- Killington’s Superstar lift replacement will cancel the 2025 Killington World Cup; chairs from Superstar will move to Golden Express at Pico.
- An unseated passenger is successfully caught in a deceleration net at Killington.
- Powderhorn plans a detachable replacement for West End.
- Gunstock loses its summit chairlift for much of the holiday week due to gearbox failure.
- Silver Mountain, Idaho rope evacuates Chair 4 due to a power outage and evacuation engine failure (now back open).
- A falling tree in high wind causes a three tower deropement on the Belleaye Express at Belleayre, New York (scheduled to reopen some time tomorrow).
- The same storm leads to a deropement and rope evacuation at Pats Peak, New Hampshire (back open).
- And the roof blows off Stratton’s gondola top terminal (also back open).
- Following three recent incidents in the state, New Hampshire clarifies how its tramway oversight works.
- Brattleboro Ski Hill in Vermont closes due to an electric motor issue.
- Arkansas adopts the ANSI standard in advance of its first chairlift installation.
- Pioneer at Park City still hasn’t run this season but may soon.
- Cannon’s tramway is still on track for $19 million in upgrades.
- Sugarloaf confirms plans to install Big Sky’s former Six Shooter to replace Timberline, a two year project.
- Stevens Pass rope evacuates the new Kehr’s quad at night.
- Echo Mountain, Colorado also has a night rope evac.
- Timberline closes the Molly’s detachable quad due to damage to a tower from a snow cat.
- Tenney Mountain, New Hampshire loses its main lift due to a mechanical issue.
- Hersheypark, Pennsylvania retires its chairlift ride.
Echo Mountain
News Roundup: First Day of Fall
- A court finds zoning allowing Wasatch Peaks Ranch to continue as a private ski resort can be put to a public referendum. Three chairlifts already operate there with a fourth under construction.
- The Tennessee State Fair will build a chairlift next year.
- Gore Mountain’s new trail map shows the location of the new Bear Cub Quad.
- Lee Canyon recovers well from a hurricane-fueled flood this summer.
- A snowboarder who fell from Whistler Mountain’s Emerald Express sues Whistler Blackcomb.
- Echo Mountain sells to an investor with a bunch of non-ski businesses.
- Lifts are being removed at Marshall Mountain after 20 years idle.
News Roundup: Enhancement
- Four years after the Sea to Sky Gondola’s haul rope was first cut, the criminal case remains open.
- Adventureland, Iowa decommissions its SLI double chair.
- An assessment finds extensive damage to lifts at Snow Ridge.
- Echo Mountain, Colorado appears to be for sale.
- Tremblant’s gondola reopens a month after a fatal accident.
- Fernie shifts hiking and biking operations from one side of the mountain to the other due to a mechanical issue with the Elk chair.
- Utah Governor Spencer Cox says the Little Cottonwood gondola should be a public-private partnership.
- Baghdad, Iraq plans an urban gondola.
News Roundup: The People
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_I64lxkCTQ&feature=youtu.be
- Packsaddle II at Keystone gets the first Skytrac tension-return station based on the Monarch terminal.
- Searchmont’s 1989 Doppelmayr quad chair will spin this season for the first time in six years. The mountain’s nonprofit owner could not afford to address two service bulletins until now.
- See how urban gondolas are evacuated if the need arises.
- Paris’ first urban gondola will be bigger than London’s.
- With orders from Sandia Peak, the Oakland Zoo and Jackson Hole, CWA has now supplied 2,000 cabins in the United States.
- Fernie flies a winter’s worth of diesel fuel – 5,300 gallons – to the Polar Peak triple by helicopter.
- See tons more photos of LST’s first detachable here.
- 42,584 passengers ride Mexicable in its first two days of operation.
- The Navajo Nation Law and Order Committee votes 5-0 to oppose the Grand Canyon Escalade.
- NewEnglandSkiIndustry.com has the latest on all four of New England’s new lifts.
- The new Doppelmayr DCD Chair will debut in Hochzillertal on one of five D-Line installations to be operating in Austria by the end of the year.
- Winch cables and chairs apparently don’t mix well.
- Doppelmayr posts a video tour of the proposed Wälderbahn next-generation 3S with sections of elevated guideways in place of cables.
- Montana Snowbowl throws in the towel on TV Mountain until next spring.
- Echo Mountain sale closes and the mountain will open in December.
News Roundup: South America
- The White River National Forest conditionally approves new lifts at Arapahoe Basin including a Beavers chair, Zuma surface lift, replacements for Molly Hogan/Pallavicini and removal of Norway.
- The Science Channel profiles the Palm Springs Tramway, which has the largest vertical rise of any lift in North America.
- Two more American urban gondola ideas pop up: Uptown Gondola in Cincinnati and Honolulu Aerial.
