- Mission Ridge is named its community’s Business of the Year for pressing forward with an ambitious lift replacement project using local labor during the pandemic.
- An auction gets underway for Howelsen Hill’s retiring double chairs.
- More than 28,000 non-union Vail Resorts employees will see end of season bonuses.
- Looking to cut costs, Six Flags axes one of its last three remaining VonRoll gondolas in Georgia.
- Silverton, Colorado weighs building a traditional ski resort to complement the non-traditional Silverton Mountain.
- Another child slips out of a chair but this time hangs on all the way to the top.
- Vail Resorts announces a better than expected 28.4 percent decrease in revenue for the quarter ended January 31st. Season to date through March 7th, skier visits are down 8.2 percent, lift revenue is down 8.9 percent, ski school revenue down 43.2 percent, dining revenue down 56.9 percent and retail/rental revenue down 31.6 percent.
- A report prepared by SE Group suggests $23 million worth of improvements to Spirit Mountain including a replacement Gandy lift. Under the plan, Double Jaw and Summit would be removed without replacement.
- Great Bear begins construction of its new Skytrac quad.
- A strategic plan for Arctic Valley includes T-Bar replacement.
- Blue Knob performs a night rope evacuation of the Route 66 double.
- The former owner of Showdown Montana floats developing a small ski area atop an EPA superfund site near Great Falls.
- The Jackson Hole Aerial Tram will shut down for maintenance all summer but two gondolas and a chairlift will spin instead.
- Leitner introduces an online ropeway configurator tool.
- A new lost Northeast ski area video series begins with an episode on Hogback Mountain.
- Virginia could become home to an even larger indoor ski area than New Jersey.
- Big Sky and Bridger Bowl skier visits trend lower than last year.
- Mt. Sunapee will auction chairs from the Duckling double to benefit the EpicPromise Foundation.
Jackson Hole
News Roundup: New Names
- A new ownership group takes over Brundage Mountain Resort.
- Commuters in the Vancouver region overwhelmingly support a Burnaby Mountain Gondola.
- The Sea to Sky Gondola team and partners splice together multiple haul rope sections to run cabins off the line, completing cleanup.
- The Ropeway Center at Colorado School of Mines presents a new video series.
- Doppelmayr will build the Yodeler detachable quad at Holiday Valley.
- The Forest Service says yes to two future chairlifts at Lee Canyon.
- Ditto for Sunlight’s East Ridge project.
- With its high speed quad nearing completion, Saddleback is poised to reopen in mid-December.
- Windham Mountain renames the Wheelchair lift Baker in honor of a former ski patroller.
- Arizona Snowbowl publishes a new trail map painted by Kevin Mastin.
- Big Sky’s new map shows Madison is now called Jayhawk.
- The Tampa Bay-St. Petersburg-Clearwater region will spend six figures to study gondola transit.
- Without an operator, the only lift in Oklahoma faces an uncertain future.
News Roundup: Olympics
- The proposed Park City gondola system I wrote about last week could be tied to a 2030 or 2034 Salt Lake Olympic bid.
- Another Mission Ridge bubble update.
- Timberline Helicopters, the leader in ski lift flying for the Western United States, adds another Black Hawk to its fleet.
- The State of Virginia proposes building a chairlift at Natural Bridge State Park near Lynchburg.
- Vancouver explores another winter Olympic bid.
- Vail Resorts retires some former Peak Resorts lifts: Mad River at Mad River Mountain, the Double Chair at Alpine Valley and Black Forest at Big Boulder (all Hall doubles).
- One of Marble Mountain’s chairlifts will sit idle this season and the ski area won’t open until January.
- Chairs are being sold off from three of six chairlifts at closed Sugar Loaf, Michigan.
- TimberlineMountain.com goes live with a new trail map.
- A late season fire scorches 60 acres near Tamarack’s Summit Express.
- Receiver Douglas Wilson looks back at saving Tamarack during the 2008 financial crisis.
- Wachusett adds new graphics to the Polar Express, which is named for sister company Polar Seltzer.
