- A skier tries to jump over Lake Louise’s Top of the World Express, runs into a chair instead.
- Powderhorn closes the Flat Top Flyer all week for maintenance.
- Magic Mountain celebrates the last new lift opening of the year.
- Epic Pass prices increase approximately 8 percent, Crans-Montana will be added subject to closing.
- Ikon Pass increases a similar amount, goes back to unlimited days at Crystal Mountain, Washington.
- Indy Pass adds Big Moose, Maine; Mt. Eyak, Alaska; Mt. Washington, British Columbia; Powderhorn, Colorado; Steeplechase, Minnesota; Wintergreen, Virginia and Wisp, Maryland.
- Massachusetts issues an RFP for operating Blue Hills Ski Area.
- A man dies aboard a chairlift at Lookout Pass due to a medical emergency.
- Timberline Lodge closes Bruno’s for the season due to gearbox failure.
- The world’s longest gondola is on track to open late next year in the Caribbean.
- Powder Mountain hints it may alter plans to make three quad chairs private for homeowners next season.
Magic Mountain
News Roundup: Aspen Snowmass
- Aspen Mountain’s Lift 1A goes down and is rope evacuated.
- Aspen closes redundant lifts midweek due to low ridership.
- The next lift upgrades at Snowmass will be Coney Express followed by Cirque and potentially another lift at the same time.
- Multiple homeowner associations sue Deer Valley, arguing an East Village-Snow Park gondola won’t mitigate traffic.
- Magic Mountain successfully load tests the new Black Line Quad.
- Ski Santa Fe will self install its high speed quad this summer, then look at replacing Easy Street.
- Sugarloaf opens West Mountain with a high speed quad and nine new trails.
- Deer Mountain, South Dakota reopens as a private ski area.
- The new Telluride-Mountain Village gondola will likely be a 10 passenger model with direct drive.
News Roundup: Big Numbers
- Vail Resorts declines to voluntarily recognize the Crested Butte lift maintenance/electrical union, triggering a National Labor Relations Board election process.
- Eaglecrest offers an updated pulse gondola construction timeline with opening targeted for summer 2025.
- Magic Mountain plans to finish the Black Line Quad this summer after four years of trying.
- Utah skier visits rose a whopping 22 percent this season to 7.1 million.
- Quebec reports its strongest season in 16 years with 6.6 million skier visits.
- A single round trip ride on Europe’s newest 3S gondola will cost a whopping $265.
- Big Sky posts more photos of its new tram cabins taking shape in Switzerland.
- Smugglers’ Notch adds a section to its website about the proposed Stowe connector gondola.
- Holiday Mountain, New York sells to a new owner with plans to revive lost ski terrain.
- Park City begins loading new Sigma cabins on the Red Pine Gondola.
News Roundup: Gondola Party
- The reopening of Mont Glen, Quebec falls through due to financing.
- Big Squaw owner James Confalone says a developer canceled plans to rebuild the resort because lenders abandoned the project.
- The nonprofit which operates the lower mountain at Big Squaw will sell double chairs from the former summit lift as a fundraiser.
- Jordan 8 and Merrill Hill debut on the Sunday River trail map.
- Sundance’s new map shows the Wildwood expansion.
- Loveland’s 22/23 map is out.
- Northstar too.
- Seven Springs launches an all new map under Vail Resorts.
- Snowriver renames nearly all its lifts and retires the Voyager Quad.
- Whistler hopes to open the new Creekside Gondola by Christmas with Big Red likely earlier.
- Waterville Valley pushes back opening by a week to focus on completing the Tecumseh Express.
- Palisades Tahoe flies towers for Red Dog, plans a huge party for the Base to Base Gondola opening.
- Thunder nears completion at Jackson Hole despite some delays.
- Magic Mountain further delays the Black Line Quad because the used lift needs a new haul rope.
- The new red tram car begins carrying skiers at Snowbird.
- Wachusett looks to replace the Polar Express in 2024.
