- The Mountain Collective adds four awesome resorts for 2020-21: Chamonix, Grand Targhee, Panorama and Sugarloaf.
- Kicking Horse celebrates 20 years of operation on the site of the former Whitetooth Ski Area.
- Sun Valley’s Cold Springs double is about to end a 50 year run but will live on at a resort in California.
- Arizona Snowbowl’s Agassiz reopens for one last hurrah after being down since January 18th with a gear issue.
- Hundreds of ski resorts in Austria, Italy and Switzerland are forced to close for the season due to coronavirus.
- Berkshire East, Catamount, Middlebury Snow Bowl and Mt. Abram become the first US ski resorts to shut down due to the virus.
- Belleayre, Gore, Whiteface and the Lake Placid Olympic Complex close gondolas for the season for the same reason. Snowbird’s tram is shut down until further notice. Aspen Snowmass will no longer load unrelated parties in the same gondola cabins.
- Indiana Beach, one of only four venues with an aerial lift in the Hoosier State, closes permanently.
- The two year old LST Ropeways detachable in France shuts down indefinitely again. Instead of the LST design, MND America will offer Bartholet detachables in the United States.
- Vail Resorts reports financial results: skier visits are down 5.3 percent percent this season through March 1st but lift revenue is up 0.8 percent. On a conference call, CEO Rob Katz addresses coronavirus, lift lines at Vail and possible future acquisitions.
- Timberline Mountain promises to make multiple big announcements at a media event Tuesday. All three existing lifts are in poor condition and being dismantled.
- Arctaris Impact Fund doesn’t expect to realize a profit on its Saddleback investment until it sells the resort in 7-10 years.
- An enterprising family is building the first Australian-designed and manufactured chairlift in 30 years for private use only.
- Alterra Mountain Company CEO Rusty Gregory will deliver a keynote address on Monday in Park City covering the rise of Alterra, industry consolidation and multi-resort pass products.
- For the second time in three weeks, a sudden stop on the Mont-Sainte-Anne gondola elicits an emergency response and the lift is once again closed indefinitely.
Catamount
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: Unboxing
- Lizards prevent construction of an announced chairlift project in New Zealand.
- Berkshire East and Catamount owner Jon Schaefer finds success staying away from detachable lifts and acquiring used lifts from across the country.
- Ikon Pass sales rose 60 percent over last year.
- Cockaigne, NY will reopen in January after many seasons closed.
- Frost Fire, ND reopens after a missed season.
- A 3S gondola to Snowbird and Alta would cost more than $300 million to build and $12 million a year to operate.
- Vail Resorts looks to build it first D-Line chairlift, not in Colorado or California but at Perisher.
- The Forest Service green lights construction of a new Big Burn lift at Snowmass.
- A new version of Eagle’s Rest comes Jackson Hole.
- A downed tree causes extended stops at Silver Mountain.
- The one year old Blackcomb Gondola went down Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week.
- Disney Skyliner guests can now call a dedicated phone line for information when gondolas stop for longer than usual.
- Lift service returns to Tamarack’s Wildwood zone tomorrow.
- Copper’s Tucker Mountain becomes lift served for the first time today.
- Regardless of whether Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows build an interconnect gondola, a private ski area may open nearby.
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.
Catamount to Build Fifth Chairlift
The Schaefer family bought Catamount Ski Area just three months ago but already has grand plans for their second ski resort. The co-owners hope to bring the same success to Catamount the group did to Berkshire East, now a year-round destination that saw two new lifts since 2007. Catamount, which sits partly in Massachusetts and half way in New York, is eighty years old. Previous owners Tom Gilbert and Rich Edwards became unable to make the capital investments they knew they needed to. “To remain really competitive in the ski industry there’s many things that need to be done, and we’ve been trying over the years to raise some capital to do these projects,” Gilbert told the Berkshire Eagle in May following the sale announcement. “We realized we were not successful in raising capital and realized we needed to bring something in.” Berkshire East paid $650,000 for the mountain and retired Catamount’s $1.6 million in outstanding debt.
A new triple chair will soon improve the beginner experience on the Massachusetts side of the mountain. The lift is likely to be a 1987 Poma Alpha model which began its life in Vermont as Magic Mountain’s Sun Corner lift. Magic went dark only four years later and the triple flew south to Berkshire East, where it was the Summit lift. Skytrac replaced it with a quad in 2014 and the Poma has sat awaiting a new home ever since. Ironically, a used chairlift from Stratton will finally return lift service to Magic’s Sun Corner this fall after 27 years.