- Sugarbush’s new chief discusses the future of Slide Brook Express, possible expansion and potential lift upgrades.
- Poma’s business is down 30 percent but the French company will keep its 1,300 employees working.
- One project keeping Poma busy: a showcase urban 3S in Toulouse.
- The Jackson Hole Aerial Tram will carry 25 passengers at a time this winter.
- This is how gondola Wi-Fi works.
- Aspen Snowmass prepares to debut its first DirectDrive lift.
- Sun Valley’s new lift, pictured below, gets named Broadway. Updated trail map here.
News Roundup: Name Change
- MND introduces a new brand with four divisions: MND Snow, MND Safety, MND Leisure and MND Ropeways (formerly LST.)
- MND expects a return to profitability next year and projects the global ropeway market will reach $4.3 billion in 2024.
- Construction gets underway on the third MND T-Bar in the United States.
- Wolf Creek leaves Colorado Ski Country USA.
- North America’s longest gondola misses Labor Day weekend due to a mechanical issue.
- Sun Peaks won’t spin the West Bowl T-Bar this winter.
- Jackson Hole will increase lift speeds and allow skiers to bypass the Aerial Tram by hiking to the summit this winter.
- China Peak reports minimal on-mountain damage from the Creek Fire so far.
- Killington will open later than normal with 50 percent lift capacity.
- Here’s the latest Timberline Mountain construction update.
News Roundup: Investments
- A trial gets underway to decide whether a moving chairlift worsened the spread of a wildfire in New Zealand.
- BC’s hard-hit ski industry lobbies for government assistance.
- All five ski resorts located in Victoria, Australia are now closed thanks to Covid-19, including two operated by Vail Resorts.
- Here’s the latest update from Sun Valley’s Cold Springs expansion project.
- And another one from Arapahoe Basin’s summer of new lifts.
- The Hermitage Club gets back to basics as it looks to save money and focus on skiing.
- Liftopia stays out of bankruptcy for now.
- Hilltop Ski Area seeks a used chairlift for its beginner slope.
- After numerous employees test positive for Covid-19, the world’s largest gondola system shuts down again.
- MND Group secures $45 million in new financing from the French government and a private investment firm.
- Jackson Hole announces plans to operate its aerial tram this winter, which has been closed since March 14th.
- Fitsimmons Express, the major access lift for the Whistler Mountain Bike Park, suffers multiple days of downtime.
News Roundup: Modernizing
- The Forest Service issues an operating permit to Mountain Capital Partners for Elk Ridge, Arizona, though reopening plans remain fluid.
- Sun Valley’s Cold Springs projects takes a major step forward with the removal of 50 year old lift towers.
- Tim Boyd, the visionary behind Peaks Resorts, earns NSAA’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
- Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows will evaluate changing its name.
- Arctic Valley builds a public use cabin integrated into the top terminal of Chair 2.
- Solitude becomes the latest resort to abandon summer operations to focus on winter.
- President Trump signs an executive order banning many foreign workers until 2021, including J-1 visas used by many American ski resorts.
- Despite Coronavirus, Utah resorts enjoyed their fourth best season in history.
- For sale: a classic Hall T-Bar.
- Virus-related financial impacts may delay Sunlight’s proposed East Ridge project.
- Jackson Hole takes a hit but will consider replacing Sublette and/or Thunder as early as 2021.
- A Georgia community grapples with what to do about Stone Mountain, where an aerial tramway travels over the nation’s largest Confederate monument.
- Disney Skyliner cabins are spotted back out on all three lines.
News Roundup: Spread Out
- Snowy Range proposes upgrading the Chute double chair to a triple.
- Construction ramps up on the first next generation Leitner 2S gondola, a $49 million project.
- The Storm Skiing Podcast catches up with Doppelmayr USA President Katharina Schmitz, whose team is working hard to deliver remaining 2020 projects on time.
- Similar to last week’s case against Vail, an Ikon Pass holder files a class action suit against Alterra over early resort closures.
