- A new park map shows where Legoland New York’s gondola will go.
- A skiing preview of Deer Valley Expanded Excellence.
- The Colorado Sun embeds with departments who work all night to make Winter Park run.
- Afton Alps removes Chair 18 to make way for a tube park.
- Vail Resorts reports season-to-date skier visits are down 9.7 percent and lowers earnings guidance.
- From the classifieds: a 1987 Poma Quad for sale.
- Doppelmayr assumes patents needed for Autonomous Ropeway Operation (AURO) installations in the USA.
- Kimberley, BC files a new master plan.
- MND to make an announcement on April 16th.
- Upon learning of a young guest named Reid with a phobia of chairlifts, Stevens Pass staff spring into action, giving him a full day tour of mountain operations and making him an honorary lift operator.
- Red Lodge Mountain closes the Cole Creek quad due to a component failure within the lift terminal structure.
- A high speed quad is rope evacuated at Burke Mountain.
- Flat Top Flyer at Powderhorn remains closed awaiting delivery of parts.
- Sugarloaf closes King Pine for whatever this “mechanical problem” is.
- Guests were stuck on Blackcomb’s new gondola for hours yesterday.
- The OITAF World Congress for Ropeways is coming to Vancouver June 17-21.
- Leitner has reportedly paid more than $16 million in settlements to families of victims of the 2021 Stresa-Mottarone tram disaster.
- A D-Line gondola in Austria will run entirely on solar energy produced on site this summer.
- Grouse Mountain provides a gondola construction update.
- A raccoon rides Sugarbush’s Village quad.
- Costs double for the proposed gondola-served transit center at Steamboat.
- Also at Steamboat, Leitner-Poma appears to have won the contract to replace Sunshine Express.
- Leitner-Poma also appears to have upcoming projects at Big Bear Mountain Resort, Snowbasin and Wasatch Peaks Ranch.
- Chapman Hill will replace its main rope tow with a Leitner-Poma platter.
- Wachusett nears a decision to replace Polar Express with a six pack.
- The Town of Alta passes a resolution opposing the Little Cottonwood Canyon gondola.
- Red River shares renderings of its upcoming Copper Chair, will sell retiring Riblet chairs.
Red Lodge Mountain
News Roundup: The Stache
- Two riders who claim they were injured in a Riblet clip ejection incident in 2020 sue Red Lodge Mountain.
- Red Lodge names its new detachable lift Stache Express in honor of longtime General Manager Jeff Schmidt.
- Texas Parks & Wildlife has raised most of the $36 million needed to build a new Wyler Aerial Tramway in El Paso.
- Doppelmayr works with a Utah adaptive organization to make D-Line chairs more accommodating to sit skiers.
- A judge upholds Park City’s decision to block Eagle and Silverlode replacement projects at Park City Mountain.
- Park City continues to look at gondolas as possible public transportation.
- Deer Valley applies for its first lift construction permit for eastward expansion.
- Lutsen Mountains new trail map shows the new Raptor Express.
- Sundance seeks information on chairlift vandals (update: caught).
- Alterra appoints Mammoth and Steamboat leaders to new regional positions overseeing multiple resorts.
- The world’s largest urban gondola network in Bolivia plans more expansion as it nears 500 million rides.
- County commissioners allow the nonprofit seeking to reopen Cuchara to resume work.
News Roundup: All Good Things
- Co-owned Dodge Ridge and Mountain High are the latest resorts to join the Indy Pass.
- The Jay Peak sale hearing is delayed until September in hopes more parties will bid.
- Vail Resorts will cap day ticket sales at every mountain every day this season.
- Vail settles one class action labor lawsuit for $13 million.
- Alta’s former Sunnyside detachable triple will keep its name at Red Lodge Mountain.
- A grand opening celebration for the Palisades Tahoe Base to Base Gondola is scheduled for December 17th.
- Grouse Mountain will break ground on its Leitner-Poma gondola next month.
- Loon Mountain’s former Seven Brothers triple will live on as an adventure park access lift in Quebec.