- Marmot Basin seeks to swap the Knob double for a longer quad chair come 2023.
- Big openings: East Peak at Caberfae, Colter at Grand Targhee, Comstock Express at Northstar and Lakeview Express at Mt. Rose all carry their first skiers today.
- Tulsa seeks a new operator for Oklahoma’s only lift.
News Roundup: Growing Pains
- Vail Resorts officially takes ownership of Seven Springs, Laurel Mountain and Hidden Valley.
- Vail faces a mountain of criticism for operational struggles from Colorado to Washington, Ohio, New Hampshire and beyond.
- Vail slashes operating days and/or hours at Crotched Mountain, Hidden Valley, Snow Creek, Boston Mills/Brandywine/Alpine Valley and Mad River Mountain due to employee shortages.
- Stevens Pass rope evacuates two chairlifts in one day citing power outages.
- Park City Chief Operating Officer Mike Goar sits down for an extended interview to explain some of the issues facing Vail.
- The Park City ski patrol union rejects Vail Resorts’ latest contract offer, fundraises for a possible work stoppage.
- Beaver Creek will open the McCoy Park expansion Monday.
- Vail applies with the Forest Service to replace the Summit Triple at Attitash with a four or six passenger detachable.
- Waterville Valley proposes building an MND T-Bar in the former World Cup Triple alignment.
- Monarch Mountain advances the No Name Basin expansion.
- No link but I’m told Montana Snowbowl is moving forward with building a lift from the base area up TV Mountain.
- Ditto for Windham Mountain replacing the Whiteway triple with a Doppelmayr D-Line detachable.
- Sandia Peak management says tram icing which led to a 14 hour evacuation was unprecedented.
- Crystal Mountain announces a lift reservation system, quickly changes course to parking reservations instead.
- Another of Iowa’s ski areas transitions from private to public ownership.
- Some 80 containers arrive from Europe for the Caribbean’s next big urban gondola.
- Sunshine Express at Steamboat is closed all week for a motor repair.
- Magic Mountain’s Red lift passes another inspection and load test, will reopen Saturday.
- Charles Skinner takes full ownership of Lutsen Mountains.
News Roundup: Epic Lift Update
- Leitner-Poma expects US lift sales to reach $300 million in 2022.
- The lift-served real estate development called Flat Iron at Big Sky moves forward.
- PyxisAI goes live with its artificial intelligence lift monitoring software on Winter Park’s Prospector Express and Gemini Express.
- The latest from Moosehead Lake, formerly Big Squaw.
- Mt. Hood Meadows provides an update on its six pack ambitions.
- Deer Valley reveals what broke on the Carpenter Express last week.
- Arizona Snowbowl posts an explainer on rime ice and detachable lifts.
- A minor gondola collision makes the news in Whistler.
- The Disney Skyliner’s longest section will close for scheduled maintenance next month.
- Magic Mountain finally gets the Red Chair open; within hours an empty chair hits a tower and falls off.
- 18,000 people sign a petition asking Vail Resorts to improve operations at Stevens Pass.
- The first ski runs at Valemount Glacier will be logged in January.
News Roundup: Merry Christmas
- Mad River Glen introduces a new James Niehues trail map.
- White Pass shareholders vote to sell Washington’s fifth largest ski area.
- Sun Peaks expects business to decline 50 percent this season due to extended road closures.
- Sierra at Tahoe tracks toward a limited reopening in Spring 2022.
- Magic Mountain apologizes to customers for not having a summit lift operational.
- Searchmont, Ontario reopens with a new chairlift after a 645 day Covid closure.
- It may be months before Kimberley’s main lift is operational; Revelstoke and Kicking Horse provide people-moving snowcats.
- Stevens Pass apologizes for severe staffing shortages resulting in only five open lifts.
- Deer Valley rope evacuates 167 people from the Carpenter Express.
News Roundup: Life Behind Lifts
- Gunstock teases a multi-lift expansion with details to come in December.
