- Arizona Snowbowl will replace the Aspen double with a Skytrac quad beginning next week.
- Eaglecrest may eliminate features such as restrooms to get its used gondola project off the ground.
- Red Deer, Alberta considers building a river crossing urban gondola.
- A gondola is one option for connecting two parts of Snowmass Village.
- Twin VonRoll gondolas disappear from the map and list of attractions at Six Flags Great Adventure.
- The urban gondola in Medellín that suffered a fatal cabin detachment last month reopened today.
- Public hearings on the proposed Shadow Mountain Bike Park in Conifer, Colorado are set for September.
Medellin Metrocable
News Roundup: Last Journey
- Indy Pass adds Ragged Mountain, NH; Middlebury Snowbowl, VT; Camden Snowbowl, ME; Mt. Abram, ME; Hatley Pointe, NC and Cape Smokey, NS to its roster.
- The public operator of Belleayre, Gore Mountain and Whiteface reports an annual operating loss in excess of $47 million, not including approximately $80 million in capital spending.
- Grouse Mountain’s only current means of access breaks down, closing the mountain for most of the Canada Day long weekend.
- Five people remain hospitalized from last week’s deadly gondola incident in Colombia, the investigation is focused on an issue with one cabin rather than the entire system.
- The Dodgers Stadium gondola in Los Angeles eyes a 2028 opening.
- Brian Head proposes adding 1,570 acres to its permit area.
- A confirmed Six Shooter sighting near Sugarloaf.
- A woman is killed in Italy falling from a material cableway not designed for people.
- Mt. Bohemia reopens its triple chair with a new Skytrac return terminal.
Gondola Collision Kills One in Colombia
A serious incident occurred on the world’s second largest urban gondola network early this morning, killing one person and injuring twenty others. A gondola cabin reportedly hit another cabin as it entered one of the elevated stations of Medellín’s Metrocable Line K. The second cabin then fell onto a car on the street below. The incident occurred at an intermediate station called Popular, one of four stations on the line. After the incident, about 200 people remained stuck in other cabins before being evacuated. The deceased individual was identified as John Jairo Londoño Arango, age 55.
Line K is the oldest of six gondola lines that make up Medellín Metrocable aerial network, which is fully integrated with the city’s subway, streetcar and bus system. The system was built by Poma and opened in 2004 with 93 cabins connecting four stations. The lift’s cabins were manufactured by Sigma and carry up to 2,800 riders per hour in an 8 seated, 2 standing configuration. The system reached 100,000 operating hours in 2019, running seven days a week for 19 hours per day. It was recently closed for a multi-day maintenance period at the end of January.
Line K will remain closed while the incident is investigated. “Services will be suspended until the causes of this tragedy are clearly identified, the pertinent corrective measures are taken and the safety of the users of the system is guaranteed,” said Mayor Fico Gutiérrez. Other lines of the Metrocable system continue to operate.
News Roundup: Ramping Up
- Northeast gems Saddleback and Waterville Valley join the Indy Pass coalition, effective immediately.
- Winter Park Resort looks for the Forest Service’s blessing to replace multiple lifts.
- The Forest Service fully approves Keystone’s Bergman Bowl project.
- Welch Village voluntarily withdraws the East Quad from service following an unspecified incident (now back open).
- Guests of Mission Ridge love the Wenatchee Express and here’s the final episode of On the Way Up.
- Spirit Mountain lends a hand to repair the chairlift at nearby Chester Bowl.
- A girl is okay after falling from a Mohawk Mountain chairlift.
- A child also falls from a lift at Saddleback.
- Skyline at Pebble Creek is partially rope evacuated.
- Lookout Pass eyes 2022 for new lifts servicing Eagle Peak.
- More reports of stellar seasons from Iowa, New York and Pennsylvania.
- Cabins return to the Sea to Sky Gondola with more on the way.
- Mt. Bohemia considers building a lift in the Haunted Valley.
- Timberline Lodge closes for three days following a messy ice storm.
- Once a cartel hub, Medellín is a city transformed in part by a modern gondola network.
- Waterville Valley President and General Manager Tim Smith discusses a future gondola, bubble six pack and other lift changes.
- A rider who fell into a net along with another passenger and lift operator sues Snow King Mountain.
- Murray Ridge secures a six figure grant to rehabilitate one of the world’s longest T-Bars.
- MND reports revenue fell 5 percent in the second half of 2020 ($20.7 million in sales came from snowmaking and lifts.)
- Aspen will delay the Silver Queen Gondola‘s summer opening to complete big ticket maintenance items.
