- Austria’s Saalbach, Zell am See-Kaprun, Mayrhofen, Hintertux and Silvretta Montafon join the Epic Pass as partner resorts, bringing Epic to nine European destinations.
- Poma releases its 2024 Reference Book highlighting projects around the world.
- Eaglecrest may not meet a 2028 deadline to complete its used pulse gondola.
- America’s only summer only ski area will open this year for the first time in three.
- Whaleback meets a $250,000 fundraising goal for lift repairs.
- Opposition organizes against proposed Grand Targhee expansion.
- Bluewood, Washington to sell chairs if its new lift project is on track by September 1st.
- Hawaii’s first gondola is proposed on the North Shore of Oahu.
- A gondola is floated for Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
- Also Anaheim, California.
- Marmot Basin’s visitation drops 30 percent due to last year’s fire in Jasper.
- Silver Mountain delays summer opening due to gondola repairs.
- Timberline Helicopters, the company that installs the majority of lift towers in the West, breaks ground on a $13 million expansion in North Idaho.
- The nonprofit organization that’s been trying to revive Cuchara, Colorado inks a 40 year operating lease for the mountain.
- Vail Mountain intends to begin work on the lift projects I wrote about last week next summer, subject to Forest Service approval.
- President Trump proposes a 50 percent tariff on imports from the European Union starting June 1st.
Beartooth Basin
News Roundup: 750
- Leitner plans to offer the ConnX multi-model gondola system from 2025 after passing tests in Hungary.
- A progress report on the first Doppelmayr TRI-Line in Switzerland.
- Also on the first MND Orizon detachable in France.
- MND inaugurates a new production facility to support the Orizon line.
Skytrac celebrates its new facility in Tooele, Utah.
Bartholet releases its 2024 reference book. - Alta clarifies it supports a Little Cottonwood gondola.
- White Pass adds chairs to boost capacity on the Great White Express.
- A viral video shows a lift being jostled by a small tornado.
- Homewood now plans to build its already-delivered D-Line gondola in 2025 and upgrade Ellis in 2030.
- Burke Mountain delays summer opening to mid-July due to a mechanical issue with the Sherburne Express.
- Marmot Basin to sell chairs from the Knob double.
- Jackson Hole to auction Sublette chairs.
- Beartooth Basin is for sale.
- I visited my 750th ski area this week, marking the completion the Canada Lift Database.
News Roundup: Winter Park Learning Center
- The proposed Bridal Veil Mountain Resort in British Columbia signs a letter of intent for a Bartholet Ropetaxi gondola system.
- Another proposed BC ski resort project changes hands, must begin construction soon or face losing environmental approval.
- Community members look toward reopening lost Big Tupper, New York.
- MND’s majority shareholder seeks to take the company private.
- Construction of MND’s prototype Orizon detachable moves along in France.
- Highlander Lift Services and Wasatch Peaks Ranch settle a lawsuit in which both parties sought close to $1 million in damages over a difficult and late lift install.
- Ski Sundown will auction retired chairs.
- Whistler Blackcomb to sell Jersey Cream chairs for $600.
- A deep dive into private equity’s dominance in unincorporated Big Sky, Montana.
- Deer Valley’s proposed Lift 7 bubble remains in limbo.
- Alta prefers metered traffic lights over a gondola in Little Cottonwood Canyon.
- A Sun Valley property owner sues Sun Valley Resort over noise and visual impacts of the new Flying Squirrel lift, seeks its removal.
- Mountain Capital Partners acquires La Parva, Chile, its 12th ski resort.
- Mt. Ashland’s top lift replacement priorities are Ariel followed by Windsor.
- Mt. Ashland will also leave the Indy Pass.
- The Forest Service met today with objectors to Monarch Mountain’s proposed No Name expansion in hopes of resolution.
- Berkshire East to remove the Mountain Top triple.
- Beartooth Basin Summer Ski Area won’t open this year due to low snow.
- Winter Park seeks environmental approval to replace Gemini with a 10 seat gondola, upgrade Endeavour and Discovery to quads, remove Looking Glass and install the Copper Creek South six pack as proposed in the 2022 master plan.
News Roundup: Chances for Chairs
- Sipapu is threatened by New Mexico’s largest-ever wildfire.
- Other New Mexico ski areas postpone summer operations due to National Forest closures.
