- Austria’s Saalbach, Zell am See-Kaprun, Mayrhofen, Hintertux and Silvretta Montafon join the Epic Pass as partner resorts, bringing Epic to nine European destinations.
- Poma releases its 2024 Reference Book highlighting projects around the world.
- Eaglecrest may not meet a 2028 deadline to complete its used pulse gondola.
- America’s only summer only ski area will open this year for the first time in three.
- Whaleback meets a $250,000 fundraising goal for lift repairs.
- Opposition organizes against proposed Grand Targhee expansion.
- Bluewood, Washington to sell chairs if its new lift project is on track by September 1st.
- Hawaii’s first gondola is proposed on the North Shore of Oahu.
- A gondola is floated for Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
- Also Anaheim, California.
- Marmot Basin’s visitation drops 30 percent due to last year’s fire in Jasper.
- Silver Mountain delays summer opening due to gondola repairs.
- Timberline Helicopters, the company that installs the majority of lift towers in the West, breaks ground on a $13 million expansion in North Idaho.
- The nonprofit organization that’s been trying to revive Cuchara, Colorado inks a 40 year operating lease for the mountain.
- Vail Mountain intends to begin work on the lift projects I wrote about last week next summer, subject to Forest Service approval.
- President Trump proposes a 50 percent tariff on imports from the European Union starting June 1st.
Leitner-Poma
An Adventure in Europe with Leitner-Poma
A few weeks ago I ventured to the Alps with a delegation from Leitner-Poma of America. LPOA is the North American arm of High Technology Industries, the holding company behind iconic European ropeway builders Leitner, Poma and Bartholet. While Leitner-Poma of America fabricates upwards of 85 percent of its equipment in Colorado and Utah, the US outpost partners closely with its sister companies back in Europe. The trip included peers from a dozen US and Canadian resorts along with Leitner-Poma employees and partners (full disclosure, LPOA covered the cost of my trip other than airfare.)
Our first stop after arriving in Munich was the Nebelhorn, near the town of Oberstdorf. Leitner constructed a state-of-the-art 2S system here in 2021, replacing several jig-back tramways. A 2S combines the efficiency of a monocable gondola with the stability and long spans of a tram. The Nebelhornbahn features two sections, automated parking and striking Symphony cabins designed by Pininfarina. Oberstdorf Lifts CEO Henrik Volpert took us on a fantastic tour of the gondola’s motor rooms, maintenance bays and parking areas. Not only does Henrik oversee seven ski areas in the region but he also serves as President of the German Ski Areas Association.
At the top of the 2S, we continued onto an older jigback tramway, the first of several on this trip. It was closing day for this resort and locals were still skiing on the upper mountain while we ate lunch.
After lunch we headed to the other side of the valley, where another of Henrik’s mountains had already opened for summer. This family ski area features a mountain coaster, several kid-friendly activities and hiking in the summer season (there’s no real offseason here.) We rode a neat monocable gondola with a 90 degree angle station to mid-mountain. Everything on the lift was top of the line including Leitner’s premium stations, a direct drive and Diamond EVO cabins.
The next day took us through Austria to Italy, where Leitner’s first 3S system operates between the city of Bolzano and the mountain village of Ritten/Renon (towns in this region carry both German and Italian names.) This unique 3S operates in a pulse fashion with cabins coming to complete stops in the stations while the line keeps moving at varying speeds. The 3S serves as public transit for more than a million riders a year and costs just five Euros to ride. The lift spans nearly 15,000 feet with ten 35 passenger cabins. At the top, an electric train carries riders further up the plateau with views of the Dolomites.
A highlight of the trip was seeing Leitner’s factories, the largest of which lies in the company’s hometown of Sterzing. There’s a ski area right in town, of course, but it had closed for the season. Our host here was Anton Seeber, the friendly leader of HTI Group and its many brands. Sterzing is a true production facility with workers and machines cutting and welding raw steel into bullwheels, tire banks and towers. Sterzing also produces casings for direct drives used all over the world. We visited this factory on a Sunday so no one was working but it was cool to see components in varying stages of completion.