- Austrian ski pass merger creates a ticket valid for a record 925 lifts.
- Dubai will get a gondola to serve a $1.6 billion artificial peninsula called Blue Waters Island.
- China reverse-engineers the Doppelmayr Uni-G, with poor results.
- A consortium led by Poma beats out Doppelmayr in the bidding to build a two-stage urban gondola over water in Guayaquil, Ecuador with a second line in the works.
- South America now makes up 17 percent of Doppelmayr’s global revenue, approximately equal to North America.
- Peru’s President recently visited the ancient fortress of Kuelap, where Poma is 90 percent finished with a new 8-passenger gondola. The only problem? The haul rope hasn’t been installed yet. So crews slung cabins from towers for the Presidential photo-op to make it look closer to being done!
- 2017-18 reopening of The Balsams is an open question.
- Burke Mountain Academy will buy a T-Bar to replace the 1956 Mountain Poma at Vermont’s Burke Mountain in 2017.
- Echo Mountain sells to a 27-year old D.U. grad for $3.8 million.
- Jay Peak Resort seeks loan in “extremely tight cash situation” after $2.5 million payment to Doppelmayr/Garaventa for tram upgrades.
- Montana Snowbowl begins work on TV Mountain expansion, to include a used Riblet from Snowmass.
- The Vancouver Sun reveals Vail courted Whistler Blackcomb for months, will cut season pass prices in half.
This is an open thread. Feel free to leave a comment on anything lift-related.
News Roundup: Windy in Switzerland
- Owner of Echo Mountain files for bankruptcy but will keep operating the closest ski area to Denver.
- Saddleback, Maine won’t be open in time for February vacation week.
- Big Tupper, NY pulls the plug on this season entirely.
- Aspen Highlands looks to expand into Loge Bowl, with the possibility of eventually adding a lift.
- A quick-thinking 7 year-old hangs onto a dangling classmate for two minutes, long enough for resort staff to make a successful catch from a chair in Ontario. Canada requires nets to be out and ready whenever a lift is in operation for just this reason.
- Aspen Highlands chair pusher finally arrested and identified as a 31-year old local man with a history of mental illness. He’s charged with felony assault and misdemeanor reckless endangerment but will go to a treatment facility instead of jail. The investigation also reveals a 19-year old lift operator saw the 25-foot fall and hit an e-stop but didn’t report it.
- Gizmodo tackles urban gondolas, revealing La Paz carries 100,000 commuters a day on its 3 aerial lines.
News Roundup: Hilltrac Funicular
- When I was hiking around Park City last week I discovered a large new funicular railway in The Colony development near the new gondola. It was built by Hilltrac, sister company to lift-maker SkyTrac. The funicular serves an entire neighborhood unlike others at Deer Valley that serve only one house. One section is completed with the possibility to add another section later.
- The City Council of Casper, Wyoming, which owns of Hogadon Ski Area, declares one of two Riblet doubles there as surplus property to be sold. Apparently it has not spun in years and parts were cannibalized last season to keep the other lift running.
- Chris Farmer, Saddleback’s Marketing Director says on Facebook that there is no news to announce re: new lift or closure. In case you don’t have Facebook, here is the statement: “Saddleback friends: I know that everyone is eagerly awaiting an announcement on our situation and recognize we are beyond the initial deadline. We remain heads down on finding a solution. As soon as we have news we will announce it. Until then, our full attention is on solving the issue. You are all important and I recognize you all want answers. I fully expect decisions will be made some time this week. Thank you for your consideration and continued support. Please do not be offended by my inability to respond to each of you individually. I hope you understand.”
- Aspen Skiing Company remains committed to building the new Burnt Mountain lift at Snowmass but still has no timeline for it.
- Protesting lifties shut down Chile’s Cerro Catedral, demanding a 30% wage increase. Meanwhile, most of Argentina and Chile’s ski resorts have been getting tons of snow.
- Echo Mountain, the closest ski area to Denver, will reopen to the public this season after failing to make it as a racer-only training mountain. The area formerly known as Squaw Pass has just one lift currently, a Yan triple chair.
- South America solidifies itself as the worldwide leader in urban ropeways with the capital of Peru getting not one but two gondolas by 2017. There are already a dozen gondolas operating in Bolivian, Venezuelan, Colombian and Brazilian cities.
- Vermont lift construction update, thanks to NewEnglandSkiIndustry.com.
- Doppelmayr wins a $21 million contract to build two ropeways in Georgia (the country, not the state, although there is a large Doppelmayr tram in the State of Georgia too.)
- The Teton quad at Jackson Hole is on schedule to be load tested by mid-October. All the large components for the top terminal were installed earlier today by crane.
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