- Woods Valley takes delivery of a used CTEC quad, likely the former Kenny’s Parkway.
- West Mountain considers adding a lift as part of a real estate play.
- Big Snow is a bright spot at the otherwise struggling American Dream mall.
- The Ever Vail project and related gondola plans are dead.
- Mt. Spokane seeks state funding to replace Chair 1 and Chair 2, one of which could be done this summer.
- Mark Brownlie is named Chief Operating Officer of Alterra’s resort portfolio.
- MND wins a $21 million contract to build lifts at a new ski resort in Russia.
- Starting next year, most Big Sky Resort lift tickets, season passes, Ikon and Mountain Collective passes will no longer include access to the Lone Peak Tram.
- Cape Smokey provides an update on Canada’s only new gondola this year.
- Schweitzer introduces a new logo and brand identity.
- Despite losing a significant portion of the season, another Ontario ski area still plans to complete a new chairlift for next season.
- Doppelmayr France is selected to build and maintain a five station urban gondola in Paris.
- Doppelmayr also will build the first urban gondolas in Guatemala.
- Retired cabins from Killington’s K-1 Gondola fan out across the country as dining venues.
- Under new ownership, Sleeping Giant increases visits by 71 percent.
- Vermont skier visits decline 40 percent.
- New Mexico also reports a significant drop in visitation.
- A company called Trident tried to buy Brundage Mountain last year with the intention of creating a much larger resort.
- Here’s a preview of Snow King’s gondola cabins.
- Leitner-Poma seeks employees to help build the new high speed quad at Breckenridge.
- PyxisAI announces a successful beta test of technology designed to alert lift operators when slows or stops might be needed.
- Whitefish Mountain Resort smashes its previous visit record by more than 20 percent.
Big Snow American Dream
News Roundup: October Turns
- Skiing is open this weekend in Alberta, Colorado, Minnesota, New Jersey Ontario and Wisconsin!
- Garibaldi at Squamish releases new renderings of what could be a $3.5 billion project.
- Searchmont holds off on making snow, offering lodging or selling passes and will only install one of the two Skytrac lifts it ordered due to Coronavirus.
- In a rare interview, John Cumming tells the story of Powdr.
- Big Snow and American Dream post promising attendance numbers after reopening.
- The latest capacity management video from SAM and Snow Operating focuses on lift capacity math in the Covid era.
- With two operating and five more under construction, Mexico’s capital region considers building even more urban gondolas.
- The gondola network in Puerto Vallarta appears complete but surrounding theme parks and hotels have a long way to go.
- Skeetawk has a trail map and will open for the very first time December 5th.
- Only one of Shanty Creek Resorts’ two Michigan ski areas will open this winter.
- Following the death of its owner, Granite Gorge does not plan to operate this year.
- Frustrated at lack of investment, local business owners look into buying Mont-Sainte-Anne from Resorts of the Canadian Rockies.
- A three gondola system connecting various points in Park City would cost an estimated $64 million to build with $3.5 million in annual operating costs.
- The Freedom Pass comes back but with fewer participating resorts than in years past.
- With revenue down eight figures, the Palm Springs Tramway takes out a $15 million loan.
- French President Emmanuel Macron orders the country’s ski resorts closed until at least December 1st due to rising coronavirus cases.
- Of 6,521 comments the Utah Department of Transportation received on Little Cottonwood Canyon options, 78 percent were pro-gondola.
- Granby Ranch will reopen under new management December 11th with more than $1 million invested in lift maintenance and snowmaking.
- Soldier Mountain gives another fire recovery update.
- Technical Safety BC releases an incident report and technical analysis from the latest Sea to Sky Gondola incident (both are heavily redacted so as not to impede the ongoing criminal investigation.)
- Camelback’s new Sunbowl Quad nears completion.
News Roundup: Endless Winter
- Construction will begin early next year on a new point of interest chairlift in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
- Amazon files a patent for a skier-pulling drone.
- Mission Ridge provides another fantastic construction update.
- 2020-21 is the final season the largest ski resort in California will be known by the name Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows.
- The Forest Service seeks public comments on eight lift projects and more included in the Grand Targhee master plan.
- Big Snow American Dream reopens Tuesday after nearly six months closed. The snow never melted!
- Utah Olympic Park expects to add a fourth chairlift and new terrain next summer.
- After years focusing on snowmaking, Telluride’s owner considers lift upgrades.
- Ski Santa Fe fires up snow guns to help protect lifts from wildfire.
- Glenwood Caverns reopens today following a 16 day fire closure.
- Riders get stuck on the Sandia Peak Tramway for hours.
- Vermont may provide direct payments to ski resorts.
- Harry’s Dream at Beaver Mountain gets a new Skytrac return terminal.
- Vail Resorts won’t sell day tickets early season and will require passholders to make reservations at all 34 of its North American mountains for 2020-21.
- The Denver Post catches up with Colorado mountain leaders to talk winter plans.
- The Lower T-Bar at Pass Powderkeg, AB is being extended.
- Doppelmayr begins testing its D-Line gondola to the beach in Mexico.
- The City of Los Angeles releases four gondola alignment alternatives it’s studying for Griffith Park and the Hollywood sign.
News Roundup: Transitions
- Both Mountain Capital Partners and the owners of Silverton Mountain are interested in turning Colorado’s Kendall Mountain into larger resort with more lifts.
