Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
Devil’s Head to Build New Beginner Quad
Wisconsin’s Devil’s Head Resort will add a sixth fixed grip quad this summer, continuing a major reinvestment plan executed over the past ten years. The new Doppelmayr lift will replace two Hall chairlifts dating back to 1971 and 1975. Devil’s Head notes the new lift is just the beginning of a multi-year expansion plan to enhance the on-mountain experience for beginners.
Many Upper Midwest resorts experienced plentiful snowfall and high demand for skiing and snowboarding this winter and are looking to the future. The Devil’s Head project is the second lift addition announced by a Wisconsin resort for 2021-22. Trollhaugen also plans to add a new fixed grip chairlift to replace a Hall double.
News Roundup: Grab Bag
- Timberline Lodge evacuates 42 guests from the new Pucci detachable quad by rope.
- Another late day evac happens on Castle Mountain’s Tamarack chair.
- Mt. Spokane considers upgrading two 60 year old chairlifts.
- The seemingly cursed Gold chair at Nakiska goes down for a week (now back in action).
- Under new ownership, Sundance Resort eyes an out-of-base detachable.
- Bogus Basin plans expansion and lift upgrades in a new master plan coming later this spring.
- Dakota at Big Sky has been down since March 1st.
- The first of its kind Leitner 2S gondola undergoes testing in Germany.
- Ischgl, an early pandemic hot spot last year, gives up on opening this season.
- Vancouver’s transit authority picks a preferred alignment for the Burnaby Mountain Gondola.
- The Seattle Times profiles Washington’s first bubble chairlift.
- A transportation bill which includes Little Cottonwood funding heads to the Utah Governor’s desk.
- Once slated to close, Sleeping Giant now considers adding more lifts.
- Zincton Mountain Village, a proposed resort in BC, announces the purchase of a late model Riblet quad.
- Facing capacity challenges, Crystal Mountain eliminates unlimited access on the Ikon Base Pass.
- Magic Mountain needs some mid-’80s vintage Poma sheave assemblies to complete the Black Line quad. Give them a shout if you can help!
- Winter Park’s proposed lift replacements I mentioned last week are a Pioneer Express six place and Lariat conveyor.
- On a podcast, Indy Pass creator Doug Fish says more resorts are coming, including in Canada (along with a price increase.)
- During recent historic snow, the Portland Aerial Tram ran for 114 consecutive hours while other transit modes shut down.
- When the Disney Skyliner stops for a bit, you better believe it will make the news.
- Nitehawk looks for funding to replace its landslide-destroyed chairlift.
Instagram Tuesday: Glazed Over
Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
News Roundup: Ramping Up
- Northeast gems Saddleback and Waterville Valley join the Indy Pass coalition, effective immediately.
- Winter Park Resort looks for the Forest Service’s blessing to replace multiple lifts.
- The Forest Service fully approves Keystone’s Bergman Bowl project.
- Welch Village voluntarily withdraws the East Quad from service following an unspecified incident (now back open).
- Guests of Mission Ridge love the Wenatchee Express and here’s the final episode of On the Way Up.
- Spirit Mountain lends a hand to repair the chairlift at nearby Chester Bowl.
- A girl is okay after falling from a Mohawk Mountain chairlift.
- A child also falls from a lift at Saddleback.
- Skyline at Pebble Creek is partially rope evacuated.
- Lookout Pass eyes 2022 for new lifts servicing Eagle Peak.
- More reports of stellar seasons from Iowa, New York and Pennsylvania.
- Cabins return to the Sea to Sky Gondola with more on the way.
- Mt. Bohemia considers building a lift in the Haunted Valley.
- Timberline Lodge closes for three days following a messy ice storm.
- Once a cartel hub, Medellín is a city transformed in part by a modern gondola network.
- Waterville Valley President and General Manager Tim Smith discusses a future gondola, bubble six pack and other lift changes.
- A rider who fell into a net along with another passenger and lift operator sues Snow King Mountain.
- Murray Ridge secures a six figure grant to rehabilitate one of the world’s longest T-Bars.
- MND reports revenue fell 5 percent in the second half of 2020 ($20.7 million in sales came from snowmaking and lifts.)
- Aspen will delay the Silver Queen Gondola‘s summer opening to complete big ticket maintenance items.
- Doppelmayr’s latest Wir magazine explores the Eiger Express.
- Saddleback closes for a day to shorten the haul rope on the new Rangeley quad.
- Poma will build an eight station urban gondola system in Madagascar with 274 cabins.
- Parent company Dream Unlimited says Arapahoe Basin is on track for its second best financial year ever despite opening four weeks late.
- Just two weeks to go until old lifts start coming down to make way for new ones.
- Squaw will experiment metering skiers at gates to avoid long lift lines at Silverado.
- The world’s largest urban gondola network might add four more lines.
- Big Squaw reopens tomorrow, two weeks after this deropement.
- A gondola is no longer a core component of the Oakland Athletics’ planned new stadium.
- There’s talk of building a 7,000 vertical foot gondola on Mt. Kilimanjaro.
