Killington – Lift Blog

News Roundup: Wish Lists

October 18, 2019Peter Landsman12 Comments

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.

News Roundup: New Gondolas

May 10, 2019Peter Landsman28 Comments

It looks like Snowbird has joined the Powdr family of adventure lifestyle brands.
A batch of green gondolas arrives at Bretton Woods as towers go vertical.
Another group of new Omega cabins is uncovered in Florida.
Little Switzerland and The Rock Snowpark are upgrading chairs on multiple lifts and selling the old ones.
The Lake Placid gondola cabins will be white and black.
Top leadership positions at Doppelmayr will be filled by two longtime executives this fall.
With no operations planned for this summer, Hermitage Club receiver Alan Tantleff updates the government on the status of the ski resort’s properties.
Crested Butte receives approval for the Teocalli replacement project and plans to remove Twister as well.
Killington says it’s considering upgrades for Superstar Express, Ramshead Express and Outpost at Pico next.
Despite being partly flooded, the Grafton, Illinois gondola is on track to open later this spring.
Tanzania might build a gondola on 19,341-foot Mt. Kilimanjaro.
Peak Resorts reports double digit growth of season pass sales.
West Mountain’s Thiokol is for sale along with some Poma lifts that were once planned to replace it.

News Roundup: 3S

April 26, 2019Peter Landsman4 Comments

An affiliate of Silver Mountain buys 49 Degrees North.
A citizen group wants the Colorado Passenger Tramway Safety Board to regulate lift operations more broadly than the current mechanical focus.
Bogus Basin will auction a bunch of Riblet triple chairs beginning Sunday.
The Disney Skyliner is not a normal gondola and will be evacuated as such in an emergency.
Steamboat already has a gondola construction update.
So does Bretton Woods.
A guy accused of ducking ropes around a chairlift terminal at Killington is charged with disorderly conduct.
Whistler Blackcomb will open some of the same lifts for both skiers and mountain bikers for the first time this spring.
The Forest Service gives its blessing to the Eldora Jolly Jug expansion and high speed lift.
Doppelmayr USA is on Facebook.
Vail Resorts reports a fantastic season with skier visits, lift ticket revenue, retail, ski school and dining all up between 6.2 and 9.3 percent through April 21st.
The Los Angeles Dodger Stadium 3S is headed to environmental review.
Poma’s 3S project in China is going to have an insane 5,775 people per hour capacity.
CWA teases its soon-to-debut 3S cabin.

News Roundup: A Long Time Coming

March 22, 2019March 23, 2019Peter Landsman19 Comments

Above: groomers and mechanics deploy a new strategy to keep the Jackson Hole Aerial Tram flying above this winter’s huge snowpack.
Despite planning to open this winter for the first time in three years, Spout Springs now says it won’t happen.
A Boston private equity firm is reportedly interested in spending $25-30 million to reopen Maine’s third largest resort.
We’ll have to wait awhile longer to ski year round in New Jersey
Killington confirms North Ridge Quad is a go for this summer.
This morning at 9:00 Pacific is a rare chance to score a classic Murray-Latta double chair.
Mt. Mancelona in Michigan revives the world’s second oldest T-Bar but earns a cease and desist order from the state amid a host of financial problems.
A revived Fortress Mountain would mimic Red Mountain and Whitewater but with a fleet of brand new lifts.
Reader Christoph thinks he’s solved the mystery of where Mission Ridge’s new bubble lift is from: Brixen, Austria.
County approval paves the way for Eldora to build the Jolly Jug expansion lift next year.
Aspen Highlands’ Golden Horn platter is now a 2020 project.
Mt. Hood Meadows says it’s announcing the most significant improvement of this century later today.
There’s another new British Columbia resort idea floating around: Zincton Mountain Village.
Shuttered two chair area Deer Mountain hits the market.
On the other side of South Dakota, flooding damages the lone lift and ends the season at Great Bear.
The Sea to Sky Gondola gets negative press for telling unprepared hikers to walk down from the summit after closing time.
An ad in the New York State Contract Reporter suggests a new chairlift is coming to Belleayre this summer, though the resort tells me no decision has been made yet.
We now know why Sun Valley pushed back the Cold Springs project to 2020: the alignment has changed for the high speed quad.
Bretton Woods says its new gondola will open later this year. Reader Donovan Seabury sent me these pictures of its progress.

