- Sugarloaf Mountain Resort announces a new director of lifts to oversee maintenance and operations after two high-profile lift accidents. He’s not exactly a Boyne Resorts outsider.
- Finally some news from Saddleback; the owners are in negotiations with four potential buyers and this season may or may not happen. Talk about bad press.
- Group hoping to reopen the Antelope Butte ski area near Sheridan, Wyoming will make a down payment to the Forest Service within two weeks. The area has two Riblet double chairs that last operated in 2004.
- Switzerland sets the maximum blood-alcohol content for a person operating a cable car at 0.05% (the same limit as for drunk driving there.)
- A national park in South Korea may be getting a $39 million 10-passenger gondola, the country’s 155th ropeway. South Korea will also be hosting the next Winter Olympics.
- Parts for the new Ptarmigan lift are on site at Loveland, CO.
- Mont Cascades in Quebec makes solid progress on replacing their TC double chair with a Doppelmayr quad.
Saddleback
News Roundup: Pardatschgratbahn
- Its been six weeks since the Berry family, owners of Saddleback, Maine, said they would close the resort if they could not find financing to order a new lift by August 1st. Regardless of the outcome, this has been a PR disaster with a desperate announcement and then silence. Not a good sign when the general manager refuses to talk to the state’s largest newspaper. My take: despite the bluff they will find a way to open.
- Ligonier Construction awarded $4.6 million contract to re-build the State of Pennsylvania’s Laurel Mountain Ski Area. The project includes a new quad chairlift but I could not find a lift manufacturer identified in the bid documents. Nearby Seven Springs Mountain Resort will operate the ski area on behalf of the state.
- Snow Summit proves again that snowmaking systems can save lifts and buildings from wildfires.
- What if Aspen had a gondola from Ajax to Buttermilk and Snowmass?
- Not one but four 15-passenger gondolas proposed to link a cruise terminal with George Town in the Caribbean’s Cayman Islands. I’m thinking even that won’t be enough when Royal Caribbean’s newest ship shows up with 6,000 passengers tired of being on a ship with 6,000 passengers.
- “No one has contributed more to the task of transporting skiers and snowboarders up the ski mountains of the United States than Jan Leonard,” said the President of the NSAA in the Salt Lake Tribune’s obituary. Services will be held tomorrow.
News Roundup: Hilltrac Funicular
- When I was hiking around Park City last week I discovered a large new funicular railway in The Colony development near the new gondola. It was built by Hilltrac, sister company to lift-maker SkyTrac. The funicular serves an entire neighborhood unlike others at Deer Valley that serve only one house. One section is completed with the possibility to add another section later.
- The City Council of Casper, Wyoming, which owns of Hogadon Ski Area, declares one of two Riblet doubles there as surplus property to be sold. Apparently it has not spun in years and parts were cannibalized last season to keep the other lift running.
- Chris Farmer, Saddleback’s Marketing Director says on Facebook that there is no news to announce re: new lift or closure. In case you don’t have Facebook, here is the statement: “Saddleback friends: I know that everyone is eagerly awaiting an announcement on our situation and recognize we are beyond the initial deadline. We remain heads down on finding a solution. As soon as we have news we will announce it. Until then, our full attention is on solving the issue. You are all important and I recognize you all want answers. I fully expect decisions will be made some time this week. Thank you for your consideration and continued support. Please do not be offended by my inability to respond to each of you individually. I hope you understand.”
- Aspen Skiing Company remains committed to building the new Burnt Mountain lift at Snowmass but still has no timeline for it.
- Protesting lifties shut down Chile’s Cerro Catedral, demanding a 30% wage increase. Meanwhile, most of Argentina and Chile’s ski resorts have been getting tons of snow.
- Echo Mountain, the closest ski area to Denver, will reopen to the public this season after failing to make it as a racer-only training mountain. The area formerly known as Squaw Pass has just one lift currently, a Yan triple chair.
- South America solidifies itself as the worldwide leader in urban ropeways with the capital of Peru getting not one but two gondolas by 2017. There are already a dozen gondolas operating in Bolivian, Venezuelan, Colombian and Brazilian cities.
- Vermont lift construction update, thanks to NewEnglandSkiIndustry.com.
- Doppelmayr wins a $21 million contract to build two ropeways in Georgia (the country, not the state, although there is a large Doppelmayr tram in the State of Georgia too.)
- The Teton quad at Jackson Hole is on schedule to be load tested by mid-October. All the large components for the top terminal were installed earlier today by crane.
News Roundup: Adding Lifts
- The Balsams mega-project gets snowmaking water permit and releases its phase one plan which includes six new lifts. That will be the contract of the year next summer if it really happens.
- The owners of Saddleback have extended the deadline to find financing for a new lift before pulling the plug on this season.
- Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe announces an $11.00 minimum wage for all resort employees next season.
- Kitzbuhel in Austria will add another 8-passenger bubble lift for next season to be built by Leitner.
- France’s Avoriaz also announced a new Poma six-pack.
- Whistler will add the Creekside Gondola to its Bike Park starting Friday. The gondola has been outfitted with the latest Deasonbuilt center-pole bike carriers. Creekside will become Whistler-Blackcomb’s 11th lift open for summer operations including three gondolas and six detachable quads.
- The Neptuno double chair (Poma) in Las Lenas de-roped off 5 towers last week thanks to an avalanche. See photo below.
News Roundup: Fire Season
- The North Resort at Mountain High narrowly escapes one of California’s many wildfires burning out of control.
- Leitner-Poma is about to start 3 1/2 months of construction at Sipapu, New Mexico.
- Next season will not happen at Saddleback, Maine unless the resort can secure $3 million for a new quad lift in the next two weeks. Or so they say.
- In central New Hampshire, Waterville Valley continues clearing for the Green Peak expansion while Tenney Mountain prepares to reopen after a decade being closed.
- Sugarloaf launches their lift safety website that appears it took an intern half an hour to make.
- Leitner gets into the surfing business with DirectDrive.
- Poma’s 2014 Reference Book is now online. Better late than never!
- Snow King Mountain’s very wealthy investors announce phase 2 expansion with a base-to-summit gondola and major skiing expansion.
Saddleback Needs $3 Million for New Lift to Avoid Closure
Maine’s third largest ski resort is in trouble. We knew something was up earlier this summer when Saddleback put their main out-of-base lift up for sale on Resort Boneyard for $350,000. Today the Berry family definitively announced the 52-year old Rangeley lift will not spin again. The lift has upgraded Doppelmayr terminals but aging towers, line equipment and chairs. $3 million is needed by August 1st to build a new Doppelmayr fixed-grip quad or the ski area will close.
Saddleback’s story includes decades of ups and downs like many mid-sized New England ski resorts. A bank foreclosed on the entire property in 1975 but it remained open. In 2002, the previous owners announced Saddleback would close. Local skier Bill Berry stepped in and bought the mountain for $8 million in 2003. After their first season of ownership, the Berry family invested heavily in lifts, installing the South Branch quad and replacing both of Rangeley’s terminals with new Doppelmayr CTEC ones in 2004. A new James Niehues trail map was commissioned that at one point showed six new lifts to be built. The Kennebago T-Bar was replaced with a Doppelmayr CTEC quad in 2008 but no other lifts ever got completed.
News Roundup: SkyTrac Gets a Lift
- Pomerelle Mountain near Twin Falls, Idaho announced they will replace their 39-year old SLI double chair with a new SkyTrac triple. This is SkyTrac’s only publicly announced project for this summer. Apparently they have another contract for a lift in Arizona. Leave a comment if you know where.
- Saddleback, Maine has listed their Rangeley lift for sale for $350,000. They had previously listed just the drive terminal for $200k.
- Steamboat’s new master plan including two new six packs approved by Routt County.
- State of Pennsylvania opens bidding for a new quad chairlift at the troubled Laurel Mountain State Park.
- Jackson Hole’s new Sweetwater 8-passenger gondola approved by the Bridger-Teton National Forest.
- Sugarloaf removes the damaged drive terminal for the King Pine lift which rolled back in March to make way for a new Doppelmayr terminal.
- Group wants to reopen Mt. Ascutney in Vermont. It’s tough to run a ski resort with no lifts, however. The mountain’s high speed quad was sold to Crotched Mountain and other lifts went to Pat’s Peak.
- The Pope rides one of Bolivia’s new Doppelmayr urban gondolas. The entire line had to be closed until he finished his ride.
News Roundup: New Controls
- Apparently Doppelmayr has redesigned their controls for 2015. A new pedestal pictured above looks like an improvement, especially the speed selector replacing slow/medium/fast buttons.
- Willard Mountain, NY files for bankruptcy, proving once again it is best to control all of the land your ski resort sits on. The area has a Borvig and Partek doubles.
- Saddleback Maine has put the drive terminal for its main lift up for sale on Resort Boneyard for $200k. Hopefully a new lift is on the way.
- Vail Resorts voluntarily raises the minimum wage it pays lift operators and other workers to $10 an hour.
- Lots of improvements coming to Powderhorn in addition to their first detachable lift.
- Whistler-Blackcomb to test snowmaking as a means to preserve summer skiing on Horstman Glacier, home to the only glacier-anchored lifts in North America.
- West Mountain, NY is moving forward with making one old lift into two new ones.
- Singapore opens its second Doppelmayr gondola line with three stations and 8-passenger cabins.
Lift Blog 