- Powderhorn, Colorado formally proposes replacing West End.
- Off-the-grid Mt. Baker to construct a central generation facility to power numerous chairlifts once driven by diesel prime movers.
- The plan for Aspen Mountain’s Lift 1A replacement “continues to evolve.”
- The Forest Service releases a map of the proposed Nell Bell high speed quad on Ajax, which would span 8,300 feet and 2,650′ vertical.
- Over at Snowmass, crews work to build the new Elk Camp Express while the old lift continues spinning in nearly the same alignment for a few more weeks.
- The WestJet Skyride in downtown Calgary may be shortened or removed to make way for a hotel.
- Urban gondolas are catching on nearly everywhere. Why not the US and Canada?
- Repairs to Kicking Horse’s Golden Eagle Express, closed since early March, will take longer than expected due to supply chain issues.
- The Okanagan Gondola breaks ground in BC.
- Towers go in for the Mighty Argo Cable Car, set to open in March 2026.
- A soon-to-open 3S in Italy will feature automatic cabin washing, a heat recovery system and impressive 3,200 foot vertical rise.
- Doppelmayr updates its Ropeway Configurator to include new products like Stella.
- Analysis shows a new urban gondola in Norway will have lower lifecycle emissions per passenger kilometer than most other forms of transport.
- Deer Valley invites the public to watch tower flying for the upper East Village Gondola and Pinyon Express.
Deer Valley
News Roundup: Independence Day
- The owner of Cape Smokey, Nova Scotia to acquire Ski Martock, also in Nova Scotia.
- Titcomb Mountain, Maine seeks final funding to replace its second T-Bar.
- Keystone proposes replacing A51 with a detachable quad.
- Yet another excellent Deer Valley construction update.
- Mantis Ropeway Technologies to install Assistance software on five lifts in Austria to detect misloads using AI.
- The BC Okanagan Gondola project hits a snag related to water.
- Mission Ridge, Washington launches an expansion website.
- Mountain Capital Partners to buy a majority stake in four more Chilean mountains.
- Sun Valley proposes more Bald Mountain lift upgrades.
- Four Seasons, New York looks to be liquidating its ski operations.
- A storm causes an aerial tramway to derope in Dornbirn, Austria. Even the rescue ropeway de-roped, requiring the use of a helicopter to save 19 passengers and a dog.
- Skeetawk, Alaska completes preliminary geotechnical work for a proposed upper mountain lift.
- Big Moose Mountain, Maine performs similar work with the goal of returning lift service to the summit.
News Roundup: Gondola Mania
- The Forest Service green lights Breckenridge to construct a Peak 9 gondola, remove A-Chair, replace C-Chair, remove Eldorado Platter and relocate Camelback Platter.
- Aspen Mountain proposes replacing Little Nell and Bell Mountain with one new chairlift.
- Another insightful Deer Valley East Village construction update.
- Park City identifies specific gondola alignments for study between Old Town and Deer Valley.
- Park City Municipal councilors and the new owner of Town Lift Plaza float replacing the existing Town triple chair with a gondola.
- I got to tour Sunrise Gondola construction at Park City’s Canyons Village earlier today.
News Roundup: On & Off
- The first towers and top terminal are set for the new gondola in Idaho Springs, Colorado, which will feature 22 cabins and North America’s first five Bike Cabs.
- Winter Park’s proposed town gondola secures local approval.
- Also at Winter Park, a draft Forest Service decision green lights removal of Looking Glass, replacement of Gemini, Discovery and Endeavour as well as construction of the Copper Creek six pack (subject to an objection period.)
- Holiday Mountain plans to re-use 1969 towers on a new chairlift.
- Sommet Saint-Sauveur commissions the first Mantis AI software in North America tied directly into a lift control system.
- An update on Deer Valley’s six lifts going in this summer.
- Park City flies towers for the Sunrise Gondola.
- Utah posts its third highest skier visits in history.
- Teton County, Wyoming to oppose Grand Targhee expansion; Teton County, Idaho not sure yet.
- The Forest Service approves Sipapu to replace Lift 3 with completion slated for Fall 2025.