- Blue Mountain, Pennsylvania has 247 double chairs for sale.
- Ditto for Cascade Mountain, Wisconsin.
- Steamboat will auction chairs from Christie III along with retired gondola cabins next week.
- Heavenly’s rescheduled North Bowl chair sale will take place June 3-4.
- Aspen Snowmass forges the Silver Queen Gondola’s old haul rope into anniversary tokens.
- Snowbird provides a tram modernization project update.
- Park City won’t issue a building permit for Park City Mountain’s new lifts until at least June 8th, when an appeal will be heard. Vail Resorts tells me it still intends to complete the projects ahead of the 2022-23 season.
- Stowe also remains committed to replacing the Mountain triple this summer despite approval still pending.
- The Caribbean island of Dominica plans to build one of the world’s longest gondolas from a cruise port to a mountain lake.
- Tenney Mountain’s new owner plans to reopen next season.
- Beartooth Basin won’t open this year due to low snow.
- Kimberley and Leitner-Poma work to get the Northstar Express back operational 5 months after being idled by arson.
- The Sierra-at-Tahoe rebuild may include new lifts.
- New York’s Cockaigne won’t operate this summer and is listed for sale.
- Big Sky and Garaventa begin building Lone Peak Tram 2.0.
- Silver Mountain Lift Maintenance rescues a lost goat and gives him a gondola ride.
- Here come the terminals for Palisades Tahoe’s base to base gondola.
News Roundup: Graduation Season
- A member group officially owns the Hermitage Club property and will consult with leaders at Berkshire East and Catamount to get back up and running.
- Publicly-owned Gunstock Mountain Resort lost 9 percent of expected skier visits due to the pandemic but still turned a profit this season.
- Another publicly-owned ski area, Eaglecrest, has been placed near the top of the list for municipal budget cuts.
- Disney Parks Monopoly now includes the Disney Skyliner.
- CEO Rob Katz tells the Vail Resorts COVID story in a three part podcast.
- Two new gondolas at Icy Strait Point are really coming along.
- Timberline Lodge reopens for skiing and snowboarding today.
- Mt. Bachelor plans to operate starting Saturday with two lifts for season pass holders only.
- Beartooth Basin will open for skiing May 30th.
- Urban gondolas in Bolivia’s capital will only carry no more than four passengers per cabin upon reopening.
- Cranmore’s Skimobile Express will host a unique high school graduation ceremony in June, with graduates receiving their diplomas individually at the top of the lift.
- Same goes for Telluride High School and the Mountain Village Gondola.
- Work resumes on Sun Peaks’ new quad chair but the old Crystal triple will remain in place as long as possible in case stay-at-home orders return.
- At Arapahoe Basin, Molly Hogan is no more but Pallavicini will remain for a few more weeks. Chairs are being sold for $2,550 apiece.
- Doppelmayr releases its 2020 yearbook.
News Roundup: Ten
- Garaventa inks a $45 million deal for a 4x funifor, 1x aerial tramway megaproject in Switzerland.
- Beartooth Basin attempts to crowdfund this spring’s operation, including $35,000 for a required gearbox replacement on Poma 1.
- An ugly snowmobile-chairlift crash is caught on tape at Sunshine Village.
- The City of Steamboat will overhaul the Howelsen Hill Poma this summer and plans to replace Barrows around 2021.
- The Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco and associated aerial tram may reopen as early as June.
- Disney Skyliner’s nearly 300 ten passenger cabins will come in ten different colors with 22 unique character wraps.
- The Indy Pass is still adding mountains.
- With Timberline Resort’s owners unable to find an attorney, a judge postpones a state receivership hearing until May 28th.
- Leitner will show off updated six passenger chair and Diamond gondola designs at Interalpin.
- Local businesses leaders are pushing for a high capacity 3S on Burnaby Mountain.
- Steamboat plans to sell its now retired gondola cabins to other ski resorts around the world for parts.
- The so-called Balsams bill passes the New Hampshire Senate and is expected to be signed by the governor.
News Roundup: Wyoming
- The Province that owns Atlantic Canada’s largest ski resort grows tired of losing money and looks for a private operator for Marble Mountain.
- Doppelmayr will build the largest vertical six-pack in the world this year at Ischgl, Austria with over 3,000 feet of elevation gain in a single section.
