- Aspen Mountain 1A stakeholders narrow replacement options to a few alignments with a two-stage lift or pulse gondola still in the mix.
- Crystal Mountain, WA retires its hand-painted trail map for a computer-rendered VistaMap.
- Antelope Butte, Wyoming inches closer to reopening with its two existing Riblet chairlifts.
- Local paper tells the story of how Borvig’s owner came to own Berthoud Pass.
- Breckenridge and Vail debut new Leitner-Poma six-place lifts.
- A power outage closes Sugarloaf on the always-busy day after Christmas.
- Two different New Hampshire ski areas remain closed due to problems with lifts.
- LST detachable lift number one is still undergoing testing in France with opening now planned for January.
- Bromley’s Sun Mountain Express is back in action today following Monday’s incident. Ironically, it’s currently on wind hold.
Granite Gorge
News Roundup: BMF Builds a Gondola
- The Boston Globe profiles a man who bought 62 lifts at 11 mountain resorts in his career and now wants to build a resort with 25 lifts at The Balsams.
- While states like West Virginia have no government oversight agency, a New Hampshire newspaper asks whether that state’s tramway board goes far enough. Part II of the investigation deals with lift inspections and Part III the recent grip-slip incident at Granite Gorge.
- The writing was on the wall but it’s now official; there will be no season at Saddleback.
- Nippon Cable will build Japan’s first chondola this summer at Niseko along with a pulse gondola.
- A San Diego County Supervisor thinks his city will have a gondola before the Chargers build a new stadium. The San Diego Bay to Balboa Park Skyway would cover two miles in 12 minutes and carry 2,400 people per hour.
- The federal government is in a dispute with the concessionaire that, up until yesterday, operated Badger Pass Ski Area in Yosemite National Park. Deleware North Corporation wants $51.2 million for trademarks including the Badger Pass® name so the National Park Service has re-named the mountain Yosemite Ski & Snowboard Area. Its four chairlifts are safe from the litigation and now operated by Aramark Corporation as part of a $2 billion contract.
News Roundup: Fansipan Legend Opens
- The $210 million Fansipan Legend 3S opened yesterday after two years of construction, becoming the world’s longest and tallest tri-cable gondola.
- Brothers selected to build and operate a chairlift at the North Carolina State Fair to open by October. Now they just need the chairlift.
- Weak Canadian dollar not helping ski hills looking to buy lifts that are now twice as expensive.
- Doppelmayr USA says it’s in “active dialogue” with 15 to 20 cities for urban gondolas, including Clearwater, Florida.
- Developers of Garibaldi at Squamish get the first of many approvals for a new resort with 3 gondolas and 18 chairlifts.
- Two people hospitalized when a grip issue stacks two chairs at Granite Gorge Ski Area. The lift in question is a 1981 Borvig double.
- Okemo stops the practice of heating motor rooms 24/7, saves $31,000 a year.
- An errant tree at Snow Summit de-ropes a CTEC triple in gusty winds. Two riders fall from chairs, others are evacuated with only minor injuries.
- Contract awarded for India’s first urban gondola, to cost $24 million and open within two years.
- Just a week after sanctions on Iran were lifted, Bartholet announces it’s building a gondola system on the resort island of Kish. A definite upgrade from the salvaged Yan detachable installed last year in Isfahan (if you’re wondering, it made the journey from Silver Star, BC.)
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