Projects & Plans

Building a Bigger Big White

Peter Landsman8 Comments
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Big White is famous for its above tree line skiing and grew to become one of BC’s busiest ski resorts by catering to families.

The Schumann Family is about to construct its twelfth new lift at Big White Ski Resort, the first lift addition in a dozen years here.  Back in 1985, Australian Desmond Schumann bought the mountain out of receivership following his success at Mt. Hotham before acquiring nearby Silver Star to form Schumann Resorts Ltd.  Back in the eighties, Big White was a sea of T-Bars and double chairs as primarily a day use area for nearby Kelowna.  Fast forward to my first visit there in the 1990s and nearly every lift had been moved or replaced, with the eventual addition of a Leitner-Poma six-pack in 2006.  Mr. Schumann died in 2012 and Big White and Silver Star went their separate ways with separate children.  Today, the larger of the two is run by descendant Peter Plimmer and the last pre-Schumann-era lift will carry its final passengers on Sunday.

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Now in its third-generation of family ownership, Big White has been working with Brent Harley & Associates of Whistler over the last 15 years on an ambitious master plan to guide development over the next many decades.  It’s important to note that Canadian master plans tend to be aspirational and do not necessarily represent eventual reality.  Whistler Blackcomb has its own big plan; Sun Peaks has one and so do unproven destinations such as Revelstoke and Valemount Glacier.

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Part of the current Big White vision focuses on the Gem Lake area, which opened with a single 8,000’+ high-speed quad in 1996 that services approximately half of the entire resort.  New lifts are eyed for either side of the current one to add more capacity and terrain.  A much-needed mid-mountain infill lift is also planned for between Powder and Gem.  As the first base area one encounters when driving from Kelowna, Gem Lake will continue to serve primarily as a base camp for locals.  Two more lifts could rise on the west side of the highway for intermediate skiers and snowboarders.

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The current Gem Lake Express is a workhorse with over 2,300′ of vertical and often many riders.

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Sun Peaks to Build New East Village Lift

Peter Landsman6 Comments

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Canada’s second largest ski resort near Kamloops, British Columbia today unveiled plans for its tenth lift, a $3.1 million fixed-grip quad chair above the East Village.  The new lift will complement Sun Peaks’ existing Morrisey Express with its bottom terminal located nearby.  It will then cross the Sun Peaks road and climb over existing ski terrain with a top terminal above the East Village Ski Way.  “This lift project is especially rewarding to announce today. Better access from the East Village is vital to our overall experience and future success,” said Darcy Alexander, Vice President and General Manager of Sun Peaks in an early morning press release.  “The new lift is something we are really pleased to add to the mix for next winter and it will greatly enhance our industry leading ski-in ski-out design”

The specific run layout is currently in development but will see a green trail option to the village from the top of the lift consistent with all other resort lifts and a well-known element of the Sun Peaks ski experience.  Additionally, the lift will provide improved access to some of the most underrated and underutilized ski terrain with family-friendly blue runs and pockets of glade skiing.  New chairs will also be added this summer to the Sundance Express for a 30 percent increase in capacity as part of an overall $47 million capital plan for 2018.  No manufacturer was named for the new quad but Sun Peaks is currently an all-Doppelmayr mountain and a wholly owned subsidiary of Nippon Cable, Doppelmayr’s longtime partner in Japan.

Beech Mountain Adding Two Doppelmayr Quads

Peter Landsman21 Comments

Beech Mountain, North Carolina will replace two of its workhorse chairlifts ahead of the 2018/2019 winter season as had been rumored for weeks.  Lift 5, which ascends to the 5,506-foot summit and was originally built in 1987, is currently being disassembled in preparation for the installation of a new Doppelymayr fixed-grip quad.  The new lift will include a loading conveyor to ensure safe boarding, higher travel speeds and shorter trip times.  Lift 5 will now include 144 chairs with a 6.5 minute ride time accommodating 2,400 people per hour.