- Boyne Resorts President and CEO Stephen Kircher says a recent bond sale and tax cuts should yield increased capital investment at his resorts over the next five years. Boyne doesn’t plan to buy new mountains any time soon, however.
- Fire update: Purgatory reopens summer operations, Arizona Snowbowl is still closed while Taos, Red River, Sipapu, Ski Santa Fe and Sandia Peak are under partial closures due to extreme fire danger.
- Antelope Butte, Wyoming has raised the $360,000 it needs to complete lift work and reopen next winter.
- Beartooth Basin ends its summer season early due to problems with the upper platter lift.
- Alterra CEO Rusty Gregory says of committing $555 million to mountain improvements: “We went to each resort and said, ‘Tell us, as resort operators, what will make the biggest positive impact on the guest experience.’ They had long lists.”
- Leitner is pulling ropes at 12,740′ for the highest-ever 3S gondola.
- Big Sky posts sweet photos from the Austrian factory where America’s first eight passenger chairlift and D-Line stations are being prepared for shipment. Chairs will have some unique designs on the back too.
- The Portland Aerial Tram returns to service 5:30 am Monday, three weeks early, thanks to crews slipping track ropes much faster than expected.
News Roundup: Possible
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJMNs1Es3O0
- Vail Resorts net income rises 41.5% over last year’s third quarter with Epic season pass sales up 12 percent in units and 19 percent in dollars through May 29th.
- The new Lift One will likely be put to Aspen voters in a winter 2019 special election rather than the November general election.
- The Western Idaho State Fair plans to debut a chairlift for the first time in August – apparently a used Riblet of unknown origin.
- An urban gondola proposal in Ogden, Utah is back.
- A great writeup about Heron’s early days answers why Aspen Skiing Company switched from Colorado’s homegrown lift company to Riblet.
- Now’s your chance to enter to win one of Arapahoe Basin’s retired Norway chairs.
- Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows and the Sierra Club sign an agreement for the resort to abandon California Express Alternative 2 in exchange for the group withholding legal action against alternatives 3 and 4.
- The Seattle suburb of Kirkland looks to a possible aerial lift to connect its city center with an upcoming bus rapid transit station.
- Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz and Whistler Blackcomb COO Pete Sonntag do a wide ranging interview with the local newspaper after a challenging year and a half.
- Tower 6 of Howelsen Hill’s chairlift is on the move for at least the third time as city leaders grapple with whether to fix it.
- Beartooth Basin, the only summer ski resort in the United States, opens for the season as everyone else closes. An experiment is also underway to run the lifts with biodiesel.
- The Olympic Regional Development Authority proposes a new chairlift for its Lake Placid ski jumping venue.
- Another Borvig surface lift bites the dust in favor of carpets.
- Berkshire Bank says the Hermitage Club no longer has the right to restructure and argues receivership should proceed. One Hermitage property is scheduled to be auctioned on June 25th.
- A decision not to create an opportunity zone in Rangeley, Maine becomes yet another reason Saddleback is going nowhere fast.
- The man accused of lying about spending a night on a Gore Mountain chairlift says he is innocent and may sue the State of New York.
Instagram Tuesday: Crafted
Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
News Roundup: Shuffle
- Bridger Bowl is sending Virginia City up to Teton Pass.
- Oakland Zoo’s California Trail gondola
opened Mondaywill open soon. - China Peak will replace Chair 2 with a Yan quad from Steamboat this summer.
- The Subway in the Sky celebrates three years.
- Alyeska is removing its oldest, longest and tallest lift with no replacement immediately planned.
- Eldora’s new six-place has a name: Eldo Express.
- Cranmore is moving the bottom terminal of the South Quad to make room for a real estate project.
- Intrawest shareholder sues to stop Aspen Skiing Co. and KSL purchase.
- Vail-Stowe deal closes.
- Vail Resorts says in its third quarter results that Epic Pass sales are up 10 percent over last year. The company typically announces new capital projects just after Epic Pass sales conclude in late November.
- The Indiana State Fair is getting a chairlift.
- Beartooth Basin’s two platters open for summer turns for the first time since 2014.
- Urban gondolas are changing the world.
- Leitner Ropeways finishes its newest urban gondola in Mexico.
Lift Blog 