- Ariel Quiros pleads guilty to three felonies related to his ownership of Burke Mountain and Jay Peak.
- Separately, an employee is accused of embezzling more than $125,000 from Jay.
- Sunlight pauses financial planning for the new East Ridge lift, which remains under Forest Service review.
- Another lost ski area gets on the road to reopening: Paul Bunyan near Lakewood, Wisconsin.
- There’s more trouble at Spirit Mountain as two top executives resign.
- Arctic Valley secures a new 20 year lease to operate in the mountains above Anchorage.
- The home of Big Snow remains in big financial trouble.
- One year since the Sea to Sky Gondola haul rope was brazenly cut, the culprit(s) still have not been caught.
- Aspen Skiing Company makes tough cuts to benefits and compensation for year round employees.
- It turns out Soldier Mountain sold to a new owner just one day before last week’s fire.
- You’ve heard of a chair sale but how about a T sale?
- Titans of industry Win Smith and Bill Jensen end their runs atop Sugarbush and Telluride, respectively.
- Glenwood Caverns temporarily closes to conduct fire mitigation.
News Roundup: Sunshine
- The Summit at Snoqualmie shuts Hidden Valley for the season due to an “unusual mechanical problem.”
- Sugarloaf closes King Pine due to a sheave assembly issue.
- Dave Brownlie, former head of Whistler Blackcomb and current Revelstoke President, weighs in on the state of the British Columbia ski industry and his company’s plans for Grouse Mountain.
- The Colorado Sun interviews three Colorado resort pioneers about industry trends and challenges.
- As the gondola at Mont-Sainte-Anne reopens, the resort says an external power issue caused last month’s sudden stop. A lawsuit has been filed and the power company denies responsibility.
- Just the Leitner portion of Mexico City’s new urban gondola network will feature seven stations and 300 cabins.
- Experienced resort executives Andy and Jace Wirth may take over operations at Granby Ranch.
- Limited Ikon/Mountain Collective visits to Arapahoe Basin are 69 percent lower than unlimited Epic visits last year and the “experience is way up,” says Al Henceroth.
- Another informative podcast from Stuart Winchester features an executive from Mountain Creek and Big Snow talking about the next new lift and a possible Big Snow Miami.
- Smugglers’ Notch has no intentions of losing its independence or ditching its fleet of fixed grip double chairs.
- Whitefish will begin work in Hellroaring Basin this summer and move the current Hellroaring triple to a new alignment in 2021.
- Jay Peak expects multiple parties to submit offers in a second round of bidding this spring.
- The Epic Pass franchise keeps growing with added Northeast options and a new rewards program.
- Wyoming’s Sleeping Giant changes its mind on closing after this season, citing an outpouring of community support.
- Whaleback is closing early due to a lift problem.
- Gatlinburg, Tennessee already has five scenic lift rides but an outfit called Pigeon Forge Snow plans to build a sixth.
- A U.S. Department of Labor inspector finds 14 and 15 year old ski instructors riding chairlifts and lowering restraint bars constitutes “operating heavy machinery.”
- Tremblant will announce its next major investments on March 10th, a day we may hear from other Alterra resorts as well.
- Guests are responding well to a slate of recent improvements at Catamount.
- Cuchara is on track to reopen one of three remaining chairlifts next winter.
News Roundup: Experimental
- Cape Smokey in Nova Scotia plans to build a gondola beginning this spring to replace a disused quad.
- Here’s the latest from Saddleback.
- Australian bushfires destroy a ski resort which vows to rebuild.
- The Town of Jackson approves Snow King’s updated master plan, leaving just the Forest Service left to weigh in.
- Silver Mountain reopens three days after a fatal inbounds avalanche.
- More than 2,000 visitors a day are skiing and snowboarding Big Snow and Alterra is watching the experiment closely.
- An employee who lost his arm in a conveyor lift receives a $10 million settlement.
- Eleven years in, the Jackson Hole Aerial Tram gets a new haul rope.
- Sunridge completes a successful rope evacuation of the Parkview Quad on a cold night.
Indoor Skiing Comes to America with Big Snow
This was the first and hopefully last opening day ever for Big Snow American Dream, the only year-round, real snow ski area in the Americas. New Jersey is now one of the most accessible places to learn ski and snowboard, with two thirds of guests expected to be beginners. About a dozen similar snow parks operate in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
The mountain made of steel is one of what will be hundreds of tenants at American Dream, a $5 billion shopping and entertainment destination just five miles from midtown Manhattan. With Big Snow plus a Nickelodeon Universe theme park, Legoland Discovery Center and DreamWorks waterpark, American Dream hopes to buck the trend of malls in decline by focusing outside of retail.
Canadian developer Triple Five Group managed to finish a job which first broke ground in 2004. What was then known as Meadowlands Xanadu had its lifts installed in 2008, only to see zero snow and not a skier for 11 years. I’m told the big lift had only about 50 hours on it until a few weeks ago. After taking over the troubled project, Triple Five principal Don Ghermezian partnered with Snow Operating to bring the ski experience to life. Snow is the ski industry disruptor behind Mountain Creek Resort and the Terrain Based Learning program in use across the country. Before today’s first chair, Snow Operating President and CEO Joe Hession presented the Ghermezian family an Austrian bell like those seen at many Doppelmayr lift openings.
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