- The Doppelmayr Group to merge its Frey AG Stans and Garaventa units in Switzerland.
- Four Seasons, New York closes for good to be redeveloped.
- Both the Denver Post and Colorado Sun cover growing local frustration with Telluride’s owner over gondola funding, snowmaking, labor relations and alleged personal conduct.
- Powder Mountain works to build out private skiing while maintaining a public ski resort next door.
- The former owner of closed Spout Springs, Oregon is found liable for the cost of removing improvements from Forest Service land.
Frey AG
News Roundup: Pass Wars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kalJdNyUFBQ
- The latest Wir highlights Doppelmayr Connect, various drive concepts and the Sweetwater Gondola.
- U.S. skier visits climbed 3.7 percent last season to 54.7 million. 479 ski areas operated in 2016-17, up from 464.
- Silverton Mountain is not a fan of the Epic Pass.
- Royal Gorge Bridge & Park considers chairlift down to the Arkansas River.
- Intrawest re-invested 8 percent of revenues at its resorts between 2013 and 2017 (compared with 11 percent across Vail Resorts.) The company had 173 interested buyers, 16 of which were ski industry players.
- Early summer update from the Magic Mountain rebirth and Green Chair project.
- Doppelmayr/Garaventa Group buys Frey AG Stans, a leading global provider of ropeway control systems.
- Lifts from the defunct Talisman Mountain Resort have been sold; one is headed to Sunridge, Alberta.
- Granby Ranch investigation update.
- LA mayor suggests gondola to the Hollywood sign from Universal Studios.
- Ghost Town in Maggie Valley, NC goes up for sale, including Carlevaro-Savio chairlift that last operated in 2012.
- Nonprofit nearing purchase of Frost Fire, ND, hopes to repair two chairlifts and reopen skiing next winter.
- Government considers building world’s longest gondola into the world’s largest cave in Vietnam.
- Here’s a recap of what we missed at Interalpin.
- Lutsen Mountains’ six-lift expansion plan moves forward.
- The Denver Post reports a joint Aspen/Intrawest/KSL/Mammoth pass is in the works for 2018-19, meaning the Mountain Collective could lose seven members and 43 percent of its lifts. The MAX Pass might fare better, losing the six Intrawest resorts and 85 lifts (20 percent.) I chart one scenario below.
Behind the Scenes of the Jackson Hole Tram
The $31 million Jackson Hole Aerial Tram is the most expensive lift ever built at a US ski area. Constructed by Garaventa over 20 months, the new tram opened to great fanfare on December 20, 2008. It can move a hundred people 4,083 vertical feet in under nine minutes. Compared with a detachable lift, the tram is a relatively simple machine built on a massive scale.
Like most jig-back aerial tramways, there are four track ropes and a single haul rope that that drives both cabins. All five wire ropes were manufactured by Fatzer in Switzerland. Five towers support the line; towers 1 and 2 are the tallest and furthest apart. Two CWA Kronos cabins move 650 passengers per hour per direction at a maximum speed of 10 m/s. Slope length is 12,463 feet.
Lift Blog 
