- Mission Ridge’s replacement of the Liberator Express with a bubble chair from Europe is pushed back to 2020.
- Dagmar in Ontario plans to replace its Rendezvous triple with a quad as soon as next summer.
- The scheduled foreclosure auction of Granite Gorge is cancelled.
- Ghost Town in the Sky, a shuttered chairlift-accessed amusement park in North Carolina, goes back up for sale.
- The Indy Pass now includes more North American resorts than both the Ikon and Epic passes.
- Boyne Resorts announces a $60 million private debt offering with proceeds to be used for organic growth including “high-impact initiatives” over the next two to three years.
- Alpine Media raises $2 million more to install digital screens on more chairlifts.
- Mont Orignal plans a second lift as backup for the world’s first detachable six pack.
- A Doppelmayr gondola which was delivered to Parral, Mexico in 2016 but never installed may finally get put together.
- Despite rumors to the contrary, Disney says there is no Skyliner opening date yet.
- The State of California concludes 25-40 mph winds likely caused a grip and communications line to become entangled on the Bayside Skyride at SeaWorld in February.
- The United States Department of Justice argues the Hermitage Club’s reorganization plan is being illegally marketed to creditors and members.
- Millennium Partners may have abandoned its Boston Seaport Gondola idea.
- A chairlift at the Ohio State Fair will sport all new carriers this year due to concerns about the condition of the originals.
- Leitner’s fourth 3S system goes into operation in Voss, Norway.
Ghost Town
News Roundup: Change of Plans
- Mammoth seeks to replace the workhorse Canyon Express #16 with a detachable six place lift in a new alignment.
- Plans for Battle Mountain Resort that once featured ten chairlifts and two gondolas near Vail no longer do.
- Leitner-Poma’s self-driving mini aerial tramway in San Francisco will debut this summer.
- A Grafton, Illinois gondola project faces a key vote with groundbreaking possible later this summer.
- Partek will build a brand new quad chair this summer at West Mountain, New York.
- Ghost Town – the defunct chairlift-accessed amusement park in North Carolina – may reopen in 2019.
- A court rules in favor of plaintiffs in three Hermitage Club cases but is still considering next steps for the ski mountain foreclosure.
- The latest Aspen Lift One meetings go well.
- You probably heard Jerusalem in the news this week but not for the $56 million earmarked to build a four station gondola there.
- Like the first one, the second Disney Skyliner terminal to go airborne has two distinct turnarounds.
News Roundup: Pass Wars
- 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.
