- Hemlock Mountain, BC re-brands as Sasquatch Mountain and eyes a high-speed quad to replace Skyline.
- Vail Resorts’ fiscal 2017 net income rose 40.6 percent and skier visits 20.1 percent over 2016 with Epic Pass pass sales trending 17 percent higher for 2017-18.
- Och-Ziff sells Mountain High back to previous ownership group.
- Frost Fire, ND won’t open this winter, citing the “dire” condition of its triple chairlift. The nonprofit mountain estimates $1.35 million is needed to buy a replacement. The statement makes no mention of the mountain’s other lift, a double chair with Poma components.
- Sugarloaf’s five year plan would turn the SuperQuad into a SuperSix in 2019, move the CTEC Stealth to Timberline and add a T-Bar to Brackett Basin in 2021.
- Kevin Mastin paints a new trail map for Whiteface.
- Belleayre’s gondola will feature a new rack design for snowboards and skis of different sizes.
- Steamboat Resort won’t operate Howelsen Hill.
- Resorts grapple with whether service dogs should ride chairlifts.
- Allen Peak Tram’s new tower is in at Snowbasin.
- Doppelmayr’s latest Wir magazine features Oakland’s new gondola and more.
Belleayre
News Roundup: Selloff
- Owing $3.8 million to creditors, Deer Mountain, SD to be sold to the highest bidder in a sheriff’s sale today. The mountain has two Riblet chairlifts.
- Curbed counts down 11 gondolas changing the way people move through cities.
- Steamboat sells off triple chairs from Four Points in 28 minutes (the lift got new Doppelmayr ones in 2012.)
- Taos offloads 200 chairs from lifts 5 and 6 for $200 each with proceeds going to hurricane relief. As of this writing, 37 remain.
- Leitner Ropeways’ new gondola at the world’s largest hotel transported 3.5 million passengers in its first eight months.
- Aspen Mountain installs Bluetooth speakers in Silver Queen Gondola cabins.
- China Peak completes its first quad chair, the old Elkhead from Steamboat.
- The Burnaby Mountain Gondola is back on the table.
- Leitner-Poma of America inks contract to build a US$7.1 million high-speed quad at Falls Creek in Australia.
- Vail Resorts launches interactive website with lift downtime and wait time data for last season at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Park City.
- Belleayre’s gondola cabins arrive from across the pond. Unfortunately, the name of the lift is spelled wrong on all of them.
- Ski Magazine predicts the KSL-Aspen duo will benefit skiers with a second Epic-style season pass and major resort upgrades.
- Skytrac and Timberline Helicopters fly towers for the new East Rim lift at Whitefish. Thanks Buzz D. for these cool photos.
News Roundup: Oops
- Belleayre’s new gondola may not have much vertical but will be more than 6,700 feet long.
- New photo tours of the upcoming Orange and White lines in La Paz show how gondolas can be adapted to the urban landscape with innovative station designs.
- Urban gondolas were profiled prominently in Sunday’s New York Times.
- Skytrac will finish the Stagecoach lift at Big Sky this fall, a project which Moonlight Basin began in 2008. In addition, Challenger and the Tram are getting new haul ropes and Powder Seeker a chair storage facility. Thanks William Bryan for the photos.
- At Spanish Peaks, the Flatiron lift will be next to go in.
- BMF drops one of the Brest Cable Car’s cabins from a crane while performing annual maintenance. One-cabin operation will continue while Gangloff builds a new one over the next six to nine months.
- Taos releases renderings of its re-imagined learning center featuring new Leitner-Poma and Skytrac lifts.
- Thank you Michael Weise for these sweet photos of Eldora’s six-pack progress:
Instagram Tuesday: Sky
Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
News Roundup: Playing Field
- 14-cabin 3S proposed to cross Lake Zurich in Switzerland.
- The second tallest building west of the Mississippi will include an aerial tram-like system built by Leitner-Poma.
- BMF will build its first gondola in France and seventh gondola overall this summer near Alp d’Huez.
- Mi Teleférico breaks ground today for its 13th and 14th gondolas. The four station, 159 cabin Sky Blue line will join the Red, Yellow, Green and Blue lines already operating and the Orange, White and Purple lines under construction.
