Alpine Valley, Wisconsin is getting a new beginner lift which will be a used Hall double with a new SkyTrac Monarch drive terminal. SkyTrac is also reportedly finishing the half-completed Stagecoach lift on the Moonlight side of Big Sky.
Vail Resorts to Add Lift Wait Times to EpicMix
Last week, Vail Resorts announced their EpicMix mobile app will provide guests with live lift wait times for 55 lifts at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone starting this winter. Vail Resorts will use their app to track guests through lift lines to provide a crowd-sourced estimate called EpicMix Time. The technology is currently being tested at the company’s Perisher resort in Australia. Vail compares the system to Google’s Waze app, which crowd sources traffic and accident information for Google Maps. The company plans to expand the technology in future years to all its resorts and other places where guests have to wait in line such as restaurants and rental shops.
Other resorts have tried to provide lift waiting times in the past. For years, Whistler-Blackcomb has had lights on its lift status signs that indicate whether a lift line is less than 5 minutes, 5-15 minutes, or more than 15 minutes. I suspect Whistler’s system is powered by lift operators calling a dispatcher which is a less than perfect solution. Vail’s technology will be much more accurate and timely.
News Roundup: Hilltrac Funicular
- When I was hiking around Park City last week I discovered a large new funicular railway in The Colony development near the new gondola. It was built by Hilltrac, sister company to lift-maker SkyTrac. The funicular serves an entire neighborhood unlike others at Deer Valley that serve only one house. One section is completed with the possibility to add another section later.
- The City Council of Casper, Wyoming, which owns of Hogadon Ski Area, declares one of two Riblet doubles there as surplus property to be sold. Apparently it has not spun in years and parts were cannibalized last season to keep the other lift running.
- Chris Farmer, Saddleback’s Marketing Director says on Facebook that there is no news to announce re: new lift or closure. In case you don’t have Facebook, here is the statement: “Saddleback friends: I know that everyone is eagerly awaiting an announcement on our situation and recognize we are beyond the initial deadline. We remain heads down on finding a solution. As soon as we have news we will announce it. Until then, our full attention is on solving the issue. You are all important and I recognize you all want answers. I fully expect decisions will be made some time this week. Thank you for your consideration and continued support. Please do not be offended by my inability to respond to each of you individually. I hope you understand.”
- Aspen Skiing Company remains committed to building the new Burnt Mountain lift at Snowmass but still has no timeline for it.
- Protesting lifties shut down Chile’s Cerro Catedral, demanding a 30% wage increase. Meanwhile, most of Argentina and Chile’s ski resorts have been getting tons of snow.
- Echo Mountain, the closest ski area to Denver, will reopen to the public this season after failing to make it as a racer-only training mountain. The area formerly known as Squaw Pass has just one lift currently, a Yan triple chair.
- South America solidifies itself as the worldwide leader in urban ropeways with the capital of Peru getting not one but two gondolas by 2017. There are already a dozen gondolas operating in Bolivian, Venezuelan, Colombian and Brazilian cities.
- Vermont lift construction update, thanks to NewEnglandSkiIndustry.com.
- Doppelmayr wins a $21 million contract to build two ropeways in Georgia (the country, not the state, although there is a large Doppelmayr tram in the State of Georgia too.)
- The Teton quad at Jackson Hole is on schedule to be load tested by mid-October. All the large components for the top terminal were installed earlier today by crane.
News Roundup: Adding Lifts
- The Balsams mega-project gets snowmaking water permit and releases its phase one plan which includes six new lifts. That will be the contract of the year next summer if it really happens.
- The owners of Saddleback have extended the deadline to find financing for a new lift before pulling the plug on this season.
- Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe announces an $11.00 minimum wage for all resort employees next season.
- Kitzbuhel in Austria will add another 8-passenger bubble lift for next season to be built by Leitner.
- France’s Avoriaz also announced a new Poma six-pack.
- Whistler will add the Creekside Gondola to its Bike Park starting Friday. The gondola has been outfitted with the latest Deasonbuilt center-pole bike carriers. Creekside will become Whistler-Blackcomb’s 11th lift open for summer operations including three gondolas and six detachable quads.
- The Neptuno double chair (Poma) in Las Lenas de-roped off 5 towers last week thanks to an avalanche. See photo below.
Beijing 2022 Olympics: Where are the Ski Venues?
This morning the International Olympic Committee announced Beijing as the host for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. This means the next three Olympics after Rio will be held in Asia. The 2022 games are shaping up to be a lot like Sochi with entire ski resorts being built for two weeks of competition. In fact, only two of the four planned skiing and snowboarding venues exist today. At least in China the facilities will probably be well-used after the games, unlike Russia where entire 3S Gondolas sit shuttered.
The snowboarding slopestyle, halfpipe, and some of the freestyle skiing will take place at Genting Secret Garden near Chongli. This resort opened in 2011 with two Doppelmayr detachable quads with bubbles and heated seats. It added a Doppelmayr 6/8-passenger chondola the following year that serves 1,300 vertical feet. Right next door, the older Wanlong Ski Resort will host slalom snowboarding. It has three fixed-grip double chairs and a quad that look like the fake Doppelmayr lifts that China built for North Korea. These lifts may have been fabricated in China or the ones China copied when they built the lifts for the North Koreans. None of the lifts at Wanlong appear in Doppelmayr’s world ropeway map or Worldbooks despite being built relatively recently.
Nearby Wanlong and Genting Secret Garden there is a third resort under construction called Taiwu which will host the snowboard cross and freestyle skiing. Wanlong, Genting Secret Garden and Taiwu are all in a cluster 140 miles from Beijing. (For reference, Whistler was 75 miles from Vancouver in 2010.) None of them get much natural snow so snowmaking will be essential.
News Roundup: Doppelmayr Garaventa 2015
- Doppelmayr wins a €9.4 million contract for a detachable gondola in Bogota, Colombia. The 10-passenger, two mile system will carry 2,600 passengers per hour.
- The US Forest Service accepts Crested Butte’s new master plan for review. It includes replacing the North Face lift as well as two new lifts in Teocalli Bowl.
- Rick Spear, the president of Leitner-Poma, thinks an aerial tram from Staten Island to Manhattan is (not surprisingly) a good idea.
- Arizona Snowbowl’s new lift announcement gets lots of press.
- Italy’s Leitner and Aguido are merging. Leitner built a couple dozen lifts in the US and Canada before their joint venture with Poma began in 2002. Aguido built the Cannon Mountain Aerial Tramway in New Hampshire.
- Sugarloaf decides it doesn’t have the money to upgrade its oldest lift to acceptable safety standards so it will be removed without a replacement. Bucksaw was built in 1969. After it is removed there will be 23 Stadeli lifts remaining in operation, four of which are older than Bucksaw.
- Construction on The Balsams has been delayed again. I’ll believe the hype when lift towers start going in.
- Rumor on Skilifts.org is SkyTrac will complete the abandoned, half-constructed Stagecoach lift on the Moonlight Basin side of Big Sky. I believe this Doppelmayr double came from the defunct Fortress Mountain in Alberta.
The Stagecoach lift was partially completed before Moonlight Basin went bankrupt in 2009.
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