- Doppelmayr’s latest Wir magazine explores the Eiger Express.
- Saddleback closes for a day to shorten the haul rope on the new Rangeley quad.
- Poma will build an eight station urban gondola system in Madagascar with 274 cabins.
- Parent company Dream Unlimited says Arapahoe Basin is on track for its second best financial year ever despite opening four weeks late.
- Just two weeks to go until old lifts start coming down to make way for new ones.
- Squaw will experiment metering skiers at gates to avoid long lift lines at Silverado.
- The world’s largest urban gondola network might add four more lines.
- Big Squaw reopens tomorrow, two weeks after this deropement.
- A gondola is no longer a core component of the Oakland Athletics’ planned new stadium.
- There’s talk of building a 7,000 vertical foot gondola on Mt. Kilimanjaro.
News Roundup: Mask Up
- Nitehawk removes three lift towers which were carried away from their original locations by a landslide.
- Walt Disney World hasn’t set a Skyliner reopening date but cabins were back on the Epcot line last week.
- The Telluride’s Mountain Village public transit gondola returns to service.
- LST Ropeways and Bartholet will partner to build a 50 passenger urban aerial tramway on the island of Réunion.
- Dodge Ridge begins removing Chair 6 for an upgrade project.
- A fire threatens America’s southernmost ski area.
- When it opens later this year, Medellín’s sixth Metrocable line will become the world’s first urban gondola with 12 passenger cabins.
- The Juneau Tram will not operate at any point in 2020.
- Timberline’s Palmer Express opens for summer glacier skiing.
- Aspen Skiing Company says hiring a lawyer was a last resort in an ongoing dispute between Liftopia and Mountain Collective resorts.
- Aspen Snowmass skier visits fell 20 percent last season.
- Many Vail Resorts properties will reopen over the next few weeks but most of the company’s bike parks will remain closed.
- Mt. Sunapee and Stevens Pass are suspending summer operations entirely.
- On all Vail Resorts lifts, face coverings will be required when loading/unloading and at all times while on gondolas and bubble chairs.
- Authorities seek information on a vandal who damaged lift sensors and other property at Pine Knob.
- Pajarito cancels summer operations.
News Roundup: Super Cool
- Mt. Rose wants to replace Lakeview and build a two stage detachable Atoma lift instead of two separate alignments shown here.
- Two people survive after their small plane crashes into and is caught by chairlift cables in Italy.
- The Forest Service seeks public comment on issuing a special use permit to Mountain Capital Partners to operate Elk Ridge, Arizona, which closed in 2017.
- The owners of 100 year old Pocono Manor want to build a 1.5 mile chairlift to the upcoming Pocono Springs lifestyle and entertainment complex.
- The New York Times considers whether a planned four station gondola is appropriate in historically holy Jerusalem.
- All three Disney Skyliner lines remain closed following Saturday’s mishap at the Riviera station.
- The replacement for Big Burn at Snowmass may be a six place bubble model.
- Hermitage Club founder Jim Barnes is ordered to pay a member more than $5.4 million for making misrepresentations.
- Crystal Mountain adds 12 gondola cabins with the mountain’s new logo, bringing the Mt. Rainier Gondola to its maximum capacity of 900 passengers per hour.
- Magic Mountain’s new quad may not spin by Christmas but hopefully MLK weekend.
- Environmental review of the New York Capital Gondola project should commence next week.
- Lake Louise’s VonRoll gondola towers finally fly away after 60 years.
- The VonRoll in Oklahoma thrills riders for a 54th year.
- Fatzer fast tracks a new haul rope for the Sea to Sky Gondola.
- The recently opened 3S in Norway successfully toes the line between an urban gondola and ski/tourism lift.
- Vail seeks to buy the Hermitage Club’s snowmaking guns.
- A super cool LST T-Bar on the roof of a waste-to-energy plant opens for skiers in Copenhagen.
- Poma begins constructing a five section urban gondola on the remote Indian Ocean island of Réunion.
- Grouse Mountain acknowledges the Blue Skyride‘s days are numbered and will study replacing it over the coming year.
- Frost Fire, which was unable to spin its brand new Skytrac quad last winter, says it will open this winter.
News Roundup: Back to Work
- The Forest Service tentatively approves two new chairlifts as part of the Atoma expansion at Mt. Rose.
- There are gondolas flying above Walt Disney World as of late.
- The Garibaldi at Squamish resort proposal is still alive in BC.
- Sitzmark, Washington and its 1961 Riblet double won’t open this season.
- Tamarack’s new Wildwood Express will likely reuse foundations from the repossessed UNI-GS version.