- North Korea is building a second ski resort.
- Liberty Mountain delays J-Bar replacement project, saying in a statement, “We had hoped to put the triple chair in this summer but unfortunately it will not be happening…We are still planning on making this change in the future.” Liberty acquired one of Ascutney’s CTEC triples in 2013.
- Aspen Mountain turns back toward a longer and lower 1A detachable.
- As state-owned Belleayre becomes the smallest North American ski resort ever to build a gondola, New York Ski Blog calls for low-interest infrastructure financing for 45 privately-owned mountains in the Empire State.
- The Jay Peak Tram is back with many upgraded components after a spring full of hard work. Interestingly, new controls are from Doppelmayr rather than Frey.
- Black Hawk flies old Montezuma towers off Dercum Mountain at Keystone.
- Marshall Mountain, MT can be yours for $2.95 million, including a 1972 Thiokol triple and an uninstalled 1969 Hall double from Grand Targhee.
- Snow King gondola plan advances.
- No visible work at Saddleback yet.
- Nonprofit contracts SE Group to study the feasibility of reopening an alpine ski area on the site of the former Colby College ski area in Maine. Here’s how it looked in 2012:
News Roundup: New York
- Colorado posts its second best season with nearly 12 million skier days. Vermont was up 21 percent year-over-year and New Hampshire went +30 percent.
- Valemount opening pushes back to 2019-2020.
- Rumors swirl of possible lift surveys at Saddleback.
- Doppelmayr Cable Car and Transport for London extend operations & maintenance contract for the Emirates Air Line for another five years.
- The government of Venezuela owes Garaventa $14.5 million!
- Belleayre’s Catskill Thunder Gondola will be a Doppelmayr opening this December.
- Partek’s only 2017 project is underway at Mt. Peter.
- Peak Resorts plans to spend $9 million to expand Hunter Mountain and add a new high-speed chairlift in 2018.
- Arapahoe Basin and Sugarloaf prove even relatively small lift projects make for interesting off-season reading.
- Vermont’s defunct Maple Valley is for sale along with three Hall lifts for $950,000.
- Val Gardena, Italy is the launch customer for Sigma’s innovative Symphony 10 gondola cabin and the new Leitner station.
- Could North Korea’s ski resort with counterfeit and relocated Doppelmayr lifts host Olympic skiing?
- Doppelmayr removes Wildcat at Snowbasin to make way for Utah’s first six-pack outside of Park City. Thanks @ozskier for the photos!
News Roundup: A Million
- Foundation work is starting for Disney gondolas.
- Partek will build a fixed-grip quad at Mt. Peter, NY this summer.
- East River Skyway proposal expanded to five phases with more possible stations.
- Belleayre bid documents suggest December 2017 completion and a name for gondola: Catskill Thunder. Funding was approved Monday though I’m told a manufacturer has not yet been awarded the contract.
- NY State Fair gondola is also funded, separate from a chairlift to be built there by SkyTrans Manufacturing this summer.
- Lee Canyon seeks approval to build two new quad chairs in new places.
- Work to resume on Poma gondola in Zacatecas, Mexico with commissioning scheduled for September.
- Gould Academy may build a T-Bar up Monday Mourning at Sunday River.
- Intrawest stock hits record high amid acquisition rumblings.
- A Yan detachable still operates with original grips in Spain.
- Quebec announces $70 million in subsidies to support infrastructure investments at ski resorts in the province, including lift upgrades.
- SEC filing shows exactly how much CNL Lifestyle Properties paid for each of the 16 ski resorts it owns. The most valuable was Northstar at $80.1 million with Loon Mountain selling for just $15.5 million. The Gatlinburg Sky Lift operation went for a whopping $19.9 million!
- Bridger Bowl to sell chairs from Virginia City if buyer falls through.
- Interalpin, the every-other-year mountain technology nerd fest is April 26-28.
- If rent payments to the federal government are any indication, Colorado is booming.
- Flying demo tent gets hung up on Stowe gondola.
- Staff at Barcelona’s urban gondola will strike.