This marks only the second time in North American history that a fixed-grip chairlift will replace a detachable one, though there could be more in the near future.  Sugarbush, Vermont swapped the 1990 Green Mountain Express for a fixed quad in 1995, though the route went detachable again in 2002.  Willamette Pass, Oregon’s detachable six-pack is currently up for sale, eyed to be replaced with a fixed-grip lift that would be more affordable to operate.  A used T-Bar may also rise this summer at Ascutney, Vermont on the site of a former high-speed quad.  If Tamarack, Idaho is ever able to rebuild the Wildwood Express, it could be another detachable-turned-fixed-grip scenario.

Back to Beech, Lift 6, currently a double chair with parts from Goforth Brothers, Hall and Doppelmayr, will be replaced with another Doppelmayr fixed-grip quad.  This one will feature 106 chairs and a 6.5 minute travel time with a capacity of 2,000 people per hour.  Both quad lifts will feature footrests, upholstered seating and back rests.  Guests can now expect to reach the mountain’s 5,506-foot summit with easy on-and-off loading, comfortable seating, and a more efficient layout to eliminate congestion.

Lutsen Looks to Public Land for a Bright Future

Peter Landsman30 Comments
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Photo credit: Lutsen Mountains

The list of new lifts built in the Midwest since I started this website in 2015 is short.  In Minnesota, a total of three – two quads at Giants Ridge and an $8 million gondola at Lutsen Mountains.  Unlike both of its state-owned regional neighbors, Lutsen is a family business that also happens to be the largest ski resort for 2,000 miles between the Rockies and the Adirondacks.  I’ve never been to this corner of Minnesota but it looks totally beautiful, surrounded by National Forest on three sides and Lake Superior on the fourth.

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Lutsen Mountains currently includes seven lifts on Moose, Mystery, Ullr and Eagle Mountains. Two are brand new and three older chairs were recently retired.

The popular new Doppelmayr gondola is like nothing else in the region and it came just two years after Lutsen owners Charles Skinner and Tom Rider launched a Leitner-Poma six place chairlift on Moose Mountain.  With two key lifts upgraded, the brothers-in-law are looking to the future and more lifts servicing the types of terrain discerning skiers seek.  Lutsen Mountains is a true destination resort and its competitors aren’t as much Afton Alps and Spirit Mountain as Breckenridge and Steamboat.  For many, the Lutsen case is compelling – a couple hour drive, alluring scenery and plentiful natural snow at a reasonable price.  “We’re a Midwest destination for families; not everybody can afford the airfare and the travel to go out west,” Mr. Skinner told the Cook County Board of Commissioners in a presentation last week.  “We just need to be strong enough and appealing enough with enough terrain to go forward with the next generation.”

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The co-owners are on a public outreach tour as they embark on a rigorous approval process with the United States Forest Service.  If granted a special use permit for new ski terrain in the Superior National Forest, it would be the first brand new permit for a U.S. ski resort in decades.  “The only available land for us to have more runs is federal land,” Skinner pointed out along with the fact that 90 percent of Cook County is publicly-owned.  The expansion plan would first add 100 acres of much-needed beginner terrain with skier services on Eagle Mountain serviced by a new chairlift.  Depending on the cost of a new lift, Lutsen may use one of a few retired lifts it has in storage.  The next phases would add 400 acres of intermediate and advanced terrain on two sides of Moose Mountain including glades and up to six new lifts.  “As the ski industry moves forward, we need to be larger in order to survive,” said Skinner, noting the eventual goal of doubling skier visits.

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As Colorado Booms, Cooper Eyes a Fourth Lift

Peter Landsman2 Comments
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Colorado’s Cooper sits along Tennessee Pass at over 11,000 feet.