- Medellín inaugurates its fifth urban gondola by Poma, Line M.
- A nine year old boy is okay after falling 31 feet from the Thunderbowl lift at Aspen Highlands.
- Sun Valley postpones the Cold Springs Express project to 2020.
- Sunshine Polishing has a bunch of vintage gondola cabins for sale including many from Killington’s K-1 Express.
- Skytrac marks ten years in business with 37 complete lifts, eight new terminals and five relocations to date with more to come!
- Waterville Valley and LST Ropeways are trying to open the new High Country lift this week.
- A Hermitage reopening this winter is unlikely but the lifts are being taken care of by a skeleton crew of employees.
- The popular Portland Aerial Tram opens up a logo shop.
- Another Skyliner job is posted: Technical Manager.
- The Forest Service plans to green light Cooper’s Way Back expansion and construction of a 2,450′ surface lift.
- Ditto for Crested Butte’s two chairlift Teocalli II expansion and realignment of North Face.
- Mexico City announces its first Cablebús line will be the longest urban gondola in the world at nearly 31,000 feet. A full ride would take 46 minutes with 374 ten passenger cabins transporting up to 4,000 passengers per hour each way.
https://twitter.com/CablebusCDMX/status/1093187940321132544
News Roundup: Sadness
- A mechanic loses his life while working on a lift at Sunrise Park Resort.
- T-Bar from Le Relais arrives at Ascutney Mountain with installation dependent on fundraising.
- Poma to build Medellín Metrocable’s sixth urban gondola, set to open in 2019.
- Stoneham’s new quad chair will be called L’Éclipse.
- A new 8-passenger Poma gondola nears opening in Zacatecas, Mexico.
- Al Henceroth of A-Basin fame gives not one but two great updates on the upcoming Beavers lift.
- A six-pack called Alpenglow anchors the new Eldora.
- Spruce Peak 2.0 opens Saturday at Sunday River, 17 months after the original Borvig fell over.
- A foot passenger who fell unloading a chairlift in March 2016 sues Silverton Mountain.
- Skytrac does another insightful interview with Kris Blomback, GM at Pats Peak.
News Roundup: Resources
- Amid zip line dispute, Peak Resorts threatens to close Hidden Valley, remove five chairlifts and sell the land to a residential developer.
- “I’m very confident we’re going to have new resources we haven’t had in previous years,” Steamboat COO says of Crown/KSL ownership. Deer Valley President and COO Bob Wheaton makes similar comments in Park City.
- Saddleback sale to Australian firm still hasn’t closed.
- Bear Valley’s six-pack looks great in green and now has a name: Mokelumne Express.
- Who says detachable terminals must be symmetrical? Leitner experiments in Europe.
- T-Bar area in Edmonton, Alberta shuts down.
- At the end of a tough year, Granby Ranch goes up for sale.
- New Heavenly trail map confirms Galaxy won’t spin again this season, leaving a big hole in Nevada.
- Epic Passes account for 43 percent of Vail Resorts revenue.
- New lifts at the Yellowstone Club get names: Eglise, Great Bear and Little Dipper. A few hundred families now enjoy the 14th largest lift fleet in the country.
News Roundup: Removed
- Reopening of Steamboat’s refurbished gondola has been delayed one more week to July 21st.
- Pats Peak starts work on the new Peak chair, a CTEC from Ascutney, VT with Skytrac upgrades and a loading carpet.
- Alta updates skiers on the new Supreme.
- The Snowdon triple at Killington is getting new SkyTrans crossarms this summer.
- Didn’t make it to Interalpin? You can see the Leitner-Poma Group’s booth through an interactive panorama.
- This week’s Disney gondola update comes from EPCOT.
- Waterville Valley proposes replacing unreliable High Country double with a T-Bar.
- More details surface in fatal Gulmarg Gondola tree incident.
- Six Flags sky ride reopens with new between-leg restraints following rider fall.
- The Community Ski Areas at Risk Symposium, sponsored by Skytrac, is a worthy watch.
- I stopped by Hogadon this weekend and confirmed the Red chair has been removed. Pictures of all 33 of Wyoming’s lifts are now in the database and Montana will be completed next.
- An Eldo Express update.
- Doppelmayr opens an impressive over-water gondola in South Korea’s second largest city.
- Medellín’s four gondola lines will be joined by a fifth.
- The Lake Compounce Skyride, a 1997 CTEC Sprint with 14 towers closes for good.
- Leitner’s new urban gondola in Berlin sees a million riders in its first three months.
- Insolvent Ski Blandford may be sold to Ski Butternut.
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