- Also in Quebec, closed Mont Glen plans a 2023 reboot with a new poma lift.
- Doppelmayr will supply the world’s longest single stage monocable gondola in the Caribbean.
- Lift repairs remain on track at Kimberley.
- Sunrise Park will replace what was once the longest triple chair in the world with a rope tow.
- Waterville Valley and MND fly towers for the first Bartholet detachable in North America.
- Cypress Mountain auctions chairs from the retired Sky double.
- Wildcat will sell retired Doppelmayr quad chairs next month.
Red Lodge Mountain to Install Detachable Beginner Lift
The only detachable triple CTEC ever built has found a new home in Montana. The one-of-a-kind installation will be removed from Alta Ski Area this spring and go on to replace Red Lodge Mountain’s Miami Beach double in 2023. The $2.25 million project will reimagine the learn to ski experience with a new conveyor lift and yurt in addition to the high speed chairlift.
The Miami Beach detachable will follow a modified alignment to better serve the mountain’s beginner terrain and provide access the the Palisades. “This is an exciting and significant investment into the ski experience here at Red Lodge,” said General Manager Jeff Schmidt. “Upgrading to this high-speed triple chair will be a transformation of the beginner experience. The Sunnyside Lift has the perfect horsepower and capacity for the Miami terrain.” The Red Lodge team will assist with removal operations at Alta this spring and the lift will be stored in preparation for installation next summer.
News Roundup: Ahead
- Doppelmayr and CWA unveil world’s most luxurious gondola cabin with air conditioning, a fridge and more powered by carriage wheel generators.
- The five chairlift Hermitage Club lays off 50 to 80 employees and cuts ski operations to weekends only, a result of significant financial challenges.
- Children fall from lifts at West Mountain and Windham Mountain.
- 2022 Winter Olympics host China is up to an impressive 236 ski areas with at least one chairlift.
- Woodward Park City remains in limbo pending the outcome of three appeals.
- Theme park projects such as the Doppelmayr-supplied Hogwarts Express and Disney Skyliner drive record revenue for PCL Construction of Edmonton.
- There was a deropement followed by partial rope evac of the triple chair at Red Lodge Mountain over Presidents’ weekend.
- Apres Vous at Jackson Hole was evacuated yesterday following a gearbox issue.
- Sunday River reveals why it takes 3.5 hours to put cabins back on the Chondola after a windstorm.
- Here’s more construction eye candy from Disney World.
- Stella, the only six-pack in Idaho, was named and themed by a former Disney imagineer.
- Catch up on the upcoming season pass battle and what else lies ahead for Alterra with company President Dave Perry.
- Speaking of the Ikon Pass, it now includes 400 lifts with new partners Revelstoke, Sugarbush, Sunshine Village, Lake Louise and Mt. Norquay for $899.
Red Lodge Mountain Mixes Past and Present
Red Lodge Mountain, located near the famous town of the same name and the northeast corner of Yellowstone, is Montana’s fourth largest ski area. You wouldn’t know it pulling up to the classic lodge and old school lifts out front. Opened in 1960 as Grizzly Peak, it now skis like two distinct resorts – the original mountain with 1970s-era double chairs and a huge expansion served by dual high speed quads that opened in 1996. Approaching its 60th anniversary, the mountain faces dueling challenges of prolonged drought and competition from the booming Big Sky region.
Grizzly Peak opened with one lift, now called Willow Creek, in 1960. This classic Riblet double has since been shortened to start above the base area and only operates on peak days. In 1970, the resort added two more Riblet doubles that also still operate – a beginner lift dubbed Miami Beach and another to the summit called Grizzly Peak.
In 1977, Red Lodge added a rare Borvig double at a western ski area called Midway Express. It served no new terrain but allowed skiers to return to mid-mountain without having to ski all the way to the base area. With just five towers and a vertical rise of only 400 feet, this lift proved too expensive to operate and was abandoned in 2010. Most of the chairs were auctioned to raise cash and the sheaves, comm-line and haul rope were dropped to the ground and left. The terminals and towers still stand today.
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