The sale of Killington and Pico to local investors has closed and today the group announced their initial tranche of capital investments. Over the next 12 to 16 months, Killington plans to spend roughly $30 million to build a Superstar Express six pack, add 1,000 HKD low energy new snow guns and replace all 116 SkyeshipGondola cabins. Skyeship’s cabin storage facility will also be replaced in the near future. The current Superstar lift is the oldest detachable chairlift in New England, dating back to 1987 (tied with two other lifts at Killington/Pico and the Grand Summit Express at Mount Snow.)
The news comes just over a month since Powdr announced the sale of Killington and listing of three other resorts. “Over the next 10 years, our goal is to reinvest all the profits the mountain creates,” said Michael Ferri, one of two lead investors in Killington Independence Group, LLC, comprised of 16 total investors. “[Profits] will stay here in Vermont, they will stay here at Pico and they will stay here at Killington,” said Ferri.
A new Sigma Diamond cabin installed on the K-1 gondola, the same model Skyeship will receive.
Surprisingly after 37 straight lifts from other manufacturers, Killington selected Doppelmayr to construct the new Superstar Six. Unlike Killington’s Snowdon Six, the new lift will not feature bubbles. “There are a number of factors, but this lift is a relatively short ride which makes having bubbles on the lift less impactful, especially considering the added complexity of needing a storage barn for overnight storage of bubble chairs,” said Killington. Superstar has one of the longest winter operating schedules in the country, spinning for World Cup ski racing in November all the way until the end of the season in May or June. “The Superstar lift replacement will affect spring skiing this season and potentially the 2025 Stifel Killington Cup, noted Killington President and CEO Mike Solimano. “We do plan to make more snow in North Ridge to extend the season in the Canyon this year and are working with the lift manufacturer to finalize the construction plan for the lift before making the call on the Killington Cup,” he continued.
Skyeship Gondola, set to receive new cabins and a new maintenance facility.
Leitner-Poma will supply new cabins for Skyeship, the same Diamond model the K-1 Gondola received in 2018. “Many of our current operational challenges with [Skyeship] can be attributed to the older cabins,” noted Killington. “The challenges are exasperated by not being able to store the cabins in a heated building causing door opening and closing mechanisms to become frozen overnight.” All of these improvements are slated for the next two years with more expected to follow over the next decade.
Hundreds of workers are racing to finish the initial phase of Deer Valley’s Expanded Excellence addition, scheduled to open in December. Garrett Lang, Deer Valley’s Director of Mountain Operations and Mike Walker, Senior Construction Manager, kindly gave me a personal tour of the megaproject yesterday.
Top drive terminal for the Keetley Express, set to open this winter.
This winter will be a 316 acre preview of what will be a much larger expansion totaling 2,900 acres over two years. Winter 2024-25 will launch the mountain’s first six pack – a bubble – and two quad chairs rising from the new East Village. Additional lifts are in varying states of completion, including a monster 10 passenger gondola set to open in 2025-26. Simultaneously, a Grand Hyatt hotel, 500 new day skier parking spaces, miles of snowmaking pipe, electrical infrastructure and temporary skier services are also coming together.
Those driving by on U.S. Route 40 probably won’t grasp the full scale of the expansion, which encompasses 2,850 vertical feet and 110 new trails by 2025-26. Several new lifts will be among the longest at Deer Valley. While 500 paved parking spots will open this season, 700 more are being reserved for lift construction laydown. Workers from both Doppelmayr and Highlander Ski Lift Services & Construction are piecing together the lifts, which are being manufactured in Austria, Canada and the United States.
Rocky Mountain Power built an entire new substation to service the vast snowmaking system and burgeoning village. A brand new mid-mountain maintenance facility will support lift, snowmaking and vehicle maintenance needs. Employee housing is also included in the project.
Grand Hyatt Deer Valley, the first of several hotels set to anchor the East Village.
The main attraction this season will be Keetley Express, a D-Line sixer loading steps from the Hyatt. Keetley is the name of the town once buzzing nearby but overtaken by the Jordanelle Reservoir in the 1990s. Like all Deer Valley lifts, Keetley Express will sport a thoroughly green livery with white accents. The flagship will feature gray bubbles and European-made seats. From the top of Keetley Express, skiers will gain access to Deer Valley’s existing footprint via either Mayflower or Sultan Express.
Map showing this winter’s preview lineup, center in yellow.
Directly adjacent to Keetley is Hoodoo Express, a UNI-G high speed quad (the word Hoodoo means a column or pinnacle of weathered rock; all the expansion’s trail and lift names were chosen from a pool of 500 historic mining claims in the vicinity.) Hoodoo will parallel Keetley but stop after only a handful of towers, creating an ideal beginner area above the East Village. Because of its proximity to Keetley Express, the bottom terminal will be modeled to look like a D-Line.
Galena Express lift line and completed foundations.
Finally a quad named Aurora will load in a drainage near the East Village and return skiers to the Hyatt zone. Aurora is the only fixed grip lift in the entire expansion and will feature a loading conveyor. Three carpet lifts are also planned for beginners.
Several other lifts are well on their way to reality. Near the top of Keetley Express, foundations are also complete for Galena Express, a UNI-G high speed quad set to open next winter. The East Village Gondola, made up of seperable upper and lower segments, is coming along with foundations being formed. Two major lifts have yet to start construction: the upper mountain Pinyon Express bubble and the giant Revelator Express six pack on Park Peak. These two systems will service a vast network of high elevation trails miles above the East Village. The final two lifts set to open next year are Neptune Express and Pioche Express, detachable quads primarily serving lower elevation real estate.
