News Roundup: Rope

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  • Mi Teleférico to end 2016 with 77 million riders and a $2.9 million operating profit unheard of in public transportation.
  • Poma inaugurates fourth Medellín Metrocable line with a fifth under construction.
  • Jackson Hole cuts the ribbon on the Sweetwater Gondola.
  • Local government reaches tentative agreement with Branson Gondola backers.
  • Poma drops its latest newsletter.
  • On the heels of inaugurating four new ropeways in Switzerland, BMF signs some major contracts.
  • Laurel Mountain re-opens today after being shuttered for 11 seasons.
  • Kimberley’s Easter double got new chairs over the summer, the leftovers from Fernie’s new Polar Peak lift and Nakiska before that.
  • The Nakiska Gold Express saga continues, with 3,000 feet of new rope to be spliced into the haul rope, which is seven years old and was last spliced just two weeks ago. You can watch repairs in real time here.
  • Jay Peak hopes to have its tram running by Christmas weekend following its own rope problems.
  • After sustaining damage due to swinging chairs in a windstorm, Schweitzer’s Basin Express will be down for at least the next few days.
  • Take a virtual tour of the first Doppelmayr D-Line chairlift, Waidoffen, with Direct Drive and solar arrays.
  • A 13,000-foot long Poma gondola will dramatically improve access to a Peruvian fortress from January 2017.
  • Summit County, Utah Department of Transportation and the Utah Transit Authority launch study of the Kimball Junction-Canyons Village-Park City corridor, including the option of building gondola(s.)

This is an open thread.  Feel free to comment on anything lift-related.

Telluride Looks to Add New Lifts, Upgrade Others in New Master Plan

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Telluride Ski Resort, which crested 500,000 skier visits for the first time last season and operates 14 chairlifts, released a new master development plan this month aimed at upgrading key lifts and adding a few new ones over the next decade.  At opening in 1972, Telluride had just five double chairlifts but now, together with the town of Mountain Village, is home to North America’s largest gondola transit system and one of the most successful destination resorts.

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Existing conditions, including the relatively new Revelation Bowl and Prospect Bowl expansions.

Telski’s last MDP from 1999 included several lift projects that are still approved but not yet completed.  Most notably, the Palmyra Basin lift would rise 1,165 vertical feet lift to serve intermediate terrain above the Prospect Express, which itself was built as part of a four-lift expansion in 2001.  Also in this area, a new 1,500′ surface lift is approved to serve the Gold Hill chutes above the Revelation lift, which debuted in 2008 as Telluride’s only Leitner-Poma lift.

More lift upgrades are added in the latest master plan.  The first is bringing Gold Hill Express capacity from its 1,500 pph to 2,200 by adding more chairs.  This lift was initially approved as two separate lifts with 1,200-1,500 pph each, but was combined into one lift with a higher design capacity.  Gold Hill is a 2001 Doppelmayr, one of four Telluride built in one very busy summer.

Another planned project that will surprise no one is a Plunge lift replacement.  The existing 1985 CTEC triple has had a reduced hourly capacity of 1,042 pph ever since safety bars were installed, due to their added weight.  At 6,260 feet slope length, a ride takes nearly 13 minutes.  A 1,000 f.p.m. detachable quad is proposed to replace Plunge with an initial capacity of 1,800 pph and designed to reach 2,400.

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News Roundup: Oregon

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Vail Resorts to Build Three New Six-Packs in Colorado for 2017-18

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With strong Epic Pass sales and early snow blanketing its properties, Vail Resorts revealed today it will go big on new lifts in 2017, adding additional six-place chairlifts at Vail, Keystone and Breckenridge as part of a $122 million capital program.  In the company’s first quarter results, CEO Rob Katz noted, “we remain committed to reinvesting in our resorts, creating an experience of a lifetime for our guests and generating strong returns for our shareholders.”  The news follows construction of four new lifts at Vail mountains in both 2015 and 2016.

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The Northwoods Express #11 on Vail Mountain will be replaced at the end of this year, the resort announced today.

On Vail Mountain, the Northwoods Express #11 will be replaced, leaving only three CLD-260 first-generation detachables in service.  The new Northwoods will also become the mountain’s 10th new lift in 11 years.  At Breckenridge, Vail will upgrade the Falcon high speed quad on Peak 10 to a six-person detachable, allowing more guests to experience some of the best intermediate and advanced terrain on the mountain.   The Falcon SuperChair is a 1986 Poma high speed quad also approaching the end of its useful life.  At Keystone, the 1990 Doppelmayr Uni-model Montezuma chair will be replaced with a six-pack version.

