- Doppelmayr and the Government of Bolivia settle a multi-million dollar dispute over payment for urban gondola lines already completed.
- A small child falls from a lift at Ski Sundown.
- The world’s longest multi-section gondola opens in Serbia.
- Les Otten’s company takes 100 percent ownership of The Balsams.
- Brundage Mountain temporarily closes a lift due to Covid-related staffing issues.
- A shutdown of skiing has cost 9,000 jobs and CA$90 million in Ontario.
- The Wenatchee Express won’t open January 15th and a new date is TBD.
- Laurel Mountain closes for a week due to lift issues but will reopen today.
- French ski resorts remain closed through at least next week.
- Bartholet opens a new production site and teases an autonomous ropeway solution coming soon.
- The Sea to Sky Gondola sues insurance brokers over business interruption coverage and claims. The company has also ordered a fourth batch of cabins from CWA and intends to reopen late spring or early summer.
- Vail Resorts acknowledges a rough start to the season with skier visits down 16.6 percent, lift ticket revenue down 20.9 percent, retail/rental down 39.2 percent, ski school down 52.6 percent and dining down 66.2 percent through January 3rd.
- Cuchara gets close to reopening with one of four chairlifts.
- A Colorado appeals court upholds that waivers broadly protect ski resorts from chairlift-related injury claims.
- The Province of British Columbia and Big White will host a virtual public meeting regarding the resort’s ambitious master plan on January 26th.
- Spirit Mountain remains at a financial crossroads.
- Gunstock President Tom Day discusses what lift projects he’d like to see in the future and much more.
- With a part fast-tracked from Italy, Kimberley’s lone detachable chairlift could reopen as early as Sunday.
- A New York ski club fundraises for a new T-Bar cable.
- Parts are already arriving for Catamount’s new Glade triple.
Gunstock
News Roundup: Cold Front
- Sunday River releases maps of the upcoming Merrill Hill project.
- Updated stats from NSAA show how many ski areas operated in each state last winter.
- Las Vegas’ decision to go with Teslas in a tunnel rather than a Doppelmayr automated people mover may have been short sighted.
- Jay Peak President Steve Wright discusses joining the Indy Pass, limited winter tram operations and potential future lift upgrades.
- Mission Ridge begins erecting terminals for the new Liberator Express, which load and unload inside buildings.
- Whiteface’s new beginner quad will be called Owl Express.
- A new lift at Sun Valley will also get a fresh name, to be announced soon.
- Gunstock burns down an old T-Bar station for firefighter training.
- An Ontario ski area worries about lift safety following a rash of vandalism.
- With the launch of a gondola up Hoonah Mountain next year, an Alaska Native corporation sees new opportunities for development.
- Despite a 30 percent drop in business last winter, at least two New Zealand resorts plan to build new lifts this offseason.
- As Smartwool moves headquarters from Steamboat to Denver, the company gifts $1.5 million to Howelsen Hill for a new Barrows chairlift, to be built by Skytrac.
- A Michigan ski area with 12 lifts won’t make snow and will operate weekends only due to Coronavirus.
- Mont-Sainte-Anne is no longer certain its base-to-summit gondola will be functional by December.
- Big Sky wraps up a busy season of preparation for the Swift Current 6 top terminal and carrier storage facility.
News Roundup: Master Planning
- A gondola in North Dakota?
- The Forest Service approves Snowy Range’s plans to upgrade Chute to a triple with a Skytrac drive station.
- With social distancing in mind, the Singapore Cable Car offers in-gondola dining.
- Big Sky stops offering season passes due to capacity concerns.
- The Hermitage Club’s Hayfever triple will head south to Bousquet.
- Leaders of Vail Resorts, Aspen Snowmass and Sugarbush write about what next winter might look like.
- The Town of Jackson green lights Snow King Mountain’s proposed gondola, though the Forest Service still needs to weigh in.
- With no skier compaction this season, a closed chairlift is hit by an avalanche in Argentina.
- New Zealand’s ski season just got better with the opening of the country’s first D-Line lift.
- Check out the impressive progress on two new lifts at Timberline Mountain.
- Gunstock will go through a master planning process to determine what lift changes and other improvements are needed.
- Whiteface’s Cloudsplitter gondola reopens today with brand new CWA cabins and other improvements.
News Roundup: Graduation Season
- A member group officially owns the Hermitage Club property and will consult with leaders at Berkshire East and Catamount to get back up and running.