Catamount’s new 1,600′ lift will run up up the Esplanade trail. I suspect this will be a 2019 project but there’s a chance it could happen sooner. The triple will complement four existing lifts, which are two SLI doubles, a Thiokol triple from Solitude, Utah and a Garaventa CTEC quad relocated from Belleayre, New York. Catamount also plans to add a brand new 7,600 square foot lodge.
News Roundup: Last Call
- No ticket, no card. You can now ride lifts using only your phone at Sunshine Village.
- Berkshire East owners buy Catamount with summer business and upgrading aging infrastructure on the agenda.
- U.S. skier visits decline 2.8 percent for 2017-18 with the Midwest and Southeast up year-over-year, the Northeast flat and the Rockies, Pacific Northwest and Southwest regions down.
- New lift construction is nonetheless pacing 25 percent ahead of last year and 43 points above this date in 2016.
- Quebec area Val Neigette closes for good with its Doppelmayr quad chairlift headed to an unknown Ontario mountain to cover outstanding debt.
- Mi Teleférico is apparently in talks to build dozens more urban gondolas in La Paz between 2020 and 2030.
- The Balsams project faces a key state vote on May 21st.
- Add Nashville to the list of US cities considering public transport gondolas.
- Boyne Resorts closes on its purchase of seven mountain resorts, bringing its owned and operated portfolio to ten across North America.
- Jackson, Wyoming stakeholders mostly agree to site a new gondola in a public park at the base of Snow King Mountain.
- Loveland will hold a lottery for season passholders to win purchase rights for Lift 1 chairs.
- The final last chair for the Norway lift at A-Basin is Sunday.
News Roundup: Capital
- There will be no construction at Valemount Glacier this year after all.
- Catamount (the New York/Massachusetts one, not Colorado) seeks new investors or an outright buyer.
- Following another best ever season, Whitefish Mountain Resort eyes improving lift service from the base lodge and in Hellroaring Basin, which might mean replacing lifts 4 and 8.
- Blackcomb’s Catskinner triple will soon be available for sale.
- Ski Areas of New York will again offer a series of lift maintenance training classes across the state.
- French regulators propose $800,000 in fines against MND Group and its CEO for allegedly misleading investors and deleting emails, which the company denies.
- Amid the turmoil, MND subsidiary LST Ropeways inks an order to install its second detachable chairlift worth $5.4 million in Avoriaz, France.
- As Crested Butte departs the Powder Alliance, Marmot Basin, Castle Mountain, Sugar Bowl and Loveland join up.
- Red Mountain is searching for a used Doppelmayr T-Bar.
- Loveland confirms Leitner-Poma will build its much anticipated first high-speed quad.
- The Trump Administration’s proposed tariffs target goods from China including “teleferics, chair lifts, ski draglines; and traction mechanisms for funiculars.” Outside contacted both Doppelmayr and Leitner-Poma for comment with interesting results.
- More contractors and employees say the Hermitage Club didn’t fully pay them and the Town of Wilmington may hold a tax sale in June.
- A man claims he was left to spend a cold night on one of Gore Mountain’s chairlifts and wasn’t found until the next morning, April Fool’s Day.
- A bullwheel bearing issue on Nob Hill at Sugar Bowl throws a major wrench in the end of the season.
- Bretton Woods’ new gondola is on track to break ground in June or July, which would make 11 new gondolas for 2018 in North America – the most ever.
- Approaching two years post-Olympics, both urban gondolas in Rio remain abandoned.
- Bloomberg is out with a not-so-complimentary article about the Whistler Blackcomb-Vail transition.
- Doppelmayr wins contracts to build nine Beijing 2022 Olympic lifts including five gondolas and two bubble six place chairs.
- A gondola once the symbol of an Olympics destroyed by war returns to Sarajevo thanks to Leitner Ropeways and a $3.5 million donation from an American.
- The Oakland Athletics consider building a gondola to their new stadium.
- Nine different mountains in Sweden will spin T-Bars for mountain bikers this summer.
- If approved, Vail’s new Golden Peak lift will likely be a T-Bar.
- Owl’s Head retires its Green lift and will give the chairs away to season pass buyers.
- I started this blog three years ago this week as an off season project. It now sees 215,000 page views each month from 40,000+ unique visitors. Thanks to everyone who has helped to make Lift Blog a success!