- Magic Mountain won’t have summit access until at least December 18th due to ongoing lift projects.
- A CBS primetime reality show features an hour of ski area maintenance!
- Kirsten Lynch takes over as CEO of Vail Resorts.
- Sierra-at-Tahoe eyes an early 2022 reopening.
- A Mayflower construction update.
- Doppelmayr releases a new Wir magazine.
- The Cascade Skyline Gondola proposal gains a key endorsement.
- The final logging take place for the Eagle Peak expansion at Lookout Pass.
- Whistler Blackcomb highlights this summer’s big ticket lift maintenance projects.
- Sundance names two new quads Outlaw Express and Stairway.
- MND reports improved results with lift and snowmaking sales up 32 percent.
- Alberta Parks says it will open Hidden Valley this season in the absence of a private operator.
- Hickory, NY looks likely to reopen after six seasons.
- Big Sky’s new map is out showing Swift Current 6.
News Roundup: Good Friday
- After a successful winter, Monarch Mountain will think about building a lift in No Name Basin in the next few years.
- The Georgetown-Rosslyn gondola concept is back under discussion in the nation’s capital.
- Leitner-Poma seeks workers to help build the Squaw-Alpine base to base gondola this summer.
- Whistler Blackcomb will not attempt to reopen for spring skiing once British Columbia’s closure order ends.
- Revelstoke shuts down early due to a Covid-related staffing shortage.
- Big White fires employees for attending a party widely shown in local media and is also closing 6 days early.
- Ontario shuts down skiing again.
- Indy Pass will announce new pricing and resort additions on April 27th.
- Snow King’s expansion receives final permission and chairs are already off the Summit double.
- Magic Mountain says the Black Line Quad will be re-engineered and completed for the 2021/22 season.
- A New Zealand operator is ordered to pay $8.4 million for spreading a wildfire via a moving chairlift in 2017.
- Skeetawk celebrates a successful inaugural season but a second chairlift remains years away.
- Okemo’s new six pack won’t have bubbles and the Green Ridge triple will head to another Vail resort in Pennsylvania.
- A GoFundMe is started to benefit the victims of the recent Camelback lift accident.
News Roundup: Grab Bag
- Timberline Lodge evacuates 42 guests from the new Pucci detachable quad by rope.
- Another late day evac happens on Castle Mountain’s Tamarack chair.
- Mt. Spokane considers upgrading two 60 year old chairlifts.
- The seemingly cursed Gold chair at Nakiska goes down for a week (now back in action).
- Under new ownership, Sundance Resort eyes an out-of-base detachable.
- Bogus Basin plans expansion and lift upgrades in a new master plan coming later this spring.
- Dakota at Big Sky has been down since March 1st.
- The first of its kind Leitner 2S gondola undergoes testing in Germany.
- Ischgl, an early pandemic hot spot last year, gives up on opening this season.
- Vancouver’s transit authority picks a preferred alignment for the Burnaby Mountain Gondola.
- The Seattle Times profiles Washington’s first bubble chairlift.
- A transportation bill which includes Little Cottonwood funding heads to the Utah Governor’s desk.
- Once slated to close, Sleeping Giant now considers adding more lifts.
- Zincton Mountain Village, a proposed resort in BC, announces the purchase of a late model Riblet quad.
- Facing capacity challenges, Crystal Mountain eliminates unlimited access on the Ikon Base Pass.
- Magic Mountain needs some mid-’80s vintage Poma sheave assemblies to complete the Black Line quad. Give them a shout if you can help!
- Winter Park’s proposed lift replacements I mentioned last week are a Pioneer Express six place and Lariat conveyor.
- On a podcast, Indy Pass creator Doug Fish says more resorts are coming, including in Canada (along with a price increase.)
- During recent historic snow, the Portland Aerial Tram ran for 114 consecutive hours while other transit modes shut down.
- When the Disney Skyliner stops for a bit, you better believe it will make the news.
- Nitehawk looks for funding to replace its landslide-destroyed chairlift.
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