- Public backlash quashes the Rock City, Georgia gondola project as currently designed.
- Revelstoke Mountain Resort tells local elected officials CA$120 million in new lift and snowmaking infrastructure depends mostly on real estate sales.
- The ski industry pushes back on proposed elimination of seasonal time changes.
- A wild viral video shows a haul rope being cut with an angle grinder on a decommissioned lift in France.
- Vail and Booth Creek visionary George Gillett, Jr. dies at 87.
- Eagle Point shares a fire recovery update.
- Goldbelt shares a Juneau tram crash recovery update.
- The lawsuit threatening Park City’s Iron Mountain Express heads to mediation.
- The activist investor seeking to influence Vail Resorts buys more shares.
- Snow Trails, Ohio to install new chairs on Alpine and tower heads on Silver.
- Loveland to replace Lift 2 with a Leitner-Poma detachable quad in a new alignment.
Revelstoke
News Roundup: Around the USA
- Alberta conceptually approves the master plan for a Fortress Mountain reboot.
- Waterville Valley and the Forest Service to host a public meeting regarding a proposed gondola on June 26th.
- Revelstoke will host an info session on the future of the resort June 24th.
- Cannon Mountain issues a request for bids for an 80 passenger tramway reusing certain components from the last tram with an expected completion date of December 1, 2028.
- Amid bankruptcy, Whitecap Mountains lists a disused CTEC for sale.
- Vail Resorts reportedly hires takeover defense bankers.
- Alterra says a new law in Colorado could unlock public funding for a Winter Park town gondola.
- Aspen-Pitkin County Airport’s new terminal design leaves room for a future gondola to town.
- The federal government will fund a new haul rope for Whaleback, New Hampshire’s double chair.
- Both ladder trucks and ropes are used to rescue riders from the skyride at Dutch Wonderland, Pennsylvania.
- Teton County, Wyoming plans an objection to Grand Targhee’s expansion plan.
- A black bear cub climbs a tower on Whistler’s Fitzsimmons 8.
- A new operator plans to reopen Spout Springs, Oregon with help from the family that owns Timberline Lodge.
- Big Sky dismantles parts of Powder Seeker to move the top terminal due to ground movement.
- Lots of construction pictures from readers this week starting with Deer Valley’s Hail Peak expansion:
- Next Caberfae Peaks, Michigan’s expansion lift:
- And finally Powderhorn, Colorado’s Wild West Express:
News Roundup: Indy to Ikon
- Mountain Capital Partners may enter the Midwest with a deal to operate Spirit Mountain, Minnesota. Under the proposal, MCP would lease the mountain for a minimum of 20 years beginning in October.
- Vail raises Epic Pass prices approximately 3.5 percent, offers a discount to young adults 30 and under.
- Alterra raises Ikon prices roughly 5 percent, adds Tamarack, Idaho and Devil’s Head, Wisconsin to its bonus mountain tier while removing SilverStar, BC.
- Granite Peak, Wisconsin; Lutsen Mountains, Minnesota and Snowriver, Michigan switch from Indy Pass to Ikon Pass.
- Snowmass returns and Arapahoe Basin will go unlimited on the Ikon Base Pass.
- The Wall Street Journal visits Telluride owner Chuck Horning, who says he’s “never selling.”
- The BBC profiles lift operations at Whistler Blackcomb.
- The LA Times visits independent Mt. Baldy, surrounded by Alterra in Southern California.
- SAM digs into how a small Wisconsin ski area went from closed to buying two brand new Skytrac lifts.
- Snowbird will replace Chickadee this spring.
- Pomerelle, Idaho’s General Manager buys the mountain with his wife.
- Shanty Creek, Michigan also sells to new owners.
- The cost of used gondola installation at Eaglecrest balloons from under $9 million to as much as $37 million. A report finds the gondola would make the ski area profitble on an operating basis and canceling the project would cost taxpayers $10.9 million.
- In Iowa, a government-owned ski area fundraises for a brand new chairlift.
- Revelstoke’s Stoke chair to be out of service at least three days for gearbox repair.
- Stagecoach Mountain Ranch inches toward approval near Steamboat.
- The top operator house on Chair 1 at Titus Mountain, New York burns down, rendering the lift inoperable.
News Roundup: Baldy
- Blue Mountain and Camelback, Pennsylvania join the Ikon Pass.
- Willamette Pass converts its backside chairlift from diesel to electric.
- California’s newest gondola opens October 29th.
- Big Sky’s new trail map shows the new tram route.
- New Hampshire lost ski area Mt. Whittier goes up for sale.
- Vail Resorts resurrects plans for a new six pack at Perisher.
- Silverton Mountain is sold to new owners from Aspen.
- Revelstoke adds more chairs to The Ripper.
- Eaglecrest hopes to open its used pulse gondola in fall 2025.
- Doppelmayr wins a contract to build a six station, 94 cabin urban gondola in Uruapan, Mexico.
- Mt. Ashland plans to build a new chairlift in long lost terrain with $2.5 million from Lithia Motors.
News Roundup: Apology
- Montana Snowbowl apologizes for the lift incident earlier this month and notes the lift remains closed pending modification of tower 1.
- Big Sky’s new 75 passenger tram will charge by the ride next winter.
- Snowbird says a gondola could help during future interlodge snow closures.
- The parent company of the Banff Gondola wants to build a similar attraction in Northwest Montana but gets a chilly reception from the Forest Service.