- The Forest Service hosts a public meeting on the proposed Green Peak gondola.
- Jay Peak President and General Manager Steve Wright tells US Senators the Bonaventure replacement is sidelined by Canadians’ redicence to visit and tariff-related cost increases.
- Eaglecrest permanently closes the Black Bear double, will focus on upgrading Ptarmigan to a triple and installing a used gondola.
- Garaventa and CWA debut tram cabins in Switzerland made to look like wood with flower pots on the ends.
News Roundup: Ajax
- Epic Pass adds one more Austrian partner – the mighty Sölden.
- Kirsten Lynch resigns as CEO of Vail Resorts and is succeeded by former CEO Rob Katz.
- Vail details the next phase of its Resource Efficiency Transformation Plan, including reorganizing resort divisions, combining snowmaking/grooming/terrain parks into one department and restructuring summer operations.
- President Trump delays implementation of a new 50 percent tariff on the European Union to July 9th.
- The 10 percent “Liberation Day” tariffs are briefly struck down then reimposed by different federal judges.
- Entabeni Systems closes on its purchase of Black Mountain, New Hampshire.
- Holiday Mountain, New York looks to fund a new chairlift in part by making the top station a billboard along NY-17/future Interstate 86.
- A guest gets caught hanging from clothing on a Mammoth chairlift over Memorial Day Weekend.
- Bartholet releases its 2025 Reference Book.
- A new chairlift project pops up in the Forest Service NEPA system for Aspen Mountain.
- No one bids on privatizing Marble Mountain; the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador will continue operations.
- A new aerial tramway in Texas gets $7 million closer to construction.
- Deer Valley won’t break ground on Snow Park Redevelopment this summer after all.
News Roundup: Ropera
- Deer Valley updates its expansion site to show Lift 6 as two detachable quads (6A and 6B) instead of a six pack with mid-station.
- Vail Mountain seeks permission to replace Orient Express #21 with a six pack, swap Little Eagle #15 for a detachable quad and remove Wapiti #24.
- Leitner-Poma discusses the impact of tariffs on the SAM huddle.
- Burke Mountain emerges from nine years of government receivership with new owners.
- Mount Saint Louis-Moonstone, Ontario teases a new era coming to the Outback side of the mountain.
- Leitner introduces its next generation monocable detachable called Ropera, combining technology from Leitner, Poma and Bartholet. The launch customer will be Speikboden, Italy with a six place chairlift.
- Leitner and Doppelmayr release annual yearbooks.
- Snoqualmie unveils new renderings of the Edelweiss project at Alpental.
- A Colorado man succumbs to injuries sustained in a fall from Keystone’s Ruby Express last December.
- Powder Mountain tells the Utah tram board it’ll install between one and four new lifts this summer.
- A jury declines to award millions to a Mt. Bachelor skier who fell getting off a chairlift.
- Killington to donate and match proceeds from closing day to Whaleback Mountain’s chairlift replacement fund.
- Snow Partners to launch a new multi-mountain pass product offering three total days at six to ten Eastern resorts.
- Mt. Ashland, Oregon looks to replace the Ariel and Windsor doubles with Skytrac triple chairs in 2026.
News Roundup: SLI Retirements
- Big Moose, Maine hints at reviving summit lift access.
- Austria’s KitzSki and SkiWelt could connect to form the world’s largest ski area.
- Lake Louise cuts trails for the long-awaited Richardson’s Ridge expansion.
- Hatley Pointe decommissions the SLI-built Laurel double.
- Telluride seeks approval to replace its last two SLI doubles.
- Big Sky to be the North American launch customer for the Doppelmayr S-Line surface lift, replacing the Bear Back Poma.
- Big Sky will also enclose the Lone Peak Tram‘s top terminal this summer.
- Doppelmayr releases its latest customer magazine featuring projects at Big Sky and Deer Valley.
- Snowmass to keep the Elk Camp quad spinning for bikes through August 4th while work begins on its replacement.
- Eldora seeks approval for unspecified projects from its master plan.
- A court blocks the proposed Los Angeles Dodgers Stadium gondola for now.
- Wachusett looks to sell the Polar Express to another ski area.
