The new Supreme lift at Alta, Utah turns 8.1 degrees in a totally unique arrangement engineered by Leitner-Poma.
Jagged ridgelines spread in seemingly endless directions at Alta Ski Area, serviced by relatively few lifts in just the right places to make skiing there a blast. Alta has collaborated with various lift manufacturers over its 80 year history to create unique contraptions such as the Transfer Tow, a Yan rope tow mechanically more similar to a chairlift and one of the world’s only high-speed triple chairs, called Sunnyside. In 2004, Alta and Doppelmayr CTEC dreamed up Collins, two Stealth high-speed quads joined together at a 29-degree angle with loading but no unloading at the mid-station. “Don’t text and bend,” a sign at the Wildcat base warns riders destined for the full trip.
This season, the new Supreme detachable quad goes where no bend has ever gone before, replacing both the Cecret double and Supreme triple but without an angle station. Prior to 2017, there were a handful of lifts that turn a few degrees using canted sheaves, particularly in Utah, where the mining scene created an enduring checkerboard of public and private lands. Snowbird, Park City, Deer Valley and Moonlight Basin in Montana all sport lifts that bend a few degrees for one reason or another.
North Korea’s second ski resort reportedly includes lifts manufactured locally, a result of UN sanctions prohibiting the import of luxury goods.
Silver Mountain celebrates a storied 50 years with a look back to construction of the world’s longest gondola, uniquely funded by federal, state and local governments along with VonRoll Tramways.
As we enter prime time for lift construction announcements, keep track of the 2018 roster here.
Christmas Day ski lift evacuation on Bromley Mountain – A lift shut down at Bromley Mountain Ski Resort in Peru, Vermont, on Christmas Day 2017. Crews worked high winds and cold temperatures to evacuate skiers from the chairs. Video courtesy of Dougla… https://t.co/a7sODHBHXH
None of the 115 skiers and snowboarders riding the Sun Mountain Express at Bromley Mountain, Vermont were injured yesterday despite a serious wind-related incident. The Burlington Free Pressreports a gust caused at least one empty chair to contact a communications line while the lift was moving. “The cable snagged a grip on an empty chair, derailing it and causing the lift to stop,” the paper wrote. It’s not clear from the article whether the snagged grip and chair remained on the haul rope. Bromley’s Assistant General Manager Michael van Eyck commented to the media, “a super high 20 or 25 second burst of wind” led to the accident. “The winds were not predicted to be that high,” he noted. A rope evacuation was initiated following the deropement, which took two and a third hours to complete.
The Sun Mountain Express is a mile-long detachable quad featuring torsion grips built in 1997. The Doppelmayr lift services the vast majority of Bromley’s terrain and remained closed the rest of Christmas Day and this morning. The mountain’s snow report currently reads: “the Sun Mountain Express will be on a delayed opening schedule today, while it undergoes some maintenance. Stay tuned for updates on its projected opening time, but our lift crew is working hard and should have it up and running by this afternoon.” Poor Bromley also lost its primary snowmaking pump house to fire just ten days ago. The family-focused ski area is owned by the Fairbank Group, which also operates Jiminy Peak, Massachusetts and Cranmore, New Hampshire.
I haven’t taken pictures of the lifts at Bromley yet, but this is the Doppelmayr Worldbook entry for the Sun Mountain Express.
Billionaire philanthropist Barry Diller considers gifting a $30 million gondola to the people of Los Angeles, which would travel over 2.2 miles of parkland from the city’s zoo to the Hollywood sign.
One Hall double at the defunct Big Tupper ski area will reopen next winter, with another needing extensive work before it can spin.
A report suggests Sunrise Park mechanic Reggie Antonio lost his life when the lift he was working on moved while he was in a work chair but still attached to a tower.
LiftDigital safety bar screens go live on five chairs at Winter Park.
Garaventa completes the world’s steepest funicular railway in Switzerland.
