- The new lift at Great Bear Ski Valley is eight weeks ahead of schedule with chairs on the line.
- Another lockdown hits Australian resorts, this time Perisher and Thredbo in New South Wales.
- New Zealand shuts down all ski resorts as part of a nationwide freeze.
- A man dies after a fall from the sky ride at Utah’s Lagoon amusement park.
- Cape Smokey expects Canada’s first new gondola since 2018 to open next week.
- Sunlight solicits a new trail map painted by Kevin Mastin.
- Brazil’s government will study the feasibility of restarting the world’s largest abandoned urban gondola.
- A gondola system is being considered for Tijuana, Mexico.
- The Arizona Gondola re-enters service after 18 days of lightning-related downtime.
- Doppelmayr will build Latin America’s first gondola with air conditioning.
- An extended interview with Poma Chairman Jean Souchal covers Covid recovery, urban growth and why Americans call surface lifts of all brands Pomas.
- Despite offering $10 million, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania receives no bids for reopening Denton Hill.
- California and Nevada resorts report an almost 22 percent increase in skier visits during the Covid season of 2020-21.
- Washington, DC budgets $10 million to purchase property needed for a possible future Georgetown-Rosslyn Gondola.
- Steamboat confirms the first section of the Wild Blue Gondola project is a go for next summer.
- The Boat will also retire the Priest Creek double and sell its chairs.
- Ontario’s Beaver Valley Ski Club plans to replace the Avalanche double in 2022.
- Time to vote! Choices for renaming Squaw Valley’s Squaw Creek triple are Eagle Eye, Highline, Resort, Snow King, Storm Rider and Valley View.
- Welch Village updates guests on the Cannon Valley Quad project.
Instagram Tuesday: More D-Line
Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
Mountain High Owners Purchase Dodge Ridge
Invision Capital and Karl Kapuscinski of Southern California’s Mountain High Resort today announced their acquisition of Dodge Ridge, a mid-sized area located between Lake Tahoe and Yosemite National Park. Longtime Dodge Ridge owners Frank and Sally Helm are retiring after 45 years at the helm. Kapuscinski, who brings more than 30 years of resort management experience at Mountain High, Stevens Pass, Spirit Mountain and others, will become President and CEO of both resorts. Dodge Ridge General Manager Jenni Smith will remain in her role reporting to Kapuscinski.
Dodge Ridge operates a fleet of eight chairlifts four surface lifts on 862 acres of the Stanislaus National Forest. The new ownership group may be better equipped to upgrade aging lifts, some of which date back to the 1960s and ’70s. Dodge Ridge remains among the 15 largest US resorts without a detachable.
“Dodge Ridge is one of those extraordinary skiing and riding experiences that comes with a lot of passion and a lot of history coupled with a great mountain vibe that’s really warm and friendly,” said Karl and Audrey Kapuscinski in a statement. “We think it’s critical to maintain the very core of the resort and its personality and identity, and that’s going to be our goal from day one. We are extremely proud that Sally and Frank chose us as the new owners of Dodge Ridge and please stay tuned as we look forward to future announcements and developments.”
Dodge Ridge will join the Powder Alliance, a global reciprocal program of which Mountain High is a founding member. Other partners in the alliance include Oregon’s Timberline Lodge and Loveland Ski Area in Colorado.
News Roundup: Firm Orders
- Mexico’s Grupo Vidanta will build a second SkyDream gondola system, this time at Vidanta Riviera Maya.
- Sundance auctions chairs from the former Arrowhead triple.
- The team at Craigleith, Ontario wins the inaugural Ski Area Management/Leitner-Poma Rise Up Challenge.
- Four Japanese resorts sign on to the Indy Pass.
- Arizona Snowbowl’s new gondola has been down for two weeks and the ski area moves its entire summer operation to a different base area and the Grand Canyon Express.
- Beaver Creek’s two new quads will be named McCoy Park Express and Reunion.
- The sale price for Blue Mountain, PA is revealed as $31.9 million.
- MND reports annual results with ropeway sales up 32 percent and a firm order backlog of €91.7 million.
- A group continues to push for a West Seattle gondola as a planned rail project gets delayed.
- Squaw Alpine and Leitner-Poma make great progress on the base to base gondola, though they aren’t publicly committing to a completion timeline.
- Citing staffing and fire danger, Mt. Shasta ends its summer season early.
- After missing a year, Searchmont plans to reopen this season with two new triple chairs.
- Manitoba’s Holiday Mountain announces it won’t open in 2021-22.