- In addition to completing the Green Lift, Magic Mountain will install a new motor and drive for the Black Lift and return capacity to three per chair.
- Lift Blog reaches 1,000 Instagram followers, 700 Facebook fans and 1,000,000 page views. Thank you to everyone who has supported me with this project over the last two years.
News Roundup: Opponents
- Jay Peak and Garaventa begin major tram overhaul.
- More positive press for Powder Seeker at Big Sky.
- There’s a new gondola idea for Mt. Benson in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, BC.
- Sky Lift update points to late-April reopening.
- Austin Wire won’t move forward.
- Stratton might replace the Snow Bowl quad.
- Critics file complaint against Belleayre expansion and gondola.
- Ski Blandford faces worsening financial situation with three aging Hall doubles.
- Squirrel kills power to three lifts at Eaglecrest.
- Unofficial Networks profiles outrageous gondolas.
- British Columbia approves Valemount Glacier with opening targeted for Christmas 2018.
- Town of Breckenridge study concludes gondola could cost $800-1000 an hour to operate with stations costing $2 million to build.
- Cabin to tour Staten Island in hopes of drumming up support for gondola.
- Bridger Bowl celebrates the end of an era with a center pole chair photo contest.
- Mt. Spokane expansion and new chairlift approved yet again.
- LST Ropeways’ first detachable opens in La Plagne.
- Fourteen years since construction started, Magic Mountain may finally finish Green lift.
News Roundup: Colorado
- An in-depth look at the history of urban gondolas and what comes next.
- Buttermilk will open with full skier services and groomed runs April 8-9 but with no lifts.
- Hesperus reopens following two week closure to address deferred lift maintenance.
- Steamboat Ski & Resort Corporation proposes operating Howelsen Hill.
- Giants Ridge puts a Riblet up for sale in advance of new lift construction. Another will be scrapped. Buttercup at Mt. Hood Meadows is also for sale.
- Vail Resorts revenue up 27.5% year-over-year; no new lifts for Whistler-Blackcomb in 2017.
- New Stagecoach website says two Doppelmayr chairlifts now on track to open in late 2018.
- PCL Construction Services files notice of commencement for utility relocation and prep at six Walt Disney World sites widely believed to be gondola station locations with possible opening in 2019.
- Belleayre gondola likely a go for this summer.
- Wolf Ridge, NC closes for the season following lightning damage to 1988 Doppelmayr quad. The place has an interesting past; a 2006 Doppelmayr CTEC quad and 1980 Borvig were both abandoned after a 2014 fire and only two lifts remain.
- Mexico’s latest gondola gets cabins.
- Poma moving to new headquarters in France.
- Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest approves Alta Supreme and Snowbasin Strawberry/Wildcat high speed quads.
- Moose charges lifties and guests at Alyeska, gets killed.
- Mi Teleférico’s blue line broke its own record last weekend carrying 64,275 passengers over two days.
- First look at a burned-out Christchurch Adventure Park shows some quad chairs were saved, haul rope was not.
- Another urban 3S idea pops up in metro Vancouver.
- Latest Aspen Mountain Lift 1A replacement plan to go before the City Council this month.
- Taos will apparently build three new lifts over the next two years, including a pulse gondola and high speed quad.
Belleayre to Get Base-to-Summit Gondola
Just weeks after unveiling plans for two new chairlifts and a gondola for Whiteface Mountain and the state fairgrounds, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo today announced $8 million in improvements at Belleayre Mountain, including a new high-speed gondola.
“Belleayre Mountain is one of the crown jewels of the Catskills and a major driver of the region’s tourism economy,” Governor Cuomo said today. “With this investment, we are supporting vital upgrades at this mountain to ensure it remains an unparalleled year-round recreation destination and continues to leverage economic growth for the entire region for generations to come.”
The new 8-passenger lift will feature 65 cabins, a six-minute ride time and vertical rise of 1,300 feet. A manufacturer and timeline were not specified but the cost will be approximately $5 million, which sounds like a screaming deal. The last new lift built at Belleayre was the Superchief Express, a 2006 Doppelmayr CTEC. All five of Belleayre’s current chairlifts will likely remain after installation of the gondola in 2017 or 2018.
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