Setting aside new gondolas, bubbles and chondolas at Copper and Winter Park, the biggest stories for Colorado skiers next winter will be Arapahoe Basin’s long-awaited addition of The Beavers, Wolf Creek’s Meadow expansion and Purgatory’s new Gelande pod (the latter pending Forest Service approval.)  A year later, Copper Mountain may follow with Tucker Mountain just as Vail plans to add a new lift and trails high on Golden Peak.  If all goes according to planned, Beaver Creek will also build two new lifts in McCoy Park a year before Aspen Mountain plans to debut Pandora.  Steamboat has Pioneer Ridge and Sunshine II on the horizon, Keystone plans new lifts for Outback, Independence and Bergman Bowls and Crested Butte wants to build Teocalli 2.  Right in the middle of all this explosive ski country growth is Leadville’s Cooper, which now seeks an expansion of its own.

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Open continuously since 1941, Cooper today operates three fixed-grip lifts and proposes adding a 2,450′ surface lift called Way Back with five advanced-intermediate trails.  It’s a modest proposal for a mountain that proudly declares “we’re not like our neighbors” on its homepage.  The new platter or T-Bar lift would load on the backside and top out near the Piney triple summit.  If approved, construction could take place as early as 2019, which I’m thinking will be a very busy summer for Colorado lift construction.  In the meantime, work is about to begin on eight new lifts, the most in Colorado since 2007.

Smokey Mountain to Replace Entire Lift Fleet

Peter Landsman1 Comment
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One of Atlantic Canada’s best kept secrets is Smokey Mountain, which will soon sport three new lifts.

A community ski area surrounded by iron ore mines near the Quebec-Labrador border will build as many new lifts as Whistler Blackcomb this summer, though they will be of quite a different variety.  Smokey Mountain Ski Club is set to debut Canada’s first Skytrac, a quad chair where a 1972 Poma double with a floating bullwheel stands today.  The mountain’s Blue lift, a detachable Poma in operation since the 1960s, will be swapped for a brand new Leitner-Poma version.  Another new LPOA platter lift will serve an area known as coaches’ corner and supplement a carpet lift built last year.  Smokey has also retired its Red and Green Poma lifts meaning the entire lift fleet will be renewed by next winter.

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This revitalization has been in the works since at least 2016 but was put on hold due to a downturn in the iron ore market.  The Iron Ore Company of Canada will fund the not-for-profit ski club’s modern and more reliable lift system as part of mitigation for a new site nearby.  Below are some photos from Smokey’s website to memorialize the truly classic Poma lifts which will be missed.

This ambitious project brings the North America new lift count to a potential 48 for 2018.  That number includes at least five Skytrac Monarchs, a dozen Leitner-Poma installations and 21 Doppelmayr machines.

Whistler Blackcomb Hosts Summer Projects Open House

Peter Landsman22 Comments
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The new two stage Blackcomb Gondola will feature 184 Omega IV 10 LWI cabins from CWA.

Monster Doppelmayr UNI-G XXL terminals are headed to British Columbia for the first time.  Whistler Blackcomb and Vail Resorts held a community open house last night to detail plans for what will be a packed summer building four new lifts on both iconic mountains.  The largest component of the $52 million project is a new Blackcomb Gondola announced in December.

The beastly gondola will load where the current Wizard lift does before continuing to a very large mid-station located below the current Solar Coaster base.  An even larger cabin parking facility will be built in the trees to the west of the dual terminal.  The second stage of the gondola (separate haul ropes and drives) will continue after a slight angle change to Rendezvous just below the current Solar Coaster unload.  10-passenger cabins will depart every nine seconds yielding a 4,000 passenger hourly capacity – second highest ever in North America.

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Also on Blackcomb, a new, longer Catskinner four place detachable will start to the southwest of the existing Yan triple chair.  This lift will have 97 chairs reused from Emerald Express and 14 new towers.  Emerald’s Spacejet-style terminals will also come over from Whistler.

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Alterra Building New Lifts at Stratton, Tremblant and Winter Park

Peter Landsman42 Comments

Alterra Mountain Co., the new operator of eleven leading North American mountain resorts, today announced a transformational capital investment of $130 million to be followed by hundreds of millions more over the next five years.  New lifts will debut at Winter Park Resort in Colorado, Mont Tremblant in Quebec and Stratton Mountain Resort in Vermont in time for next winter.  Competitor Vail Resorts revealed a similar $150 million plan for 2018-19 with six new lifts across its resorts last December.