- Prairie Sky Gondola selects Doppelmayr to assist with the next phase of its design.
- Arapahoe Basin’s Al Henceroth gives four reasons he’s pressing ahead with two lift replacements this summer.
- Mt. Baldy in Southern California becomes the first North American resort to reopen for skiing and riding with social distancing measures in place.
- The Jackson Hole Aerial Tram will not operate this summer due to scheduled maintenance.
- Following cities in France and Germany, the Czech Republic capital will build a 3S gondola for urban transport.
- Comcast’s Universal Parks division files a patent for a multi-stop gondola system with cars that can self propel when detached from haul ropes.
- According to a new report, the United States leads the world in annual skier visits but has only six of the world’s 50 busiest mountains (with the second most lifts of any country.)
News Roundup: Experimental
- Cape Smokey in Nova Scotia plans to build a gondola beginning this spring to replace a disused quad.
- Here’s the latest from Saddleback.
- Australian bushfires destroy a ski resort which vows to rebuild.
- The Town of Jackson approves Snow King’s updated master plan, leaving just the Forest Service left to weigh in.
- Silver Mountain reopens three days after a fatal inbounds avalanche.
- More than 2,000 visitors a day are skiing and snowboarding Big Snow and Alterra is watching the experiment closely.
- An employee who lost his arm in a conveyor lift receives a $10 million settlement.
- Eleven years in, the Jackson Hole Aerial Tram gets a new haul rope.
- Sunridge completes a successful rope evacuation of the Parkview Quad on a cold night.
News Roundup: Unboxing
- Lizards prevent construction of an announced chairlift project in New Zealand.
- Berkshire East and Catamount owner Jon Schaefer finds success staying away from detachable lifts and acquiring used lifts from across the country.
- Ikon Pass sales rose 60 percent over last year.
- Cockaigne, NY will reopen in January after many seasons closed.
- Frost Fire, ND reopens after a missed season.
- A 3S gondola to Snowbird and Alta would cost more than $300 million to build and $12 million a year to operate.
- Vail Resorts looks to build it first D-Line chairlift, not in Colorado or California but at Perisher.
- The Forest Service green lights construction of a new Big Burn lift at Snowmass.
- A new version of Eagle’s Rest comes Jackson Hole.
- A downed tree causes extended stops at Silver Mountain.
- The one year old Blackcomb Gondola went down Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week.
- Disney Skyliner guests can now call a dedicated phone line for information when gondolas stop for longer than usual.
- Lift service returns to Tamarack’s Wildwood zone tomorrow.
- Copper’s Tucker Mountain becomes lift served for the first time today.
- Regardless of whether Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows build an interconnect gondola, a private ski area may open nearby.
News Roundup: Wish Lists
- More new trail maps are out with new lifts on them: Brian Head, Jackson Hole, Montana Snowbowl, Schweitzer, Revelstoke and Windham.
- Sea to Sky Gondola turns its parking lot into a drive in theater while rebuild of the lift continues.
- “Boyne is looking at replacing a lot of lifts throughout the whole company and we’re on that list,” says Karl Strand of Sugarloaf in an annual fall update. His wish list includes replacing Timberline, Double Runner, Sawduster and West Mountain.
- Mike Solimano at Killington also has a lift replacement wish list for Powdr.
- Arapahoe Basin plans to replace both Pallavicini and Molly Hogan next summer.
- Sunrise Park says a replacement for the decommissioned Cyclone lift would cost more than $10 million but is a long term goal.
- Hunter will convert its D triple to a double with Partek chairs.
- The Forest Service tentatively approves Arizona Snowbowl’s proposed Agassiz Telemix project.
- An Orlando TV station plays some 911 calls from the night the Disney Skyliner broke down two weeks ago.
- Seven months after an announced sale of Granby Ranch, the ski area still hasn’t changed hands.
- Montana Snowbowl’s long-awaited expansion lift on TV Mountain will be called Snow Park and open in December.
- Sugar Mountain puts the finishing touches on its first high speed quad.