- Doppelmayr Canada is hiring lift installers for projects across the country.
- Construction begins on the new Fitzsimmons 8 at Whistler as well as Superbowl at Boyne Mountain.
- Revelstoke holds a public information session and identifies its top 3 lift priorities.
- Buck Hill announces its oldest lift will be replaced with a Doppelmayr quad this summer.
- The Forest Service approves Copper Mountain’s planned replacement of Timberline Express with a six person chairlift.
- Les Otten says the first phase of The Balsams would be four lifts including a gondola and bubble chair.
News Roundup: Live Rescue
- Big White, Grouse Mountain, Revelstoke Mountain Resort, Hell’s Gate Airtram and the Sea to Sky Gondola each receive up to CA$1 million in government assistance.
- Aspen Mountain’s Lift One project inches toward groundbreaking. The Pandora’s expansion and chairlift faces an August 25th review.
- Icy Strait Point welcomes its first ship since 2019 with a new gondola system.
- Tampa Bay’s regional transit authority postpones a gondola feasibility study.
- Mayflower Mountain Resort still has no set timeline for lift construction.
- Morocco commits to building its first urban gondola.
- The Government of Dubai and MND sign a memorandum of understanding for a prototype self-propelled ropeway system.
- Just days before launch, Mexico City delays the opening of Cablebús Line 2.
- In its first two weeks, Cablebús Line 1 averaged 56,000 riders a day.
- Also in Mexico, a dramatic rescue operation follows a tension system failure on the Mueller-built Monte-Taxco Cable Car.
- Vail Resorts is not happy with a YouTuber who climbed a Peak 2 Peak Gondola tower to make a video.
- Poma, Compagnie des Alpes and the French Government will partner to build a 3.3 mile, 3 station 2S gondola linking a valley transit hub to a mountain community.
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: Stellar
- Doppelmayr begins hiring maintenance staff for the Hard Rock Stadium gondola in Miami.
- Alterra CEO Rusty Gregory says resorts will need to adapt as Ikon Pass sales increase.
- The gondola wasn’t the only lift snafu in Steamboat this week.
- Treeline Cirque is on the map and now open at Alpine Meadows.
- Revelstoke Mountain Resort christens its fifth lift, Stellar.
- The crazy project to build three 3S gondolas at one Chinese resort is coming along.
- The largest investment ever at Stevens Pass is complete but can’t open without more snow.
- Still no construction but Valemount Glacier Resort isn’t dead yet.
- Magic’s Black Line quad may not be finished until February.
- The favorite proposed project of 32,000 Vancouver residents surveyed? A gondola up Burnaby Mountain.
- An avalanche hits and damages a Yan/Skirail fixed quad in France.
News Roundup: Wish Lists
- More new trail maps are out with new lifts on them: Brian Head, Jackson Hole, Montana Snowbowl, Schweitzer, Revelstoke and Windham.
- Sea to Sky Gondola turns its parking lot into a drive in theater while rebuild of the lift continues.
- “Boyne is looking at replacing a lot of lifts throughout the whole company and we’re on that list,” says Karl Strand of Sugarloaf in an annual fall update. His wish list includes replacing Timberline, Double Runner, Sawduster and West Mountain.
- Mike Solimano at Killington also has a lift replacement wish list for Powdr.
- Arapahoe Basin plans to replace both Pallavicini and Molly Hogan next summer.
- Sunrise Park says a replacement for the decommissioned Cyclone lift would cost more than $10 million but is a long term goal.
- Hunter will convert its D triple to a double with Partek chairs.
- The Forest Service tentatively approves Arizona Snowbowl’s proposed Agassiz Telemix project.
- An Orlando TV station plays some 911 calls from the night the Disney Skyliner broke down two weeks ago.
- Seven months after an announced sale of Granby Ranch, the ski area still hasn’t changed hands.
- Montana Snowbowl’s long-awaited expansion lift on TV Mountain will be called Snow Park and open in December.
- Sugar Mountain puts the finishing touches on its first high speed quad.
News Roundup: Powerhouse
- The West Virginia Timberline may be sold out of bankruptcy to an LLC offering $2.5 million.
- A Quebec resort is ordered to pay out six figures after leaving a guest stranded on a lift.
- Steamboat’s new gondola haul rope is spliced.
- Doppelmayr becomes a billion dollar company by annual revenue, up 10.5 percent from last year.
- Manning Park narrows the names for its new quad down to four and wants your help choosing one.
- A very long stop and near evacuation makes the local newspaper in Sun Valley.
- Another first is brewing in Europe: a gondola with cabin doors on two sides.
- Indy Pass adds eight more resorts.
- Eastlink Park in Alberta is adding a used Mueller T-Bar for this winter.
- ‘Qualified and reputable’ investors have expressed interest in the Hermitage Club assets in recent weeks.
- There are now four alternatives for possible Snow King Mountain expansion.
- Wired looks into the failures of both urban gondolas in Rio de Janeiro.
- Attitash assures skiers its Summit Triple is finally fixed after last year’s extended closures.
- Revelstoke receives a shipment of 22 new gondola cabins.
- Cooper releases the trail map for its Tennessee Creek Basin expansion and Little Horse T-Bar.
- The Orlando Sentinel hosts a half hour podcast all about the Disney Skyliner.
- Mont St. Sauveur’s new heated seat chairlift will be named Sommet Express.