Instagram Tuesday: Lift Ops
Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
High Speed Quad Coming to 49 Degrees North
The largest ski resort in the United States without a detachable lift is taking the plunge. 49 Degrees North today announced Doppelmayr will build a base to summit high speed quad chair this summer replacing the Bonanza #1 double. This transformative project will bring Washington’s second largest ski area into the 21st century. “An undertaking of this magnitude has been years in the making and we are excited to finally be able to share this news,” said Rick Brown, Director of Skier and Rider Services. “We want to thank our guests for their continued support and enthusiasm throughout the years and look forward to continuing to provide truly memorable mountain experiences for all.”
The detachable quad will span 6,644 feet, making it the longest chairlift in Washington State. It will rise approximately 1,850 vertical feet to Chewelah Peak with a ride time of just six and a half minutes. The yet-to-be-named lift will be installed with 900 horsepower, making it one of the largest projects in the country this year.
49 North’s new lift is expected to be completed in advance of the 2021/22 season, at which time Montana’s Discovery will become the largest US ski area without a high speed lift.
News Roundup: Exceptional Ride
- Blue Mountain provides younger guests with a two minute introduction to how lifts work.
- Soldier Mountain’s major midseason repair is a success.
- Whaleback gets its summit lift operational for the season after replacing bullwheel bearings.
- A crowdfunding campaign seeks to purchase Big Tupper out of foreclosure.
- Drone video shows the damage to Eaglecrest’s Ptarmigan chair (now back open).
- Two class action lawsuits proceed regarding gondola incidents at Mont-Sainte-Anne last winter.
- The girl who fell from a Sugarloaf chairlift last week makes the network morning show rounds.
- Another video shows a perfect catch of a six year old who fell from a Crested Butte triple chair.
- A boy is also uninjured after landing in a net at Diamond Peak.
- Utah legislators weigh funding a Little Cottonwood Canyon gondola amid a long list of wish list projects.
- Speaking of LCC, proponent Chris McCandless joins the Ski Utah podcast to talk gondolas.
- North America’s largest city looks to build a fourth urban gondola line in 2022.
- Bousquet Mountain debuts the Yellow triple following a delay due to six towers needing to be moved.
- Doppelmayr prepares to ship 80 containers worth of lift components from Austria to the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
- Italy’s ski reopening is postponed just hours before lifts were set to spin.
- In Wisconsin, a T-Bar ski area opens for the first time in 25 years.
- Aspen Skiing Company puts the Ajax Pandora’s expansion back on the front burner.
- The first riders ascend Mission Ridge on the Wenatchee Express.
- Developers at Moosehead Lake look for up to $135 million in financing.
- For the second time this winter, the Purgatory Express is down due to technical problems.
- Two more resorts get set to join the Indy Pass next week.
- The Forest Service seeks public comments on Arapahoe Basin’s proposal to replace Lenawee with a detachable quad or six pack in 2022.
- Snow Valley blogs about its lift history and claims the world’s fastest fixed grip quad.
- Magic Mountain provides the below update on progress towards opening a third chairlift.
On the Black Quad lift front, there always seems to be something. And, the engineering firm who designed the lift has come back with quite a few changes that need to be implemented by Pfister Mountain Services, including changing out some sheave assembly wheel combinations at a few towers and a major overhaul of tower 13 cross arm and uphill sheave assembly. None of this is a quick fix at this point in our construction phase and comes as unwelcome news. And, of course, tower 13 is in a very difficult spot to get to, especially for what equipment will be needed to execute the cross arm changes. No timetable or budget as been provided as of yet. We will continue to keep you posted as news warrants. Certainly frustrating after all this time as we’d like to see our money put to good use for you. All I can say is that the Quad will be a part of our future here at Magic so we can expand uphill capacity and lift redundancy as we grow.
Instagram Tuesday: First Light
Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
Chair Pileup Shutters Big Squaw
Multiple chairs slipped this afternoon at Maine’s Big Squaw Mountain, necessitating a rope evacuation of the Donaher triple. Pictures show at least three groups of chairs spaced at abnormal intervals on the light side of the lift. Sam Shirley was on the triple chair at the time and provided me with the below account and pictures.
“I was riding the triple at Big Squaw around 1:00 when I noticed chairs coming down which had slid into each other. About two minutes later, the lift stopped. We were told that there was a partial derailment on the downhill side near the summit (likely tower 9 or 10). I’m not sure what caused the chairs to slide into each other or why the lift didn’t stop immediately. Maybe they were catching in something or hitting a tower. Everyone was evacuated by rope within an hour and the staff did a great job. They had three different teams evacuating people. We were given vouchers to use later in the season.”
Sam Shirley
Donaher is a 1986 Borvig triple rising 587 vertical feet. An organization called Friends of Squaw Mountain operates the lift on a nonprofit basis. Back in 2004, another chair-slipping incident caused multiple injuries on the Thompson double. In that case, one of the chairs fell to the ground rather than remaining on the rope. The Stadeli-built lift never reopened but a Louisiana-based investor recently joined with a Maine developer in hopes of revitalizing the mountain with new lifts, a hotel and summer activities.
Thankfully there were no injuries reported today. It was only the mountain’s fourth day operating this season due to snow conditions and the lift opened later than normal because of cold temperatures. Big Squaw will remain closed at least through the holiday weekend.
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