- Val Bialas, New York reopened today after nine years closed.
- The potential buyer for closed Sleeping Giant, Wyoming specializes in roadside attractions like the Royal Gorge gondola and may not reopen skiing.
- A woman is convicted of stealing nearly $5 million from Mighty Argo gondola investors.
- Glenwood Caverns, Colorado files for bankruptcy after a $120 million judgment resulting from a 2021 ride incident.
- The owner of land under parts of Park City’s Timberline and Iron Mountain Express files suit against Vail Resorts, alleging existing easements don’t allow lifts.
- Mt. Bohemia, Michigan has a land lease issue as well.
- A lawsuit proceeds against Bittersweet, Michigan from a volunteer ski patroller who fell 20 feet from a lift after attempting to load a toboggan.
- A skier dies at Welch Village, Minnesota after hitting lift tower.
- A 13 year old is critically injured in a tragic unloading entanglement at Vorlage, Quebec; the mountain remains closed until further notice.
- Bromont rope evacuates Versant du Midi.
- A guest falls from Copper Mountain’s American Flyer.
- A new master plan for Mt. Timothy, BC targets reactivation of the Mad Platter, replacement of the triple with a quad, relocation of the T-Bar and a new platter.
- SilverStar, BC renames the Powder Gulch Express to Putnam Express and Alpine Meadows to Attridge.
- British Columbia releases 268 pages of documents related to the hanger arm failure on Kicking Horse’s gondola last season. The Incident Investigation Report says an undetected crack likely developed over several seasons as a result of both manufacturing and operational factors.
- Cannon expects its tram replacement project to cost between $25 and 33 million.
- Loch Lomond, Ontario’s North chair goes down for maintenance.
Bromont
News Roundup: Too Expensive
- Bromont, Quebec joins the Mountain Collective, Arapahoe Basin will remain for 24-25.
- Steamboat’s Pony Express goes down, temporarily cutting off lift access to the new Mahogany Ridge Express as well.
- The main beginner chair goes down at Big Powderhorn.
- Arizona Snowbowl nears an agreement with tribes and land managers to resume development of the resort.
- New owners of Alyeska float a base area pulse gondola.
- Staff at Rabbit Hill, Alberta successfully catch a falling chairlift rider.
- Middlebury Snowbowl announces the Bailey Falls triple won’t operate this season due to “unprecedented challenges.”
- Powder Mountain will pause lift-served mountain biking this summer while it constructs four new chairlifts.
- Alta tests new, cushier chairs on Supreme to possibly alleviate the bumpiness of the bend.
- A day in the life of Beaver Creek Lift Maintenance.
- The beautiful new 3S between Switzerland and Italy proves unpopular at $250 per ride.
- A father who jumped from a Park City chair after his daughter fell from a lift sues Vail Resorts over their injuries.
- A number of British Columbia ski areas report a disastrous season so far.
- McCauley Mountain is set to acquire Gore Mountain’s outgoing Hudson triple.
- The Forest Service indicates it will approve Monarch Mountain’s proposed expansion into No Name Basin.
- Perfect North will hold a chair auction.
- The owner of the Chicago Cubs to acquire White Pine, Wyoming.
- Deer Valley is working with both major lift manufacturers on potential Expanded Excellence lifts.
- Big Sky plans to name the new Moonlight lift Madison 8, seeks wildlife photography for D-Line chair backs.
- Sunday River evacuates more than 200 riders from the Aurora Quad following a deropement yesterday.
- A 3S gondola proposal in Los Angeles notches another approval.
News Roundup: Viral Videos
- Sunshine Village seeks to replace Angel Express by 2024, manufacturer TBD.
- Bromont’s outgoing Versant des Épinettes quad will get a second life at Mont Rigaud.
- Mont-Sainte-Anne reopens without its gondola. The FIS postpones a February World Cup event there.
- Whitefish won’t operate Bad Rock this winter.
- A child falls from a lift at Whitetail.
- A Park City guest is charged with assault for a mid-ride fight on the Saddleback Express.
- A snowboarder falling down a T-Bar line sends four other riders to the hospital in Europe.
- Blue Mountain, Pennsylvania will open the Main Street Express tomorrow.
- Utah Olympic Park and Doppelmayr near the finish line on the West Peak expansion.
- Ditto for Leitner-Poma and Vail on the Sun Down Express.
- Chairs go on Sunnyside at Alta.
- Boyne Resorts looks looks to hire an internal Lift Construction Director.
- The proposed Los Angeles gondola scores a courtroom victory.
- The operator of the Goldbelt Tram agrees to fund $10 million of the Eaglecrest Gondola.
- Granite Peak celebrates expansion approval.
- Mountain Capital Partners acquires a majority stake in Valle Nevado, Chile.
- Silverton Mountain seeks approval for two more chairlifts (pages 63-67).
- Vail Resorts announces a big new lift for Perisher, Australia.