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Goodbye massive lines at Zephyr, hello gondola.

The largest single project for Alterra is a 10-passenger Zephyr Gondola at Winter Park replacing the current 1990 high-speed quad, the key people mover out of The Village at Winter Park.  The new $16 million Leitner-Poma lift will be capable of moving 3,600 guests per hour to Sunspot, up from 2,600, and is the first new lift at the resort since 2007.  It will feature Leitner-Poma’s DirectDrive technology, reducing energy consumption and the number of moving parts that can lead to down time.  The new lift may also get a new name.  “Zephyr is certainly on the table but nothing’s been decided yet,” said Steve Hurlbert, a spokesman for the resort.

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Winter Park’s first true gondola will sport Sigma Diamond 10 cabins.

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Big White Upgrading Powder Chair to a Leitner-Poma Quad

Peter Landsman6 Comments

British Columbia’s third largest ski resort will retire its oldest lift this summer, a Mueller which dates back to 1979 called Powder.  A new $3.1 million Leitner-Poma Canada Alpha quad chair will be capable of moving 1,900 skiers per hour versus the current 1,710.  Big White calls the outgoing lift one of Canada’s oldest and most popular triple chairs with more than 15 million rides logged to date.  “I’m proud to be leading the third generation of our family owned business, which was established in the summer of 1985,” said Peter Plimmer, president and CEO of Big White Ski Resort Ltd. in a press release announcing multiple summer projects worth $10 million CAD.  “My grandfather, Desmond Schumann, would be proud of what we’re doing here at the resort.”

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Big White’s Powder chair on a snowy Saturday last month.

Next season Big White will operate a fleet of a dozen Doppelmayr and Leitner-Poma lifts including a six-pack and gondola.  The new Powder Chair is the second announced Leitner-Poma fixed-grip project for 2018 after Arapahoe Basin’s Beavers installation.  Last year, most of the Leitner-Poma Group’s fixed-grip orders went to Skytrac, though that division has yet to build a lift in Canada.  New lifts are also coming to Blackcomb, Whistler, SilverStar and likely Sun Peaks in BC next winter.

Big Sky to Launch North America’s First Eight Passenger Chairlift

Peter Landsman81 Comments

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This afternoon couldn’t have been a more beautiful one for unveiling what will be America’s biggest lift.  Over the next nine months, Big Sky Resort and Doppelmayr will create Ramcharger 8, a machine packed full of technology on Andesite Mountain.  The current Ramcharger high-speed quad will move to Shedhorn and replace one of Big Sky’s most popular high-alpine lifts while a two-stage North Village gondola and more will eventually follow as part of Big Sky 2025.  “The Biggest Skiing in America is getting bigger and better, again,” said Big Sky Resort General Manager and President Taylor Middleton before the bombshell announcement.  Never before has America seen an 8-passenger chair of any kind, let alone one packed with every bell and whistle available.

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We trail Slovakia in 8-Passenger chairlifts, Stephen Kircher noted to laughter in the gathered crowd.  Not anymore.

I was lucky enough to be invited by Big Sky Resort and the Kircher family to be part of this momentous day in the Mountain Village, where Boyne Resorts’ Stephen Kircher detailed plans for being the North American ski industry’s D-Line launch customer.  Kircher emphasized Big Sky’s lengthy path to this point and how the community has really come together in the past decade.  “My family is proud of its 42-year commitment to southwest Montana and will continue the momentum that is underway at Big Sky Resort,” he said. “We are excited to bring the biggest chair in the world to Big Sky, and to work with the resort team and community to recognize the Resort’s full potential – rivaling the best of the Alps and our North American brethren.”  With a huge snowpack, the Biggest Skiing in America is on track to have its best season ever with more than 500,000 skier days – a feat once only dreamed of here.

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Lone Peak on an afternoon that turned into a historic one in Big Sky, Montana.

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