The next day we headed back to Austria and a newer factory which specializes in assembly of chairs, grips, hangers and direct drives. The 45,000 square meter Telfs plant opened in 2008 and serves just three customers: Leitner, Poma and Leitner-Poma of America. The various arms of HTI used to produce chairs and grips in different plants but consolidation to Telfs improved efficiency and quality control. In a busy year, LPOA buys 1,000 chairs from Telfs out of 2,600 to 4,000 chairs produced there. Chairs are built in batches for a specific lift. The reason for this is a six place chair, for example, can be ordered in 230 different variations depending on customer preferences. The day we were in the factory a crew was busy assembling chairs for Snowmass’ new Elk Camp six pack, set to open next season. Two Snowmass guys were on the tour and got to sit on their new chair for a photo months before first chair. Bretton Woods’ Bethlehem Express chairs had just been completed and were being readied for their boat ride to New Hampshire.
Every chair begins as a straight piece of tubular steel. An automated bending machine transforms each tube into a chair bail. Another machine cuts holes in the tube and other finishing is completed by hand. The bails are sent out for galvanization before returning for assembly. Other than the bail, the rest of a chair’s parts are sourced from a network of suppliers, many of whom also supply automakers in nearby Germany. A single chair can contain 1,500 parts and workers use high tech torque wrenches linked with software to optimize workflow. A screen shows the assembler exactly where a particular part goes on the chair.
There’s one other chair component Telfs fabricates as opposed to just assembling: bubbles! This factory will produce around 600 bubbles in 2025, all starting as flat sheets of polycarbonate. The process Leitner uses is proprietary but can be summarized as thermo stretch forming. This work is highly specialized and difficult with not every bubble meeting quality standards (around 10 percent are discarded instead of making their way to lifts.) After forming, holes are drilled and a plastic rim is glued on before the bubbles are installed on chairs.
The third section of Telfs we toured was direct drive assembly. This was the first time I got to see the inside of a direct drive as normally they’re not opened once installed. Leitner was the pioneer of direct drive lifts and Telfs completes around 50 to 60 units a year, most of which stay in Europe.
The last stop was the LPA grip assembly line, designed using systems from modern automobile and aircraft factories. HTI formerly built detachable grips in three places but now every grip and hanger come off this one line. Parts are delivered to the line by an automated system but the actual assembly is done mostly by hand. Once a grip is complete, it’s tested and a series of cameras take dozens of photos to detect any anomalies. This also allows Leitner to track each grip and hanger to a specific production run on a specific date by a specific employee. The grip and hanger mechanisms are then shipped together to project sites. Once on site, crews simply connect a chair to a hanger with one bolt. This is fast but also ensures quality and safety with most of the assembly done in a controlled environment rather than a ski area parking lot.
After Telfs we ventured up to Stubai Glacier, home to a spectacular Leitner 3S and numerous other lifts. Although we weren’t skiing, several gondolas and chairlifts still carried skiers at higher elevations. Many towers were pinned to the glacier rather than traditional foundations. On the 3S, carriers can be parked at all three stations, allowing the line to be cleared of cabins automatically in a matter of minutes. Of course each section is driven by a direct drive. This lift is so big that tire sections are run by motors rather than PTO belts. These helper motors are bigger than those powering entire chairlifts in the Midwest.
Our last stop was Innsbruck, home to the Interalpin mountain technology tradeshow. Before the show, we ventured up the Nordkette Cable Car, which Leitner part owns. This ski area is accessible right from downtown Innsbruck via a Leitner funicular railway. The funicular includes a bridge over a river, several tunnels and grades ranging from zero degrees to very steep. At the top of the funicular, we rode a series of jig back tramways to reach a 2,334 meter summit. It was foggy that day so I didn’t take many pictures of the two trams we rode.
This was my second time to Interalpin and I could spend days there. If a company sells technology to ski areas, they come to Interalpin. The Leitner booth featured a ConnX autonomous gondola cabin, several Symphony gondolas and a Leitner premium chair (the new Ropera detachable was unveiled the day after our visit.)
