Park City

News Roundup: Washout

Peter LandsmanLeave a comment
  • Teams from Mt. Hood Meadows have repaired and re-opened the Shooting Star Express that was damaged by falling trees over Thanksgiving. Now the storm recovery turns to the Mt. Hood Express, which received ten feet of snow in one week.
  • White Pass has more snow than it did at anytime last winter but no one can get there.  Crews have been working around the clock to repair washouts that cut off the resort from both sides of the Cascades Dec. 9th.  The ski area will re-open Wednesday.

  • The Berry family says it’s close to a deal to sell Saddleback to a new owner that hopes to open by late January.  Passholders can get a refund or gift card now.
  • Aspen’s 1971 SLI double on Shadow Mountain will be replaced with a detachable quad or gondola in 2016 or ’17.  The top terminal will move 200 feet to the southwest resulting in a slope length of 3,600′ with 1,390′ vertical and a capacity of 1,200 skiers per hour.
  • Park City and Canyons are now one thanks to the Quicksilver Gondola but judging by snow conditions it’s going to be awhile before you can ski between the two.
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Sugarloaf and Doppelmayr load test King Pine on Dec. 19, 2015.
  • James Coleman opens new quad chairs at Purgatory (Leitner-Poma) and Arizona Snowbowl (SkyTrac) with more new lifts on the way.
  • Doppelmayr secures $27 million European government loan for research and development in Austria.
  • Cherry Peak Resort opens today!  It’s the first all-new ski facility in North America since Tamarack debuted back in 2004.

What $50 Million Looks Like at Park City

Peter Landsman3 Comments

Tomorrow will mark 11 months since Vail Resorts announced their massive $50 million project to connect Park City Mountain Resort with Canyons to create the largest ski resort in the country.  A significant chunk of that investment went to Doppelmayr USA to build two new detachable lifts and relocate another.  All three projects are nearly finished before there’s even much natural snow on the ground.  In addition to the three new lifts, Park City built a huge new restaurant called Miner’s Camp, added significant snowmaking and did a lot of painting & re-branding.

The Quicksilver Gondola is a month away from uniting Canyons with Park City.

When I visited today the new King Con six-pack was spinning and the Motherlode Express was also finished with chairs on the line.  Crews were pulling com-line at the Quicksilver Gondola and finishing up the angle station.  Check out pictures of all three projects below.  Park City is making snow on both sides of the mountain under sunny skies this weekend and all three new lifts are scheduled to open by the holidays.

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News Roundup: Pulling Rope

Peter Landsman1 Comment
  • Pomerelle’s new SkyTrac triple gets a name: E-Z Rider. Unfortunately 15 lifts already have the exact same name!  Where’s the creativity?
  • Speaking of questionable lift names, Summit Express towers are in at Solitude as are Sunshine Quad towers at Okemo.
  • Lutsen’s new gondola is a beauty.
  • The Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest approves replacements of two Riblet doubles at Stevens Pass.  Kehr’s chair will be a replaced by a fixed-grip triple and Brooks by a shorter fixed-grip quad.  Stevens saved the old Jupiter quad (a 1993 CTEC removed in 2013) presumably for one of these locations.  The Forest Service also approved construction of a new rope tow!
  • “On paper it works, in reality we’ll see,” says FIS race director Markus Waldner of the rush to finish the South Korean ski resort that will host FIS races this February and the 2018 Olympic Downhill.  Doppelmayr has reportedly sent extra workers in hopes of completing the lift system by January 10th.
  • Take a ride on the hottest chair in Canada.
  • You can buy a complete Borvig double chair right now with your credit card for only $65,000.  (For anyone curious it’s from Hidden Valley, NJ which is re-opening this winter with two new Partek lifts.)
  • Whistler-Blackcomb is not a fan of the proposed Garibaldi at Squamish resort along the Sea to Sky Highway and 30 minutes closer to Vancouver than Whistler.  Some background: the same developer invested $200 million to bail out Revelstoke Mountain Resort in 2008 and owns an NHL team.  The master plan for Garibaldi has 18 lifts including a gondola, two six packs and four high speed quads.  I put this proposal in the same category as Jumbo Glacier and Saddle Mountain.
  • Ski Cooper near Leadville, CO wants to build a new T-bar with a pod of 5 trails but not for 3-4 years.