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The six-place Avanti Express #2 at Vail replaced an older high speed quad in 2015 as part of Vail Resorts’ ongoing initiative to replace high-traffic lifts in recent years.

Leitner-Poma is likely to build Breckenridge’s newest lift, which would extend a 16-lift streak for the manufacturer at Breck.  Vail and Keystone operate a mix of Leitner-Poma and Doppelmayr lifts and could plausibly sign with either company.  Noticeably absent from today’s release was any mention of new lifts for Park City or the newly-Epic Whistler-Blackcomb.  Vail Resorts will detail further capital improvements in the spring but these three projects are a huge start.

Update 1/23/17: Leitner-Poma will build and install all three of these lifts.

Ambitious Gondola Proposed for Branson, Missouri

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8.5 miles.  12 stations.  500 cabins. $160-200 million.  These are big numbers for a gondola in a town with barely 10,000 residents.  Yet Branson, sometimes known as Nashville West, hosted more than eight million visitors last year.  Jeff Green, President of American Gondola, Inc., says that fact combined with worsening traffic congestion make the city a prime candidate for one of the world’s largest gondola systems.  “The need for a transportation solution when combined with the possibility of an entertainment attraction creates an opportunity to address both issues using a single system like an aerial gondola,” Green told me by email this week.

The privately-funded system along Highway 76 from Downtown to Silver Dollar City would cost riders $15 per day and be geared towards visitors.  American Gondola is working with Leitner-Poma and showed a Sigma Diamond demo cabin at their first public meeting a few weeks ago.  I asked Jeff Green about the decision to work with Leitner-Poma at this early stage.  “Both [Doppelmayr and Leitner-Poma] have very competitive products and the ability to provide a solution,” he said.  “We have found L-P to be extremely knowledgeable and very interested in working with us to address and resolve all the issues and problems and to help us assure a quality product is delivered.”

The system would most likely be constructed with five separate haul rope loops and cabins interlining between them.  American Gondola seeks a Memorandum of Understanding with the city this month and hopes to begin construction in 2017.  The company has a long way to go but its list of backers is impressive.  “Our financial investors have said, that if we could get the MOU next week, they would have our funding in place by the end of the year,” says Green.   Of course, that is contingent on achieving final design, obtaining necessary property agreements, easements and permits.  Green is optimistic and noted that the demo cabin was already a big hit.  “Everyone, including city officials, appreciated the efforts of AGI and Leitner-Poma to provide an example of a cabin they could actually touch and experience.”

News Roundup: Out of Commission

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  • Leitner-Poma, Georgetown University, ZGF Architects host urban gondola forum with speakers from the Portland Aerial Tram and Medellín Metrocable, among others.
  • With one of three chairlifts out of commission, Big Tupper, NY is unlikely to open this winter.
  • 14-year old boy falls from the Emerald Express at Whistler.
  • Costa Rican officials and Doppelmayr Mexico sign letter of intent to build Central America’s first urban gondola.
  • $15 million Arthurs Seat Eagle debuts in Australia.
  • Brest Cable Car (shown above) shuts down after only two weeks of operation.
  • Nakiska’s sole summit access lift has been down since November 27th.
  • The latest D-Line chairlift installation Waidhofen is reportedly also the first in the world supplied with Doppelmayr Direct Drive (DDD.)
  • Loon Mountain restores a 1966 Hall Skycruiser gondola with help from Lutsen.
  • The Boston Globe Magazine explains how a non-skier in Fort Lauderdale came to run two of Vermont’s major ski resorts.
  • Grand Canyon Escalade legislation heads to the second of four Navajo Nation committees on Tuesday.
  • Granite Peak releases more details about its proposed lift and trail expansion.

News Roundup: One Third

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  • Alpine Mountain says goodbye to skiing.  The Pennsylvania ski area once operated three Borvig fixed-grips chairlifts.
  • Nearing December, Suicide Six and Waterville Valley are still building their respective new lifts.
  • Skytrac talks ANSI and more with Ross Stevens of Stevens Engineering.
  • East River Skyway gains more backers.
  • City of Branson to vote on American Gondola agreement Dec. 13th.
  • One summer is down, two more to go building the world’s highest 3S.
  • Chile’s President inaugurates new Poma gondola in Santiago.
  • Saddleback Mountain Foundation raises one third of the millions needed to reopen Maine’s third largest resort as a co-operative.
  • Parks Canada is not on board with gondola transit for Banff.
  • Ski racer gets $750,000 after being left on a gondola at Killington for five hours in October 2011.