Doppelmayr of course had a large presence including a 3S cabin for an installation opening next winter in the Dolomites, a 10 seater cabin from Paris’ upcoming urban gondola and a Stella cabin for the soon-to-open TRI-Line at Hoch-Ybrig, Switzerland. MND was there too with a cabin from their Orizon detachable line. AI was a major focus of the show with manufacturers highlighting software products to improve maintenance and operations.
I haven’t even mentioned all the delicious food we ate, the good times had in the evenings and many other warm people we encountered. Thank you to Daren Cole, Jon Mauch and everyone at Leitner-Poma for including me on the trip. My advice to anyone interested in lifts who has not been to Europe: Go!
News Roundup: Retrofits
- US ski resorts report their second best season ever with 61.5 million visits.
- Colorado releases a detailed report on Winter Park’s gondola tower evener beam failure last December. Leitner-Poma will retrofit or replace similar beams on existing lifts and modify the beam’s design for future installations.
- The Kicking Horse gondola hanger failure remains under investigation but the resort will replace all hangers and not operate the gondola until mid-summer at the earliest.
- Homewood to install its D-Line gondola in 2026 after years of delays.
- McCauley Mountain to sell Hall chairs from the former Big double.
- The Covid-delayed Timber expansion at Tremblant is back on the table.
- The White Mountain National Forest seeks comments on Waterville Valley’s proposed village-to-mountain gondola.
- Eaglecrest, Alaska continues to lose money with its planned gondola still in the parking lot.
- Salt Lake Community College launches a training program for lift maintenance professionals.
- Wildcat’s Snowcat triple, which missed all of last season, to get a new haul rope, drive, controls, comm line and operator houses.
- A Park City billionaire acquires the PCMR Town Lift plaza, envisions a future gondola.
News Roundup: Ropera
- Deer Valley updates its expansion site to show Lift 6 as two detachable quads (6A and 6B) instead of a six pack with mid-station.
- Vail Mountain seeks permission to replace Orient Express #21 with a six pack, swap Little Eagle #15 for a detachable quad and remove Wapiti #24.
- Leitner-Poma discusses the impact of tariffs on the SAM huddle.
- Burke Mountain emerges from nine years of government receivership with new owners.
- Mount Saint Louis-Moonstone, Ontario teases a new era coming to the Outback side of the mountain.
- Leitner introduces its next generation monocable detachable called Ropera, combining technology from Leitner, Poma and Bartholet. The launch customer will be Speikboden, Italy with a six place chairlift.
- Leitner and Doppelmayr release annual yearbooks.
- Snoqualmie unveils new renderings of the Edelweiss project at Alpental.
- A Colorado man succumbs to injuries sustained in a fall from Keystone’s Ruby Express last December.
- Powder Mountain tells the Utah tram board it’ll install between one and four new lifts this summer.
- A jury declines to award millions to a Mt. Bachelor skier who fell getting off a chairlift.
- Killington to donate and match proceeds from closing day to Whaleback Mountain’s chairlift replacement fund.
- Snow Partners to launch a new multi-mountain pass product offering three total days at six to ten Eastern resorts.
- Mt. Ashland, Oregon looks to replace the Ariel and Windsor doubles with Skytrac triple chairs in 2026.
Two New Lifts Coming to Snowmass
It’s official: Snowmass will construct two lifts simultaneously this summer for the first time since 2006. Leitner-Poma will replace the Elk Camp detachable quad with a six pack and Skytrac will install a T-Bar to replace the Cirque platter. The projects are part of an $80 million capital improvement summer for Aspen Snowmass. Other projects include a new Ullrhof restaurant, snowmaking upgrades and forest health work. “We have a huge summer ahead for on-mountain developments here at Aspen Snowmass,” said Geoff Buchheister, CEO of Aspen Skiing Company. “These projects represent Aspen One’s commitment to ongoing investment in delivering the most exceptional guest experience possible.”