News Roundup: Beyond Skiing

February 8, 2019February 8, 2019Peter Landsman7 Comments

According to the New York State contracting website, the Gore Mountain Sunway, High Peaks, Hudson and Whiteface Bear Den lift replacement projects that went out to bid last fall are all on hold. Two bids were received for the Olympic Jumping Complex gondola in Lake Placid but no builder has been selected as of January 18th.
A chair falls off a 1993 Yan detachable quad in Spain, closing an entire ski resort indefinitely.
Lift service returns to Killington’s South Ridge for the first time in a decade as of yesterday.
Bartholet completes its first 10 passenger gondola lift in Norway.
Les Otten lobbies for a new bill that would permit public financing for The Balsams redevelopment.
The proposed gondola in Idaho Springs, Colorado would be modeled after the Sea to Sky Gondola, which now carries more than 400,000 riders a year in British Culumbia. The 1.2 mile Colorado version would rise 1,100 feet above Interstate 70.
The largest lost ski resort in Canada, Fortress Mountain, could reopen with a mix of new and refurbished lifts in 2020.
Sun Valley and Snowbasin ditch the Mountain Collective Pass for a partnership with Vail Resorts and the Epic Pass starting next winter.
The Laconia Daily Sun explains how Highland Mountain Bike Park finds success on the grounds of a long lost New Hampshire ski area.
The former longtime operator of Timberline Four Seasons Resort is indicted, accused of illegally prescribing pain drugs. The ski area suffered a major lift accident in 2016 and has operated only sporadically this winter.

News Roundup: Shutdown

January 11, 2019January 11, 2019Peter Landsman44 Comments

The Jay Peak receiver hires an investment bank to market Vermont’s northernmost resort to potential buyers.
Now flying at Copper Mountain: the world’s longest bubble chair. Down to five new ski lifts that have yet to open this season in the United States.
The government shutdown coincides terribly with Hurricane Ridge’s ski season, which can’t start without funding for the National Park Service.
Alpine Media Technology launches digital signage on lifts at Steamboat with more Alterra resorts to follow.
Many North American resorts enjoyed a banner holiday week.
Vail Resorts North American skier visits are up 16.9 percent through January 6th.
Killington applies for permission to replace the North Ridge chairlift with a fixed grip quad.
The BBC traces the global rise of urban gondolas.
A Maine county joins the state in suing the owner of Big Squaw Mountain for failing to operate the resort, which once was the second largest in Vacationland.
The Lift 1 Corridor Project heads to Aspen voters March 5th.
Arizona Snowbowl closes Agassiz for a mid season gearbox replacement.
Elk Ridge, Arizona won’t operate for the second season in a row, leaving just three ski areas in the state.
Attitash’s Summit triple is still closed.
So are two of Pajarito’s main lifts indefinitely.
The 2018 Olympic Downhill venue – gondolas, high speed quads and all – may be returned to a natural state.
Lawyers for The Hermitage Club seek more time to respond to a lawsuit filed by investors who helped purchase the Barnstormer bubble chairlift.
Santo Domingo, the largest city in the Dominican Republic, solicits bids for its third and fourth urban gondola sections with hourly capacities of 6,000 and 4,500, respectively.
Scott Pierpont retires as Vice President of Sales at Doppelmayr USA and is succeeded by Shawn Marquardt.
Glenwood Caverns’ old gondola is already rising again in southern Illinois.
Last month’s lift evacuation at Whitefish got worldwide media attention. The Flathead Beacon digs into why the mountain was so well prepared for the situation.

News Roundup: Tough Week

January 4, 2019Peter Landsman17 Comments

The first lift-served bike park in Texas opens January 18th with a fixed-grip quad called the Texas Eagle.
What was once the longest triple chair on the continent is officially off the Sunrise Park trail map.
Pajarito does a rope evac of the Aspen lift on opening day.
Simultaneously, Whitefish evacuates East Rim, which goes over quite the cliff.
Breckenridge brings out the ropes for the Quicksilver Super6 the same day.
Yet another lift is rope evacuated at Loch Lomond, Ontario.
39 lawsuits have been filed against The Hermitage Club and its founder to date.
Attitash provides daily updates on Summit, which has been down a bunch lately.
Hickory, NY won’t reopen this winter.
Killington still plans to open the new South Ridge quad sometime this winter.
Map master James Niehues gives up on retirement and is painting a new trail map for Mt. Bachelor.
The planned race training T-Bar at Sunday River is a go for this summer.
A teenager dies from a chairlift fall at Blue Mountain, PA.
A lucky nine year old keeps on skiing after falling 40 feet from Solitude’s Moonbeam Express.
A teen girl dies after jumping from a quad chair in Quebec.
Greater Vancouver’s transit agency still wants to build a gondola up Burnaby Mountain but needs funding for it.