Bromont to Add Detachable Quad in 2023
The Government of Quebec will partner with Bromont to realize CAD$10.2 million in mountain improvements for the 2023-24 season. A new Doppelmayr detachable quad, snowmaking and lighting upgrades will all improve the experience on Mont Spruce. The new lift will replace a Poma Alpha quad relocated to Bromont in 2011.
The Express des Épinettes will become the third Doppelmayr detachable among Bromont’s eight chairlifts. The project is just one component of a CAD$101 million multi-year improvement initiative called Project Altitude.
News Roundup: Forecasting Demand
- Washington’s Mission Ridge buys Blacktail Mountain, Montana.
- Bousquet intends to replace the Blue chair with a quad in the next two to three years.
- A gondola is proposed to cross between Kansas and Missouri.
- Bromont adds loading conveyors to two fixed quads; Sun Peaks upgrades Crystal with one too.
- Rusty Gregory says Ikon Pass sales are growing at a faster rate than any previous selling season.
- Vail Resorts will limit ticket sales during holidays, introduce lift line wait time forecasts and devote extra staff to managing lift mazes.
- Catamount touts more than $15 million offseason upgrades including two new chairlifts.
- Whitefish Mountain Resort posts updated trail maps showing Chair 8’s new alignment.
- Next year’s new lift at Whitefish will be called the Snow Ghost Express.
- Justin Sibley becomes CEO of Powdr.
- Jackson Hole’s five year roadmap includes detachable replacements for Thunder and Sublette plus a potential a Lower Faces lift.
- Gallix, the Quebec ski area where lift was damaged by flooding, says repairs will cost over CA$2 million. The bottom station of the chairlift has been disassembled and a new rope ordered.
- Poma and the Government of Brazil reach an agreement to reactivate Rio’s longest urban gondola after 5 years.
- The Telluride Daily Planet explains the gondola evacuation process for one of the more complex systems in the country.
- Manning Park says the atmospheric river which caused flooding across southern British Columbia damaged its alpine ski area.
- Big Sky’s Swift Current will open Thursday with Swifty 6 packs of local beer to celebrate.
- Aspen Mountain is finally approved to add a lift in Pandora’s.
- Connecticut’s Woodbury Ski Area is sold with the new owner intending to reopen it.
News Roundup: Fire Sale
- A fallen tree forces the evacuation of a tramway in Italy.
- The Stresa-Mottarone cable car which crashed in May may be replaced by a gondola.
- Doppelmayr hosts a webinar all about urban mobility.
- Sugarloaf will update the public on the West Mountain expansion Monday.
- The latest Indy Pass additions are Marmot Basin, Montage Mountain, Snow Valley, CA and Titus Mountain.
- Big Sky posts sneak peak photos of premium chairs for Swift Current 6.
- Spirit Mountain lists the Double Jaw double for sale with an asking price of $1.
- Voting is open for the Rise Up Challenge; one of six lift mechanics will win $3,500 from Leitner-Poma of America and Ski Area Management.
- A Quebec appeals court judge writes in a dissenting opinion that a mountain biker left on a chairlift at Bromont should be held partially responsible because he did not carry a cell phone.
- TikTok drives record ridership on London’s Emirate Air Line.
- Caberfae Peaks plans to build a Doppelmayr triple in 2022 replacing Shelter.
- After lengthy repairs, the Purgatory Village Express is open.
- Crested Butte will auction chairs from Peachtree.
- Vail Resorts details plans to boost wages significantly across its resorts.
- Sunshine Village provides an update on it long range plan, including a second Goat’s Eye chairlift.
- The State of New Hampshire may seek federal funding to upgrade or replace the Cannon Mountain Tramway.
- Hear the story of how Rick Schmitz acquired three Wisconsin ski areas beginning at age 22.
News Roundup: Across Canada
- Skier visits at Vail Resorts are down 7.8 percent for the season through January 5th, attributed to slow starts at Whistler Blackcomb and Stevens Pass.
- Agassiz at Arizona Snowbowl was evacuated over MLK weekend and remains down.
- Visits and revenue continue to decline at the publicly-owned mountain in Newfoundland called Marble Mountain.
- It takes a ton of work to reopen lifts, particularly detachable ones, at Mt. Snow after an ice storm.
- By building a T-Bar instead of a chairlift, Ski Cooper was able to implement a major expansion this season for around $2 million.
- Mont St. Mathieu opens another $2 million T-Bar expansion, noting a chairlift would have cost more and moved skiers less quickly.
- The Snowpark expansion at Montana Snowbowl is a hit and LaValle is back open.
- Software problems lead to the closure of the new Morning Star Express at Bogus Basin (now back open.)
- BC’s Jumbo Glacier becomes an indigenous protected area, ending plans for a new ski resort there.
- Vail Resorts will pay out $200 bonuses to employees who refer new applicants to become lift operators at 14 resorts.
- The State of Illinois shuts down a ski resort, alleging required inspections weren’t completed prior to opening. In a statement, Snowstar apologizes to season passholders and says an inspector failed to show up. At least one lift will reopen today.