The Elk Camp chair dates back to 1995, tied for the third oldest lift at Snowmass. Elk Camp services popular intermediate terrain in the winter and hauls bikes to the top of the Snowmass Bike Park come summer. Winter throughput will increase from 2,020 skiers per hour on the current quad to 2,800 while bike haul capacity will nearly double. The lift’s alignment will shift slightly away from the Elk Camp Restaurant.
At the top of the mountain, the curved Cirque platter will be retired in favor of a straight Leitner/Skytrac T-Bar. Capacity here will increase from 450 guests per hour to 1,000. Similar to the new surface lift at Champan Hill, Colorado, Cirque will combine specialized Leitner parts from Europe with American made towers, controls and operator houses from Skytrac.
“The areas of terrain served by these lifts are some of the most popular on our mountain,” said Susan Cross, Mountain Manager at Snowmass. “These updates allow for guests to more smoothly access Snowmass’ classic wide-open slopes and sweeping vistas at Elk Camp, and the incredible variety of high-alpine terrain we have off The Cirque. I am proud that we continue to invest in making this mountain the best that it can be, and having high-speed, higher capacity lifts is critical to the Snowmass experience,” she continued.
Crystal Mountain to Replace Rainier Express
Washington’s oldest detachable chairlift will be retired this spring to make way for a next-generation high speed quad. Crystal Mountain’s Rainier Express, or “Rex” for short, dates back to 1988, when a group of local shareholders purchased two Poma chairlifts for the mountain. By the mid-1990s, Boyne Resorts acquired Crystal and replaced nearly every lift between 1997 and 2014. Rex endured, however, and has now carried skiers for 37 seasons.
Alterra Mountain Company bought Crystal in 2018 and Rainier Express 2.0 will be their first lift project at Washington’s largest ski area. “Referred to locally as ‘REX,’ this high-speed quad was the first detachable chairlift built in Washington State,” noted Crystal. “Since its construction in 1988, it has represented Crystal Mountain’s pioneering spirit in big-mountain, skier-focused operations and investments.”
Leitner-Poma will build the new high speed quad and expects to break ground in June. The new lift will carry skiers 1,600 vertical feet to the Summit House in under five minutes. For Rex’s final weekend May 2nd-4th, Crystal plans a rail jam, photo contest and 1988 themed party. Most of the old lift will be scrapped and chairs auctioned to the public to benefit the Northwest Avalanche Center. The new Rainier Express is expected to be completed in December 2025.
Inside Skytrac’s New Home Base
In between Utah lift visits last week, I ventured to Tooele, a sleepy town west of Salt Lake to see America’s newest lift factory. Skytrac Lifts opened its 25-acre campus last summer, which will supply chairlifts and surface lifts to customers throughout the US. During my visit, the Skytrac team was finishing getting settled while gearing up to build at least nine new lifts this summer.
Skytrac has grown substantially since building its first drive terminal at Monarch Mountain, Colorado in 2010. With the late Jan Leonard as one of the founders, the company quickly found a niche providing ski areas high quality yet uncomplicated fixed grip chairlifts. As of this winter, Skytrac has built 82 lifts in three countries along with numerous retrofits, modifications and relocations.
Leitner-Poma of America acquired Skytrac in 2016. The two companies remain distinct brands under Italian conglomerate High Technology Industries (HTI). Skytrac and Leitner-Poma often bid separately on the same projects and retain unique product lines. While both subsidiaries make fixed grip chairlifts, Skytrac recently took over the surface lift (T-Bar and Platter) side of the business while Leitner-Poma focuses on larger chairlifts and gondolas. For a surface lift, Skytrac manufactures operator houses, towers and control systems but imports carriers and terminals from Leitner’s specialized facility in Slovakia. Skytrac’s original products, the Monarch fixed grip chairlift and Hilltrac inclined elevator, are produced almost entirely in Tooele.
HTI’s 130,000 square foot building replaced a smaller site Skytrac leased site near the Salt Lake City airport. Tooele lies roughly 30 minutes west with ample land and two nearby technical colleges. With Skytrac occupying 90,000 square feet, the $27 million facility can produce nearly an entire chairlift under one roof. Everything from chairs and towers to bullwheels and control systems are made here. Electrical, engineering and sales departments work right alongside the production hall. Skytrac lifts are truly made in America with typically only the haul rope and gearbox imported from abroad.