- Publicly-owned Gunstock Mountain Resort lost 9 percent of expected skier visits due to the pandemic but still turned a profit this season.
- Another publicly-owned ski area, Eaglecrest, has been placed near the top of the list for municipal budget cuts.
- Disney Parks Monopoly now includes the Disney Skyliner.
- CEO Rob Katz tells the Vail Resorts COVID story in a three part podcast.
- Two new gondolas at Icy Strait Point are really coming along.
- Timberline Lodge reopens for skiing and snowboarding today.
- Mt. Bachelor plans to operate starting Saturday with two lifts for season pass holders only.
- Beartooth Basin will open for skiing May 30th.
- Urban gondolas in Bolivia’s capital will only carry no more than four passengers per cabin upon reopening.
- Cranmore’s Skimobile Express will host a unique high school graduation ceremony in June, with graduates receiving their diplomas individually at the top of the lift.
- Same goes for Telluride High School and the Mountain Village Gondola.
- Work resumes on Sun Peaks’ new quad chair but the old Crystal triple will remain in place as long as possible in case stay-at-home orders return.
- At Arapahoe Basin, Molly Hogan is no more but Pallavicini will remain for a few more weeks. Chairs are being sold for $2,550 apiece.
- Doppelmayr releases its 2020 yearbook.
News Roundup: Flames
- Purgatory Resort closes indefinitely and is under a mandatory evacuation order due to the nearby 416 Fire.
- Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz tells analysts in a conference call there are still select acquisition opportunities in North America (with more elsewhere) and that there are no specific plans yet for the $35 million in capital earmarked for Okemo, Mt. Sunapee, Crested Butte and Stevens Pass.
- Swiss manufacturer BMF and French competitor LST team up to sell urban ropeways in France.
- The Forest Service tentatively approves Steamboat’s Pioneer Ridge expansion, Bashor Gondola and other new lifts.
- A plan for the complete rebuild and reopening of Denton Hill, Pennsylvania is now online.
- Less than a month after opening its first two urban gondolas, the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo unveils plans for a massive 6.8 mile, six station 3S gondola line.
- Politicians block Gunstock from borrowing $600,000 for lift maintenance and other offseason projects as some call for a private takeover of the county-owned ski resort.
- French lift website remontees-mecaniques.net interviews Sigma CEO Yannick Morand about premium Evo & Symphony gondola cabins, air conditioning and why ten passengers are the new eight.
- Non-Vail Colorado resorts tallied 7.1 million skier visits last season, only 2 percent below 2016-17.
- The Balsams developers request that the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority delay consideration of its $28 million state-backed loan application.
News Roundup: Study
- SAM reports almost all of North America’s ski industry had a difficult Christmas but things are improving.
- Pictures of a severed gondola cable from a Chamonix storm are incredible (reminder: the lift was not operating.)
- Through January 8th, Vail Resorts skier visits are pacing 10.8 percent below last season and non-Vail-owned Colorado resorts are down 13 percent.
- Gunstock rope evacuates 27 guests from the Silver Medal lift.
- A federal judge dismisses a lawsuit filed by a woman who broke her femur unloading the Discovery lift at Keystone.
- Colorado sides with Winter Park and rules that service dogs don’t necessarily belong on chairlifts.
- SAM‘s inaugural Summit Series piece brings together industry heavy-hitters and future leaders and not surprisingly, the first two stories quoted involve lifts!
- USFS and Doppelmayr veteran Michael Lane will succeed Sid Roslund as NSAA’s Director of Technical Services.
- Electrical fire damages Oakland Zoo’s skyride.
- A wall of mud partially buries the new Lightning Express at Marble Mountain.
- The Forest Service accepts Aspen Mountain’s master plan update including the construction of a Pandora detachble quad, removal of Gent’s Ridge and shortening of Bell Mountain. 1A study continues.
- The end is in sight for a significant midwinter repair to Fernie’s White Pass quad.
- Colorado Passenger Tramway Safety Board releases its investigation report on the carpet entanglement death of Loveland mechanic Adam Lee.
- Winter Park calls response to digital restraining bar displays “amazingly positive” and they may be deployed on other lifts and at more Alterra resorts.
- Mt. Spokane wisely opts to use the Riblet it purchased from Bridger Bowl for spare parts and is now soliciting bids for a brand new triple chair for this summer’s expansion.
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