2025-26 footprint.
The East Village and planned terrain expansion are just part of Deer Valley’s ambitious roadmap. Later phases may include lifts on both South Peak and Hail Peak. Simultaneously, Alterra Mountain Company aims to redevelop the Snow Park base, including the replacement of Silver Lake Express with a gondola and Carpenter Express with a six seat detachable. A third new gondola is being eyed to connect Silver Lake Village to Park Peak, where the gondola from East Village lands. Both gondolas landing on Park Peak will share an underground cabin parking and maintenance facility. Deer Valley also plans to begin replacing aging existing lifts such as Northside Express and Wasatch Express in the coming years.
One of hundreds of new HKD stick guns, supplemented with TechnoAlpin fan guns.
Although no specific grand opening date has been announced, we are likely only around 90 days out from what’s sure to be a celebration and huge milestone for Deer Valley.
Deer Valley has unveiled the names for three chairlifts that will open this winter in phase one of the Expanded Excellence expansion. The three inaugural lifts, being constructed by Doppelmayr, include a high speed six pack with bubbles, a detachable quad and a fixed grip quad. Skiers will gain access to 300 acres and 20 trails this season via a temporary gateway with 500 parking spaces, a rental shop and ticketing services. “In just a couple of months, we are looking forward to welcoming our guests to experience the beginning of Deer Valley’s Expanded Excellence vision,” said Todd Bennett, President & COO of Deer Valley Resort.
The flagship D-Line Keetley Express will load near the new Grand Hyatt Deer Valley and lift skiers to Keetley Point. This lift will feature Deer Valley’s first-ever bubble comfort chairs and provide access to the existing Sultan Express lift. Next door, the shorter Hoodoo Express quad will service beginner terrain above the East Village. This lift will be a UNI-G detachable designed to look like the D-Line next door. The third new lift for this season, called Aurora, will provide a short return route back to the East Village. This Alpenstar quad will feature a loading conveyor to maximize efficiency. Keetley Express is expected to open in December with Hoodoo Express and Aurora to follow shortly thereafter.
Concrete work is also underway for six additional lifts set to open for the 2025-26 season. These include a two stage, 10 passenger gondola and five detachable chairlifts. The final four lifts in the expansion will open in future seasons with the exact timeline yet to be determined. When the expansion is complete, Deer Valley will have added 3,700 acres of skiable terrain and 135 new ski runs, making it one of the largest resorts in North America.
Over the weekend the State of West Virginia broke ground on an $8 million gondola project at Hawks Nest State Park. Doppelmayr will build the fixed grip system, which will carry visitors down 465 vertical feet to the New River and be fully ADA accessible. The top drive, bottom tension design will feature three six passenger cabins in a pulse configuration. A fourth carrier will accommodate kayaks and other outdoor recreation equipment. The new gondola replaces a 1970 Hall jig-back which closed in 2021 due to safety concerns. “A whole lot of people who love Hawks Nest State Park have been waiting for the tram project,” said West Virginia Governor Jim Justice at the groundbreaking. “Hundreds of thousands of folks have created memories here on the tram over the last 50 years, and I’m excited for the next hundred thousand visitors to the park to be able to do just the same.”
This is the second gondola construction project underway in the Mountain State. A $12.4 million gondola is set to open at Pipestem State Park this fall. The Hawks Nest gondola is expected to follow in late spring 2025, completing the replacement of two iconic ropeways. Governor Justice said he expects to be among the first to ride each new gondola with his Bulldog named Babydog.
Today Doppelmayr announced a major expansion of its longtime facility in Salt Lake City, Utah. The project will nearly double the size of the US headquarters to include 120,000 square feet of indoor production and warehouse space, 68,000 square feet of covered outdoor space and 40,000 square feet of office and training space. The expansion will be constructed directly east of an existing building, which originally served as CTEC’s headquarters near the Salt Lake City International Airport. “As ski resorts across the USA continue to invest in state-of-the-art infrastructure to enhance guest experience, including new ropeways, the facility expansion positions Doppelmayr USA to better meet the growing demands of the thriving North American ropeway market,” the company said in a release.
Doppelmayr currently produces tower components, control systems, electrical cabinets, operator houses and fixed grip terminals for projects across North America in Salt Lake. “The current facility has served us well for over 20 years, but we are bursting at the seams,” said Doppelmayr USA President Katharina Schmitz. “The new facility will be a state-of-the art manufacturing facility where we will continue to design and produce the highest quality ropeway systems in North America. We are excited to expand our production capabilities and our workforce and continue Doppelmayr’s legacy of building ropeways in Salt Lake City,” she noted. The Doppelmayr Group operates one other North American production site in Saint-Jérôme, Quebec and also produces components for the North American market in Wolfurt, Austria.
This news comes less than two weeks after Doppelmayr’s main competitor HTI opened a new 130,000 square foot facility to support both Skytrac and Leitner-Poma in Tooele, Utah. The Utah ski industry is booming with new lift projects underway or planned at Deer Valley Resort, Park City Mountain, Powder Mountain, Snowbird, Sundance Resort and Wasatch Peaks Ranch. The state reported a record 7.1 million skier visits in 2022-23 and expects to host the Olympic Winter Games for the second time in 2034.
Architecture and engineering designs for Doppelmayr’s new Salt Lake facility are currently being developed. Construction is anticipated to start in early 2025, with the target to be producing out of the new facility by mid-2026.
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