The new facility is even larger than LPOA’s Grand Junction plant with ample room for growth. Bobby Langlands, Skytrac’s Sales Engineer and my tour guide, said the factory could probably pump out 20-plus lifts a year, up from the eight to ten they generally do now. In addition to production, there’s a cavernous parts warehouse, which will expand to include stock for the growing number of Leitner-Poma lifts in the Intermountain region. HTI sister companies Prinoth and Demaclenko also have space for parts and service in Tooele.
One of the coolest things when touring a lift factory is seeing parts tagged with names of mountains they’re headed to. Lift manufacturers generally produce components in order of contract signing and I saw pieces destined for Pats Peak, Ski Butternut, Monarch and Snowmass. Skytrac produces the most common components in advance based on a forecast. As an example, the company is producing 120 tower crossarms this spring and will do a second production run later if orders warrant. One thing that makes a Skytrac lift relatively affordable is the number of parts that are common among every lift. The chair bail, for example, is the same regardless of whether a customer orders a double, triple or quad.
Skytrac utilizes several robotic welding machines in Tooele along with automated plasma cutters. Hard working people do the rest of the work by hand. The new facility includes a state-of-the art sandblasting and paint booths for finishing operator houses and motor room enclosures. Galvanizing is completed offsite by contractors.
In addition to Skytrac, Leitner-Poma, Demaclenko and Prinoth, a fifth HTI company is also involved with the Tooele project. Wind energy manufacturer Leitwind supplied a 250 kilowatt wind turbine capable of powering the entire plant. Italians were on site last week testing the turbine to prepare to hook up to Rocky Mountain Power’s regional grid.
Skytrac built nine complete lifts in 2024 and plans to do at least that many again this year. During my visit, the construction team was outside preparing to fan out across the country as Skytrac nears its 100th new lift.
News Roundup: Riverbanks
- 19 deluxe cabins arrive stateside for South Carolina’s only gondola.
- Ragged Mountain goes on the market.
- Leitner-Poma posts an ad hiring lift installers for a project at Crystal Mountain, Washington.
- A widow sues Breckenridge following her husband’s fatal fall from the Zendo chair, alleging “an unreasonable amount of snow and ice accumulation.”
- Purgatory acknowleges belt tightening on the mountain as it renegotiates long term debt.
- The Forest Service shows two Mission Ridge expansion proposals as canceled.
- The Forest Service releases a Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Grand Targhee’s proposed expansion including three pared down alternatives.
- Big Sky raises $150,000 for charity selling Explorer chairs.
- An idea to connect two Seattle neighborhoods by gondola resurfaces.
- Leitner teases a “New Era of Ropeways” coming at Interalpin.
- Relations sour between the Town of Mountain Village and Telluride Ski Resort owner Chuck Horning with the Town Manager giving a lengthy speech about problems at the resort.
- Skeetawk, Alaska’s only chairlift shuts down for a multi-week repair.
- Stowe’s FourRunner quad has been out of service all week.
- Vail reopens Riva Bahn after a two week gearbox rebuild.
- Kicking Horse’s gondola remains closed indefinitely; the resort will transport gear up to Stairway to Heaven free of charge but guests still have to walk there.
- Vail Resorts presents its strategic vision to investors.
News Roundup: Stairway to Heaven
- A video shows the Kicking Horse incident was exacerbated by running the damaged hanger to a tower, causing the lift to de-rope. The gondola will be closed at least a week and likely longer; the resort will allow guests to hike or skin to Stairway to Heaven.
- The snowboarder who died after falling from Red Lodge Mountain’s Triple Chair on Monday is identified as 37 year old Jeffrey Zinne of Billings in an incident described as a “malfunction.”
- A child was airlifted to Denver after falling 35 feet from the Purgatory Village Express the same day as the Kicking Horse and Red Lodge incidents.
