- Sugarbush’s Slide Brook Express may remain closed for the entire season.
- More brand new trail maps pop up: Black Mountain, New Hampshire and Sunlight, Colorado.
- Camp 10 in Wisconsin rope evacuates its only chairlift.
- Approximately 170 people are roped down from the F quad at Elk Mountain, Pennsylvania.
- Another Elk Mountain lift is the subject of a viral video.
- Cedar Pass, California won’t open this season due to required haul rope replacement.
- Boyne Resorts considers changing Shawnee Peak’s name back to Pleasant Mountain.
- The four people arrested for damaging the San Diego Zoo Skyfari are United States Marines and have yet to be charged with any crimes.
- Fortress Mountain’s owners now aim for a December 2023 reopening.
- Lake Louise opens the Juniper expansion and high speed quad.
- MND Group reports half year results with revenue up 41 percent to €39.7 million and snowmaking/ropeway sales increasing 79 percent.
- Telluride seeks public input on the future of the gondola.
- Operations remain limited at three Vail-owned Ohio mountains while other regional areas report being 100 percent open.
- Two Park City media outlets cover residents’ frustration with Vail Resorts over closed lifts, crowding and traffic.
- The Sandia Peak Tramway is seeking a tram maintenance manager and aerial tram mechanic.
- Work begins on bike trails which could eventually be serviced by gondola in Idaho Springs, Colorado.
- Caberfae Peaks releases a rendering of where its new triple chair will go.
- Fourteen Doppelmayr lifts will support the Beijing Olympics including 9 at the brand new downhill venue.
- Stevens Pass aims to finally open all its lifts by the middle of February.
- A resident floats the idea of a gondola running from a ferry terminal to business district on Bowen Island, British Columbia.
- Citing crowding, Berkshire East institutes a reservation requirement for Indy Pass holders.
- Whaleback aims to have its chairlift back in action by Sunday.
Caberfae Peaks
News Roundup: American Rescue Plan
- Moosehead Mountain’s redevelopment is pushed back to 2023 at the earliest.
- Deer Valley moves toward replacing the Silver Lake Express, possibly with a gondola.
- A proposed development adjacent to Big Sky Resort includes a pulse gondola and two platter lifts.
- Whiteface’s new quad is named Warhorse.
- Snow King’s new gondola opens tomorrow but not for skiing.
- The first pieces of Waterville Valley’s Bartholet/MND six pack arrive stateside.
- A new map shows where Caberfae Peaks’ East Peak triple will go.
- Attitash permanently closes the West Double Double to “prep for it being replaced.”
- Mountain Capital Partners unveils a concept plan for 19 new lifts across thousands of acres at Brian Head.
- The Forest Service green lights construction of Mt. Hood Meadows’ first six pack.
- Breckenridge celebrates 60 years of massive growth.
- Bartholet plans to build its first RopeTaxi with cabins departing on demand in 2022.
- Cannon will seek American Rescue Plan funds for tram overhaul/replacement, possibly as early as 2023.
- Blacktail Mountain joins the Indy Pass.
- A video shows a loaded lift roll back in Kyrgyzstan.
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: Making Moves
- Sunshine Village will spin its gondola this summer for the first time in twenty years.
- ZGF Architects, the firm conducting the feasibility study for the Rosslyn Gondola in Washington, D.C. will hold a community open house on July 7th.
- The Jay Peak Tram re-opened last Saturday.
- More trouble from Vermont as the state pauses investment in the South Face Village EB-5 project adjacent to Okemo Mountain Resort. The developer completed one new chairlift last year while the future of another is uncertain.
- Waterville Valley’s World Cup triple is coming down in advance of a move to Green Peak.
- Doppelmayr confirms talks to build urban gondolas in the capital city of the Philippines.
- Caberfae Peaks shows how it’s done keeping guests informed during a seven-figure lift project.
News Roundup: Six-Packs
- Mt. Snow becomes the latest mountain to replace a chairlift with a beginner-friendly carpet lift.
- New construction webcams are live at the Leitner 3S Matterhorn Glacier Paradise project.
- Skier visits in Colorado were up 13.9 percent last season, Vermont was down 32 percent.
- County approves The Balsams redevelopment.
- Baton Rouge, Louisiana is still eyeing gondolas.
- Stunning photos from inside the new Eisgratbahn 3S stations.
- Sipapu is upping the power on its new quad chair.
- Leitner-Poma will build three new lifts in Ontario this summer including a six-pack at Horseshoe Resort.
- Telluride’s Mountain Village Gondola turns 20 this year with celebrations planned. The gondola has over 100,000 hours and provides 2.5 million rides each year!
News Roundup: Hauling
- Doppelmayr isn’t the only one building in Bolivia. Poma is 55 percent complete with the city of Ororu’s new gondola.
- SkyTrac has a new website!
- RiverWalk at Loon Mountain will open a Doppelmayr pulse gondola crossing the Pemigewasset River in 2017.
- Lift ticket revenue was up 19 percent and skier visits +13 percent at Vail Resorts’ ten mountains in 2015-16.
- Snowbasin seeks approval to build two more high speed quads – one to replace Wildcat and the other to supplement the Strawberry Express Gondola.
- Garaventa splices and celebrates in Ha Long.
- New tram cabins arrive at Sandia Peak from CWA.
News Roundup: Modifications
- Apparently Cannon Mountain in New Hampshire will get the first LST Ropeways lift in North America. Manufactured in Germany, it will be a T-Bar for the Mittersill racing area which has an existing Doppelmayr CTEC double chair. SkyTrac will be doing the installation. LST Ropeways is owned by the MND Group which also owns Gazex (avalanche release systems) and Sufag (snowmaking systems) with a North American facility in Eagle, CO.
- Leitner-Poma will re-engineer and modify towers on the Grey Mountain lift at Red Mountain, BC this fall. The quad chair was built in 1992 at Alyeska and moved to Red in 2013. The re-installation was done by Summit Lift Co. of Fernie, BC and the lift has 18 towers in its current configuration. No word on the exact reason for the re-design.
- The Camelot chair at Boyne Highlands is losing its vault drive terminal that is literally part of the ski area’s base lodge. In its place will be a used CTEC drive terminal. Does anyone know where it came from?
- The Aspen Daily News reports on the all new High Alpine detachable quad at Snowmass.
- Snow King debuted Doppelmayr’s new ‘Alpinstar’ terminal this summer and now Caberfae Peaks, MI will debut the ‘Ministar’ in 2016. The new triple chair will replace the Clubhouse double which is a 1967 Hall.
- Developers are still trying to figure out how to get a new Lift 1A back into downtown Aspen like the original single chair.