New owner of Mt. Whittier, NH weighs the future of a lost ski area with a 1963 Mueller gondola that still stands adjacent to a McDonald’s drive through.
We are excited to announce that we are pursuing a protected, dedicated family-friendly area at McCoy Park, subject to U.S. Forest Service approval. This will be the perfect area for beginners as it is tucked away in a pristine setting on gentle terrain.https://t.co/EfU32C6nwhpic.twitter.com/DLOD1Dz5rG
Beaver Creek says it will seek Forest Service approval to build two new lifts, just as it debuts the resort’s 14th detachable lift in Red Buffalo Park. Vail Resorts-owned Beaver Creek is unique in that much of its beginner and low intermediate terrain lies on the upper mountain, giving guests learning to ski and snowboard the high alpine experience many of us take for granted. Just a few miles from its older, more famous cousin, Beaver Creek’s visitation has increased ten percent in just the last five years to well over a million skiers annually. B.C. has grown to encompass 16 lifts despite opening in 1980, decades later than most American ski resorts. Now the 16th largest resort, Beaver Creek’s success came largely through catering to families, a legacy which McCoy Park will build on.
This expansion was previously mapped out on Beaver Creek’s 2010 master plan, though some details could change. The Park is located near the top terminals of the Strawberry Park, Upper Beaver Creek Mountain and Larkspur Express lifts and currently features cross-country ski trails. “McCoy Park is the ideal location for a protected family zone,” notes Beth Howard, vice president and COO of Beaver Creek Resort. “The views are spectacular, and the Park has an amazing natural feel that will be preserved. It is gentle terrain that will be separated from the rest of the mountain so that guests looking for a more relaxed, beginner and intermediate experience at a slower pace will enjoy it, and others won’t find themselves travelling through it on their way to another run or lift.”
Seventeen trails serviced by two lifts will encompass 250 acres left mostly in a natural state. Three quarters of the trails will be green circles with the rest rated intermediate. A McCoy Park Express quad will serve most of the new, gladed runs with a shorter, possibly fixed-grip lift providing egress. The detachable lift will run approximately 4,746 feet with a vertical of 710′ and capacity of 2,400 skiers per hour. The other lift will be just over 2,000 feet rising 300 feet and capable of moving around 1,200 guests per hour.
By the time McCoy Park opens, the Strawberry Park Express will be near the end of its useful life and could be replaced by a gondola, providing direct access to and from Beaver Creek Village.
As part of the expansion, the 23 year-old Strawberry Park Express will probably be upgraded to a gondola. Strawberry Park already allows for downloading, but a gondola or chondola would better serve beginner folks and families. The almost 7,000-foot new lift would carry approximately the same number of people as the 2,800 pph quad it replaces. Vail Resorts plans to release additional details on the approval process and timeline for McCoy Park in the next few weeks.
The Doppelmayr-built Wildcat Express comes together at Snowbasin, one of seven new six-place chairlifts built throughout the western US this year. More six-packs were added in 2017 than any other year except 2000.
With commissioning wrapping on eleven more lifts than last year at this time, 2017 represents an impressive ten-year high for North American lift building. Six-passenger chairlifts, T-Bars and urban gondolas in Mexico and the Caribbean drove much of the growth in a year that saw continued changes in the manufacturer landscape. Compared with 2016, more of this year’s chairlifts were expensive detachable models (12) compared with 17 fixed-grips (in 2016, the split was 7 detachable, 23 fixed.) A total of nine new gondolas and three T-Bars went up in 2017, both increases from the year before. Ten additional lifts were relocated and re-purposed, a three-year high with lifts originally built by Blue Mountain, CTEC, Doppelmayr, Riblet, Roebling, Stadeli and Yan finding new homes. Combined, this year’s new lift class represents a solid 27 percent increase from 2016.
Consistent with last year, about two thirds of the projects in 2017 represented one-for-one replacements in existing alignments. Interestingly, at least six resorts removed older lifts outright without replacing them. At many mountains, the era of building and maintaining extra chairlifts that rarely run is over.
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