- Vail Resorts unveils a succession plan with CEO Rob Katz moving to an Executive Chairperson role and Chief Marketing Officer Kirsten Lynch becoming CEO November 1.
- Icy Strait Point and Norwegian Cruise Line cut the ribbon on the Transporter gondola with another 8 passenger system set to open later this summer.
- Jay Peak’s former President and CEO will plead guilty to a single charge of providing false statements and other charges are expected to be dropped.
- Keystone posts a big update on the Peru Express replacement project.
- Aspen Snowmass introduces a new brand and logo which is already on some gondola cabins.
- Snowbasin’s Middle Bowl replacement project gets off to the races.
Instagram Tuesday: Whirlybird
Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
News Roundup: Valleys
- Bear Valley lists the Kuma triple for sale.
- Deer Valley plans to move the bottom terminals of Carpenter Express, Silver Lake Express and Snowflake downhill as part of Snow Park redevelopment. Space will also be saved for a possible Park City gondola link.
- Mayflower developers want to build build a signature lift linking to the Sultan pod at Deer Valley.
- Squaw Valley solicits the public’s help to rename the Squaw Creek triple. Squaw One Express is expected to be renamed separately in partnership with the Washoe Tribe.
- Hickory Ski Center, closed since 2005, says there’s a “strong possibility” of reopening this winter.
- Both Leitner-Poma of America and Doppelmayr Cable Car bid to build an automated people move in Kuala Lampur, though Bombardier is said to be the frontrunner.
- The Leitner portion of Cablebús Mexico City launches Sunday.
- A Grand Targhee expansion proposal faces more opposition in Teton Valley, Idaho, though the project would be located on federal land in Wyoming.
- Baldy Mountain Resort throws in the towel on summer due to British Columbia wildfires.
- Timberline Lodge will end ski season three weeks early due to snowmelt.
- Leitner opens a new production facility in Slovakia focused on tower and steel fabrication.
- Toggenburg’s lifts are indeed for sale.
- Victoria, Australia resorts shut down again due to coronavirus.
Toggenburg Closes After 68 Years
I am sad to report the lifts at New York’s Toggenburg Mountain have carried their final skiers. The owner of nearby Song Mountain and Labrador Mountain, Peter Harris, announced his purchase of the property today and said he will consolidate operations at his other mountains. The sellers are John and Christine Meier, who own and operate the largest resort in the region, Greek Peak. The Meiers plan to focus on Greek Peak, which they have grown into a four season destination in recent years.
Harris, the owner of Song and Labrador, cited a number of reasons for his decision including business levels and a labor shortage. He will continue to operate and invest in Song Mountain and Labrador Mountain, which feature eight lifts between them. “As new strains of COVID emerge, there is still great uncertainty about future capacity restrictions and concerns about finding and keeping seasonal staff as many local companies continue to struggle to hire workers. This purchase follows a decades long trend of ski resort consolidation,” said Harris, who did not disclose the purchase price. “The decision to close Toggenburg isn’t one we took lightly or made easily, but when you take a hard look at the numbers, three ski resorts drawing from the same pool of skiers and snow boarders every year is a challenge. I am confident that we are going to offer Central New Yorkers an excellent ski experience at Song and Labrador.”
The future of Toggenburg’s two Hall doubles and Borvig triple remains uncertain. The Skitog.com website is already gone.
Instagram Tuesday: In Bloom
Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
News Roundup: Live Rescue
- Big White, Grouse Mountain, Revelstoke Mountain Resort, Hell’s Gate Airtram and the Sea to Sky Gondola each receive up to CA$1 million in government assistance.
- Aspen Mountain’s Lift One project inches toward groundbreaking. The Pandora’s expansion and chairlift faces an August 25th review.
- Icy Strait Point welcomes its first ship since 2019 with a new gondola system.
- Tampa Bay’s regional transit authority postpones a gondola feasibility study.
- Mayflower Mountain Resort still has no set timeline for lift construction.
- Morocco commits to building its first urban gondola.
- The Government of Dubai and MND sign a memorandum of understanding for a prototype self-propelled ropeway system.
- Just days before launch, Mexico City delays the opening of Cablebús Line 2.
- In its first two weeks, Cablebús Line 1 averaged 56,000 riders a day.
- Also in Mexico, a dramatic rescue operation follows a tension system failure on the Mueller-built Monte-Taxco Cable Car.
- Vail Resorts is not happy with a YouTuber who climbed a Peak 2 Peak Gondola tower to make a video.
- Poma, Compagnie des Alpes and the French Government will partner to build a 3.3 mile, 3 station 2S gondola linking a valley transit hub to a mountain community.
Instagram Tuesday: Staging
Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
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