News Roundup: Adding More

November 16, 2018Peter Landsman7 Comments

The Forest Service tentatively approves Vail’s Golden Peak T-Bar project.
US Representative from New York Patrick Maloney dreams up a gondola across the Hudson.
Red Mountain seeks approval to build the Topping Creek lift.
Apple Mountain, Michigan is no longer a ski area.
The first rope evac of the season goes to Super Bee at Copper.
Gore Mountain solicits bids to replace Sunway and High Peaks with fixed grip quads. That brings the Olympic Regional Development Authority to five potential lift projects for 2019!
The Aspen City Council considers Aspen Mountain’s Telemix project again.
The Jackson Town Council rejects Snow King Mountain’s proposed gondola alignment.
Doppelmayr apologizes for a delay completing the new Blackcomb Gondola. The new Catskinner and Emerald Express lifts open Thursday and the gondola will be finished by December 14th.
Calgary voters say no to hosting the 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
The world’s largest urban gondola network now transports 250,000 passengers every weekday with the most popular line doing a million passengers every 19 days.
Alterra’s Ikon Pass now includes three resorts in New Zealand; Vail adds Les 3 Vallées, France and Skirama Dolomiti in Italy to the Epic Pass.
Following a lift failure and other struggles, the owners of Timberline, West Virginia seek to recapitalize and restructure the business.
Remember Gudauri, the Georgian ski resort which made global headlines last winter? It’s fixing the quad that rolled back and adding six more lifts.
The Hermitage Club receiver will retain a single lift mechanic to maintain five chairlifts in mothballed status over the winter.
The longest Skytrac to date is ready for winter in Washington State.
Killington puts new Sigma cabins on the K-1 Gondola a few at a time.
The Ramcharger 8 haul rope is spliced and chairs are in place at the summit of Andesite Mountain.
Ski Blandford is officially back in business minus one chairlift.

News Roundup: Rope Time

November 9, 2018November 9, 2018Peter Landsman10 Comments

Searchmont, Ontario sells to Wisconsin Resorts, the firm behind Pine Knob, Mt. Holly and Ski Bittersweet in Michigan as well as Alpine Valley, Wisconsin.
Mike Solimano of Killington reveals what three lifts he would upgrade if given $100 million to spend at The Beast.
The new Winter Park gondola is creatively named Gondola.
Grand Junction’s NBC affiliate takes viewers inside the factory where Leitner-Poma lifts are created.
The two stage Blackcomb Gondola is almost finished; thanks Max for these pictures.

Next up for Ramcharger 8 at Big Sky: installation of an in-terminal video wall and the haul rope, which is going up right now.
Beech Mountain commissions its twin fixed grip quads.
Freeskier looks at Alterra’s whirlwind growth and future trajectory.
Rope pulling commences tonight at Walt Disney World, 24 years to the day since the Disneyland Skyway cable was taken down for good.
This week’s new trail map comes from Hunter Mountain.
In an act of sabotage, someone cuts into three haul ropes at a Pyrenees ski resort.

LO NUNCA VISTO La estación de #Pal #Vallnord ha sufrido un sabotaje con diversos cortes en los cables de tres remontes. El perturbrador acto delictivo ha encendido todas las alarmas en el sector de la #nieve de #Andorra. #esqui #ski Aquí la ultima hora https://t.co/3qNJXmz3MR pic.twitter.com/W5o1S68Ceg

— Turiski (@turi_ski) November 6, 2018

Construction of Montana Snowbowl’s TV Mountain lift may stretch into a fourth construction season.
Sun Peaks wins my vote for the best new lift color scheme of 2018.
SnowBrains shines a light on the lift maintenance profession.
Mountain Creek looks to exit bankruptcy with SNOW Operating as a controlling partner.
Westside Six comes together at Windham Mountain.

News Roundup: More Maps

October 26, 2018October 27, 2018Peter LandsmanLeave a comment

As Aspen Mountain considers a Telemix combination lift, the Aspen Daily News looks back at other unique lifts in Pitkin County history.
Purden Ski Village in BC is for sale at $1.7 million USD ($2.2 million CAD). The area operates two doubles and a T-Bar, all built by Mueller.
Snowbird’s Chickadee has a new tower that hangs from a bridge.
The final Disney Skyliner towers rise from a lake and one station gets a mural.
Peak Pass sales are pacing ahead of last year by 19 percent in units and 22 percent in dollars despite increased northeast competition from Vail and Alterra.
The shut down Hermitage Club expects to close on $25-30 million in financing around Thanksgiving. One potential reopening complication: the chairlifts haven’t been touched by mechanics since March.
A new trail map shows the locations of Killington’s three new lifts.
Beech Mountain is rocking two new quad chairs this winter and an all new trail map.
Taos has an updated map to go along with its high speed quad.

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