- Intrawest likely won’t buy any new lifts this year.
- TV station in Maine highlights lift maintenance and oversight with visits to Sugarloaf and Camden Snow Bowl.
- Denver7 lands the first interview with Larry Smith of the Colorado Passenger Tramway Board following Granby Ranch incident.
- Sunshine Polishing moving gondola refurbishing operation to Grand Junction.
- A $67 million, six-year old gondola in Rio sits abandoned.
- Poma double rope evacuated at Mont Orford.
- Heron-Poma double rope evac’d at Sleeping Giant before problem apparently fixed with a screwdriver.
- French lift site reports on two brand new lifts in Quebec.
- Waterville Valley’s new Green Peak triple will finally open Saturday.
- “Mexicable is a great experience and it is something that you need to do should you ever visit Mexico City.”
- Austrian rope manufacturer Teufelberger acquires Italian competitor Redaelli (Fatzer of Switzerland and ArcelorMittal of France are the other big two.)
- See more photos of the mind-blowing Giggijochbahn gondola.
- La Paz’s fourth gondola opens March 6th.
- Leitner Ropeways will complete the new 8-passenger gondola in Torreón, Mexico in April.
- British Columbia approves construction of Revelstoke Adventure Park with chairlift/gondola construction planned for 2017 and 2018 adjacent to Revelstoke Mountain Resort.
- Seilbahn Blog has some awesome new photos of the first and only D-Line chairlift.
- Seven year-old falls from chair at Thunder Ridge.
- The New York Times checks in at Tamarack.
- Arapahoe Basin formally unveils Beavers/Steep Gullies trail map & expansion plan with fixed-grip quad chairlift to debut in late 2018.
- Doppelmayr to build 21,000′, $18 million gondola in Silao, Mexico.
- Sugarloaf and Doppelmayr are doing a mid-season load test of Skyline on Thursday.
Giggijochbahn
Instagram Tuesday: Breakover
Every Tuesday, we feature our favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
News Roundup: Oregon
- An opening day shout out to lift mechanics.
- The Telegraph profiles Giggijochbahn, Sölden’s new gondola that moves more people faster than any other lift on the planet.
- Cloudchaser will open Friday at Mt. Bachelor with a shortened Rainbow chair to follow.
- Ober Gatlinburg restarts operations following the recent wildfire after inspections of its aerial tram by Frey and Garaventa.
- The Gatlinburg Sky Lift sustained extensive damage and Boyne Resorts announces its intention to re-open with a new or repaired lift in spring 2017.
- Robert Redford, notably a Doppelmayr and Skytrac customer, releases video opposing the Grand Canyon Escalade.
- Jay Peak faces another setback as its tram haul rope tangles around track ropes following icing event.
- Peak Resorts lost almost $8 million in Q2.
- Whaleback won’t get a new T-Bar this year.
- Bullwheel entanglement kills tram mechanic in Japan.
- Branson Gondola memorandum of understanding vote postponed amid concerns about the business model.
- Trouble in Oregon as guests leash themselves to and dangle themselves from chairs at Ashland and Meadows, respectively.
- Nakiska sends apology letter to passholders and offers free skiing at sister resorts as multi-week shutdown of the Gold Chair Express continues.
- Bridger Bowl wants to replace Virginia City and move Snowflake within the next two years.
- This is Doppelmayr’s first D-Line chairlift.
- One lift goes down, another is rope evac’d on opening day at Snow Trails, OH.
- NewEnglandSkiIndustry.com posts a rundown of possible new lift projects for 2017 in New England.
News Roundup: One Third
- Alpine Mountain says goodbye to skiing. The Pennsylvania ski area once operated three Borvig fixed-grips chairlifts.
- Nearing December, Suicide Six and Waterville Valley are still building their respective new lifts.
- Skytrac talks ANSI and more with Ross Stevens of Stevens Engineering.
- East River Skyway gains more backers.
- City of Branson to vote on American Gondola agreement Dec. 13th.
- One summer is down, two more to go building the world’s highest 3S.
- Chile’s President inaugurates new Poma gondola in Santiago.
- Saddleback Mountain Foundation raises one third of the millions needed to reopen Maine’s third largest resort as a co-operative.
- Parks Canada is not on board with gondola transit for Banff.
- Ski racer gets $750,000 after being left on a gondola at Killington for five hours in October 2011.
News Roundup: Underway
- With construction progressing ahead of schedule, Mi Teleférico in La Paz will open its 4th, 5th and 6th gondolas in 2017 – to be named the Orange, Blue and White lines.
- Costa Rica to study urban gondolas, along with Guanajuato, Mexico.
- Al Jazeera English tours Mexico City’s new gondolas that are improving the lives of working families.
- Doppelmayr to build another 3S carrying 80,000 passengers daily across Kilindini Harbour in Nairobi, Kenya from mid-2018.
- Two new gondolas in Austria – Giggijochbahn (Doppelmayr 10-MGD) and Eisgratbahn (Leitner 3S) – join the ranks of the most capable lifts on the planet.
- Bartholet’s first urban cable car opens in Brest.
- It was a $9 million summer at Cascade Mountain.
- Magic Mountain sale closes.
Soelden Announces Record-Breaking Giggijochbahn
Soelden, Austria unveiled its record-breaking gondola today called Giggijochbahn, to open next winter with the ability to carry 4,500 passengers per hour. The ropeway will feature Doppelmayr’s next-generation D-Line components and two modern terminal buildings, one featuring panoramic images of the Alps and the other showing off ropeway technology behind real glass. The top terminal will have parking for most of the lift’s 134 CWA Omega IV-10-D cabins. Innsbruck architect Johann Obermoser designed the stations in collaboration with Soelden and Doppelmayr.
This will be an impressive system by any measure with 3,022 feet of vertical rise and an 8,688-foot slope length. Travelling at the record-breaking speed of 6.5 m/s (1,280 fpm) the ride will take just 8.87 minutes. The fastest monocable gondolas in the world currently top out at 1,212 fpm. The Giggijochbahn will have 26 towers and a 62 mm haul rope driven by a ~2,180 HP electric motor. The biggest innovation will be the capacity – reaching 4,500 passengers per hour, per direction. I believe 3,600 is the current capacity record for a monocable gondola, a record shared between many lifts including the 10-passenger Gondola One at Vail and the 15-passenger Village Gondola at Mammoth.
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