- Skier visits at Vail Resorts are down 7.8 percent for the season through January 5th, attributed to slow starts at Whistler Blackcomb and Stevens Pass.
- Agassiz at Arizona Snowbowl was evacuated over MLK weekend and remains down.
- Visits and revenue continue to decline at the publicly-owned mountain in Newfoundland called Marble Mountain.
- It takes a ton of work to reopen lifts, particularly detachable ones, at Mt. Snow after an ice storm.
- By building a T-Bar instead of a chairlift, Ski Cooper was able to implement a major expansion this season for around $2 million.
- Mont St. Mathieu opens another $2 million T-Bar expansion, noting a chairlift would have cost more and moved skiers less quickly.
- The Snowpark expansion at Montana Snowbowl is a hit and LaValle is back open.
- Software problems lead to the closure of the new Morning Star Express at Bogus Basin (now back open.)
- BC’s Jumbo Glacier becomes an indigenous protected area, ending plans for a new ski resort there.
- Vail Resorts will pay out $200 bonuses to employees who refer new applicants to become lift operators at 14 resorts.
- The State of Illinois shuts down a ski resort, alleging required inspections weren’t completed prior to opening. In a statement, Snowstar apologizes to season passholders and says an inspector failed to show up. At least one lift will reopen today.
- Parks Canada axes plans for a Mt. Norquay gondola.
- Josh Elliott, the teen who jumped after becoming stranded on a Sugar Mountain chairlift in 2016, tells his harrowing story on the Outside podcast.
- Mt. Jefferson, Maine won’t open this season.
- New York State plans to spend $147 million to improve its ski areas.
- Bromont ropes down more than 200 people from the Express du Village, some after being stuck four and a half hours.
- Edmonton releases the preliminary economic and technical assessment for the Prairie Sky urban gondola.
- Siemens highlights a design software partnership with Doppelmayr.
Jumbo Glacier
News Roundup: Affirmation
- White Pass and Mission Ridge join the Powder Alliance as SilverStar and Stevens Pass exit.
- Soldier Mountain’s owners aren’t having much luck finding a buyer.
- An appeals court affirms the Jumbo Glacier Resort project can’t proceed without a new permit.
- Red Mountain is posting construction updates on the Topping Creek expansion every Tuesday.
- KSL Resorts becomes the new operator of Camelback.
- New runs are cut on Vail Mountain with lift installation to commence shortly.
- Snow King modifies its master plan to shift a proposed gondola and eliminate the existing Cougar lift.
- A worker dies while performing overnight maintenance on the La Paz urban gondola system.
- Hermitage Club stakeholders consider what might happen at the next bankruptcy court hearing, scheduled for August 23rd.
- Europe’s 15th 3S gondola system launches November 30th.
- Big White to add new, larger capacity cabins to Lara’s Gondola.
- Bittersweet in Michigan is significantly lengthening its Hawthorn triple.
News Roundup: Bahn
- Bretton Woods’ upcoming gondola gets a great name: Presidential Bahn.
- Copper updates the public on its big new American Eagle and American Flyer lifts.
- For the third time in six years, Soldier Mountain, Idaho hits the market. “The current owners have experienced the typical start up challenges that come with operating a ski area that has been under capitalized, under managed and under marketed for many years,” writes Mike Krongel of Mirus Resort Advisors.
- The BC Supreme Court orders the province to reconsider its 2015 decision to pull Jumbo Glacier Resort’s construction permit over lack of progress.
- Mont Cascades scores a $1.2 million grant from the Government of Quebec to help build the resort’s longest chairlift yet.
- The criminal case of a former employee who may or may not have been stuck on a Gore Mountain chairlift overnight last winter heads to trial.
- Snow King’s possible gondola gains two new alignment options. GM Ryan Stanley tells the Jackson Hole community “After struggling for so many years to keep the lifts spinning, it is sad to see the negativity associated with proposed improvements to the mountain.”
- The 380 acre Cold Springs Canyon expansion and detachable quad are officially a go for next summer at Sun Valley.
- Doppelmayr nears commissioning of a very cool gondola with spherical cabins, loopy towers and whimsical stations in Moscow.
- Stratton says goodbye to the SMS Poma, leaving just seven detachable surface lifts in the country by my count.
- 36 days before opening, go inside the eye-catching Matterhorn 3S gondola by Leitner Ropeways.
- Thanks to Everett and Will for these shots of Big Sky’s trailblazing Ramcharger 8 project.
News Roundup: Fighting
- The first of many Omega 10 passenger gondola cabins is spotted at Walt Disney World.
- Saddleback Mountain Foundation plans to make a second offer for Maine’s third largest ski area, which has been closed for nearly three years.
- Santiago, Chile awards the contract for an $80 million, four station urban gondola to Doppelmayr.
- The first indoor ski area in the Western Hemisphere plans to open March 1, 2019 with a Doppelmayr CTEC quad chair and platter that were installed back in 2008.
- A gondola is one option being considered to improve mobility in Little Cottonwood Canyon, home to Alta, Snowbird and lots of traffic.
- A Basin’s Al Henceroth updates us on Norway’s removal and hints more lift changes may be in store for Lenawee Mountain.
- Members of Congress from four states pen a letter to the Forest Service asking for Arizona Snowbowl to be reopened or further explanation given as to why its extended closure is necessary.
- Doppelmayr scores another project in Canada – a $1.8 million fixed-grip quad with loading carpet at Sugarloaf, New Brunswick.
- Rope evacuating 20-25 mountain bikers turns into a four hour affair at Marquette Mountain.
- Ikon Pass destination number 27 is Thredbo, Australia.
- Jumbo Glacier Resort is fighting to reinstate its construction permit.
- A spokesman for the new owners of Maple Valley, Vermont says reopening for skiing is a long term goal that could take many years to accomplish.
- Loveland seeks a good name for the new Lift 1.
- Loon Mountain is buying brand new CWA Omega cabins for its gondola this fall.
- Tremblant says goodbye to the Lowell Thomas triple, making way for a detachable quad.
- The first Hermitage Club property auction yields a $1.2 million winning bid. “There will be more of these coming up,” says the Windham County Sheriff.
- A breakdown at the Jasper SkyTram leads to an 18 hour helicopter evacuation of 160 guests.
Jumbo Glacier Resort is Dead
British Columbia’s Minister of Environment has finally killed the Jumbo Glacier Resort, proposed to rival Whistler in the Purcell Mountains of British Columbia. Jumbo Glacier is a spectacularly-remote place up a dirt logging road from Panorama Mountain Village and Invermere. It’s more than 200 miles from Calgary, the nearest major city and airport. The plan was to build 20+ lifts on 3,000 hectares of public land above 5,000 feet. You can read the full master plan here.
The project was first submitted to the BC government in 1991 and received environmental approval in 2004. The resort claimed they would get 2,700 skiers per day. This was always a red flag to me as 2,700 skiers is not a big number for a destination ski resort. Take for example a mid-sized area like Mt. Sunapee in New Hampshire. It has six lifts and a comfortable carrying capacity of 5,220 skiers per day. 2,700 could justify perhaps three or four lifts at Jumbo, not 23.
BC has no shortage of large ski areas struggling due to remoteness. Kicking Horse and Revelstoke are perhaps most similar to the Jumbo proposal. Revelstoke was supposed to have 21 lifts; they built three before running out of money in 2008. Lucky for them, the 27th richest person in Canada bought in and paid off over $100 million in debt. Kicking Horse was in similar trouble when it was rescued by Resorts of the Canadian Rockies in 2011. Both of these resorts are on the Trans-Canada Highway, not 50 miles from a town.
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