- Leitner-Poma posts jobs for ski lift installers at Bretton Woods, Loveland, OZ Trails Bike Park, Powder Mountain, Snowmass, Snowbasin, Taos and Wasatch Peaks Ranch.
- New York State wins its case against a ski resort owner for buying Toggenburg to close it and reduce competition.
- Snowbasin to sell chairs from the Becker lift for charity.
- Loup Loup, Washington ends its season early due to a required motor repair.
- Vail’s Riva Bahn Express has been closed all week due to a gearbox issue requiring a rebuild.
- Vail Resorts reports solid results with season-to-date skier visits down 2.5%, lift ticket revenue up 4.1%, ski school revenue up 3.0%, dining revenue 3.1% and retail/rental revenue down 2.9%. Net income for the quarter ended January 31st increased 11.9%.
- Tenney Mountain, New Hampshire still plans to reopen the Hornet some time this winter following a gearbox issue.
- Another lawsuit is filed against the Little Cottonwood gondola proposal.
- Attitash reopens the Flying Bear five weeks after a chair fell from the line. Draft minutes from the New Hampshire Passenger Tramway Safety Board suggest multiple damaged carriers were found and Attitash was approved to reduce capacity from 82 to 64 carriers. Update Monday 3/17: Vail PR sent me this statement, emphasis theirs: “During our inspection process, we made the decision to reinspect all our chairs and grips, haul rope, sheaves, terminals, and more. Following our inspection, we are taking the opportunity to replace parts on some chairs unrelated to the incident as a part of routine upgrades. These chairs will remain temporarily out of service until the parts arrive. This was a decision made by the resort, that the Passenger Tramway Safety Board unanimously approved at the March 3rd board meeting. We have been given permission to run the lift between the manufacturer’s minimum and maximum design specifications.”
- Ober Mountain, Tennessee opens the new Sky Village Express.
- Whistler Blackcomb completes a mid-season rope inspection and splice due to a broken haul rope strand on the Emerald 6 Express.
- WB also pulls the plug on summer skiing due to glacial recession and its impact on lift access.
- A community co-op effort was unable to submit a bid for Mt. Bachelor.
- Vista Ridge, Alberta closes both its chairlifts indefinitely to conduct a review following several evacuations.
- Alpental will close two weeks early so crews can work to build the new Chair 2 over snow in a roadless area.
- Ditto for Explorer at Big Sky as it’s replaced with a gondola.
- After running on diesel generators for a decade, the Sea to Sky Gondola‘s upper terminal is connected to grid power for the first time.
- Whaleback, New Hampshire says it needs to raise $250,000 to fund off season maintenance and chairlift repairs.
- Titcomb Mountain looks to retire and replace T-Bar 2.
- Powder Mountain to build a private, homeowner only Leitner-Poma detachable quad this summer.
- Snowbird’s Mineral Basin reopening is further delayed due to “unforseen additional issues“.
- The Forest Service approves Alta to replace Supreme with a new lift and no eight degree bend.
- Pending approval of its members, Bryce Resort plans to install a third Skytrac on the backside of the mountain this summer.
Bretton Woods to Replace Bethlehem Express
At least four new lifts will be constructed in New Hampshire this summer following the state tramway board’s approval for Bretton Woods to begin construction on a new high speed quad. The new lift will replace the Bethlehem Express, the oldest of five detachables on the mountain. Doppelmayr constructed the current lift in 1989 but the new one will be built by Leitner-Poma. It will be the first Poma lift constructed at Bretton Woods since 1973, when three Heron-Poma lifts debuted for the resort’s inaugural season. In addition to retiring Bethlehem Express, Bretton Woods is also retiring the nearby Fayban’s Express triple and auctioning the chairs.
Bretton Woods is part of the Omni Mountain Washington Resort, itself a subsidiary of Omni Hotels & Resorts. The company has invested heavily in its New Hampshire ski area over the past decade including building an eight passenger gondola and expansive summit lodge. Bretton Woods and Leitner-Poma plan to start construction on Bethlehem in April and the new lift should be substantially completed in October.
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