- Parks Canada axes plans for a Mt. Norquay gondola.
- Josh Elliott, the teen who jumped after becoming stranded on a Sugar Mountain chairlift in 2016, tells his harrowing story on the Outside podcast.
- Mt. Jefferson, Maine won’t open this season.
- New York State plans to spend $147 million to improve its ski areas.
- Bromont ropes down more than 200 people from the Express du Village, some after being stuck four and a half hours.
- Edmonton releases the preliminary economic and technical assessment for the Prairie Sky urban gondola.
- Siemens highlights a design software partnership with Doppelmayr.
News Roundup: Powerhouse
- The West Virginia Timberline may be sold out of bankruptcy to an LLC offering $2.5 million.
- A Quebec resort is ordered to pay out six figures after leaving a guest stranded on a lift.
- Steamboat’s new gondola haul rope is spliced.
- Doppelmayr becomes a billion dollar company by annual revenue, up 10.5 percent from last year.
- Manning Park narrows the names for its new quad down to four and wants your help choosing one.
- A very long stop and near evacuation makes the local newspaper in Sun Valley.
- Another first is brewing in Europe: a gondola with cabin doors on two sides.
- Indy Pass adds eight more resorts.
- Eastlink Park in Alberta is adding a used Mueller T-Bar for this winter.
- ‘Qualified and reputable’ investors have expressed interest in the Hermitage Club assets in recent weeks.
- There are now four alternatives for possible Snow King Mountain expansion.
- Wired looks into the failures of both urban gondolas in Rio de Janeiro.
- Attitash assures skiers its Summit Triple is finally fixed after last year’s extended closures.
- Revelstoke receives a shipment of 22 new gondola cabins.
- Cooper releases the trail map for its Tennessee Creek Basin expansion and Little Horse T-Bar.
- The Orlando Sentinel hosts a half hour podcast all about the Disney Skyliner.
- Mont St. Sauveur’s new heated seat chairlift will be named Sommet Express.
News Roundup: A World Away
- As Vail Resorts shakes up management in the northeast, outgoing Mt. Sunapee GM Jay Gamble reflects on 20 years of growth including four new lifts and 110,000 annual skier visits.
- Vail also says goodbye to Sunapee’s Duckling double after 55 years.
- The owner of Mt. Washington, British Columbia; Ragged Mountain, New Hampshire; Wisp, Maryland and Wintergreen, Virginia takes over operations at Powderhorn, Colorado.
- Propelled by five major projects in Colorado, Leitner-Poma says 2018 is it biggest year ever in the United States.
- The $2 billion Salesforce Transit Center in San Francisco, which features a short aerial tramway, is mired in problems unrelated to the lift.
- Construction begins in Switzerland for the world’s second longest 3S with the most towers – seven.
- With new six and eight passenger lifts, Big Sky Resort shifts away from the double/triple/quad lift lingo.
- Alterra names KSL veteran Adam Knox Senior Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development to lead the company’s acquisitions and resort partnership group.
- Due to the amount of lift work needed after seven shuttered years, Cockaigne, NY won’t reopen this winter after all.
- One of the longest Riblets retired from Snowmass turns up in the Pakistani town where Osama bin Laden was killed.
- A freshly cut lift line is spotted in the Spanish Peaks development adjacent to Big Sky Resort, probably for the planned Highlands chair.
- The Berkshire Eagle looks at Catamount’s $5 million fall.
- A judge quashes spending for lift maintenance at the Hermitage Club, which remains in foreclosure. A new lawsuit against the ski area alleges breach of contract and consumer fraud.
- Another aerial tramway cabin crashes in Europe, this time on the one year old Bartholet jigback Staubernbahn. No one was hurt as the cabin that hit the ground was empty.
- The Boston Globe talks with Mainers about a fourth winter without Saddleback.
- In New Zealand, The Remarkables is set to build the inaugural D-Line in the southern hemisphere and Coronet Peak announces a Leitner Telemix.
- The new Bretton Woods trail map indicates the gondola may not be called Presidential Bahn after all.
- As Copper Mountain and Leitner-Poma crews work hard to finish two big lifts, opening weekend shifts to Super Bee.
Bromont Announces Construction of Canada’s Second Chondola
The Government of Quebec and Bromont, montagne d’expériences are partnering to the tune of $19.6 million, the two confirmed yesterday. More than half that money will go to build a base-to-summit combination lift in place of a 1985 Poma detachable. The new $10.1 million machine with six place chairs and eight passenger cabins will be the second such combo lift in Quebec and one of two built this year in North America. Doppelmayr will install the lift and capacity will increase 20-25 percent on the front side. Competitor Tremblant is also building a Doppelmayr detachable this year.
Bromont is less than an hour from the Vermont border and has grown to become one of Eastern Canada’s largest resorts with eight major lifts. The new chondola and a new lodge make up the first phase of Project Altitude, which will see approximately $80 million invested through public-private partnerships over the next few years.
Lift Blog 