- I stopped by Deer Valley for a quick look at the progress to build two gondola sections and four detachable chairlifts this summer.
News Roundup: Passport
- Vail Resorts reports skier visits down 3.1%, lift revenue up 3.4%, ski school revenue up 2.7%, dining up 2.2% and retail/rental down 4.0% with pass sales for next year down slightly in units.
- Burke Mountain to be sold to Bear Den Partners for $11.5 million.
- Park City explores possible routes for a Main Street-Deer Valley gondola.
- Ski Utah continues advocating for a Little Cottonwood gondola.
- Telluride seeks approval for yet-to-be-specified projects from its master plan.
- Boyne launches two multi-resort pass products good at all their resorts.
- Local artists to transform Park City Sunrise chairs into works of art to be auctioned for charity.
- Italy opens a criminal investigation into last week’s fatal tram incident involving a haul rope failure and track rope brake failure on one of two cabins.
- Steeplechase, Minnesota turns to crowdfunding to finance expansion.
- Leitner-Poma Canada is hiring lift installers for a project at Whitewater, BC.
- Loveland to operate the new Lift 7 quad as a triple.
- Killington is full steam ahead on Superstar replacement.
- Red Lodge Mountain begins repairing the chairlift involved in a fatal incident last month.
- Palisades Tahoe invites local high school students on mountain operations tours to aid with recruitment.
News Roundup: Valentine’s Edition
- Vail Resorts reaches an agreement with Crested Butte lift mechanics, averting a strike.
- A window falls from a cabin on Stowe’s Mansfield Gondola during operations.
- Mission Ridge acknowledges three different chairs have detached this season from Chair 4, a 1971 Riblet double (all empty and no injuries).
- Waterville Valley completes a midseason splice on the High Country T-Bar.
- A new owner looks to reopen Crystal Mountain, BC via crowdfunding.
- Winter Park’s High Lonesome Express is back after a four week maintenance closure.
- Still no Slide Brook Express at Sugarbush but hopefully soon.
- The Glade Triple at Catamount will miss the rest of the season.
- Badger Pass, California won’t open this season.
- Ditto for Cedar Pass, also in California.
- Park City gets serious about a gondola connecting Main Street to Deer Valley.
- President Trump imposes 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports with potential impacts on lift manufacturers.
- The US Forest Service, landlord to 124 ski areas, lays off 3,400 employees.
- A bipartisan group of Senators sponsor a bill that would direct the Forest Service retain some of the fees resorts pay to the federal government for ski purposes, such as processing resort improvement projects.
- The gondola in Moab, Utah which sat for 25 years without ever opening, is finally being removed.
- Solitude demystifies lift maintenance for customers.
News Roundup: Deer Valley Green
- The nonprofit that operates Big Moose Mountain, Maine seeks to buy the resort.
- Local Boulder investors are interested in purchasing Eldora.
- The Seattle Times looks at why Riblets are slowly being retired across the Pacific Northwest.
- A remarkable $145 million 3S gondola opens in France.
- One of La Grave’s most popular lifts will be closed for a month or longer after an inspection finds an in-season rope change is needed.
- The world’s steepest aerial tram launches in Switzerland.
- A child is injured falling from a lift at Mt. Ski Gull, Minnesota.
- Multiple people fall from the Beaver Run SuperChair at Breckenridge.
- The new Black Bear 6 is rope evacuated at Camelback, Pennsylvania.
- Doppelmayr USA appoints former DPS Skis President and CEO Alex Adema as Vice President of Sales, promotes Shawn Marquardt to Senior Director of Sales.
- Leitner-Poma and Skytrac celebrate on time completion of 22 projects before the Christmas holiday.
- Gondolas are staging a comeback at theme parks, zoos and fairs.
- The Sky Cab gondola at Snowmass could be replaced and repurposed to run from the town center to base village.
- Brush cutting in the area of a possible future Lower Faces lift at Jackson Hole riles conservation groups.
- Skytrac is the low bidder to replace Gore Mountain’s Topridge triple and move the old lift to Mt. Van Hoevenberg.
- Thanks to reader Tyler for these pictures of the five new chairlifts in Deer Valley’s East Village.
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