- Wasatch Peaks Ranch is ordered to temporarily halt construction and sales while a court considers a zoning dispute.
- Deer Valley Expanded Excellence lift construction is set to begin this summer.
- Park City Mountain’s proposed Sunrise Gondola project will go to a public hearing Tuesday night.
- Vail Resorts reports pass sales increases, plans to build the Sunrise Gondola in 2025.
- Nonprofits and individuals sue the Utah Department of Transportation seeking to stop the Little Cottonwood gondola.
- With numerous projects in the pipeline, Skytrac is hiring lift construction project managers.
- Red River proposes replacing the Copper double.
- Hatley Pointe, North Carolina teases new lifts over the next 3 to 5 years.
- Hickory to join Indy Pass, reopen lifts with funding from Indy Pass and Unofficial Networks.
- The cost of the proposed Dodgers Stadium Gondola in Los Angeles rises to an estimated $500 million.
- Mt. Spokane debuts a new trail map by VistaMap.
- A New York politician proposes exempting lift projects from state sales tax to match tax free purchasing enjoyed by state-owned resorts.
- James Coleman joins the Ski Utah podcast to talk about the rapid growth of Mountain Capital Partners.
- Montana Snowbowl lifts are certified to run again.
- Busch Gardens Tampa teases a reopening of its VonRoll gondola closed for four years.
Skytrac
News Roundup: Modernizing
- Skytrac modernizes a Hall double at Snow Trails, Ohio.
- Arapahoe Basin eyes transport gondolas and a new chairlift.
- Arkansas may get its first lift.
- Black Mountain, New Hampshire will operate this season after all with support from Indy Pass.
- Residents seek a restraining order to halt construction at Wasatch Peaks Ranch.
- Quebec’s government pours cold water on funding Mont-Sainte-Anne upgrades with Resorts of the Canadian Rockies.
- Big White teases future lift and terrain expansion.
- Cannon Mountain’s tram modernization will go out to bid soon.
- Okanagan Gondola eyes a 2025 opening.
- More expansion maps are out: Sugarloaf, Keystone, Schweitzer, Red Lodge, Trollhaugen.
- Okemo seeks a five year extension on approval of a Jackson Gore beginner quad.
Leitner-Poma Breaks Ground on Utah Factory
Elected officials joined Leitner-Poma of America yesterday in Tooele, Utah to turn the first dirt for what will become the company’s largest North American facility. The 130,000 square foot campus will complement an existing 100,000 square foot factory in Grand Junction, Colorado opened in 2007. Leitner-Poma subsidiary Skytrac Lifts will move from leased space near the Salt Lake City airport to Tooele. The state-of-the-art facility will allow the firms, which are owned by HTI Group of Italy, to increase production and expand headcount up to 120 employees, with further growth possible in additional phases of the project. In addition to Skytrac and Leitner-Poma production, the building will also house a parts warehouse and offices for HTI snowmaking brand DemacLenko and HTI grooming brand Prinoth. All told HTI plans to invest $27 million in Tooele.
When the new facility opens in May 2024, LPOA and Skytrac will manufacture 85 to 90 percent of lift equipment for the North American market in the United States. “Today, we are thrilled to mark a new era of our company here in Tooele,” said Daren Cole, president of LPOA. “We are really invested in the State of Utah and the resort industry. We are focused on Made in America here in Utah and the U.S.” He noted Leitner-Poma’s primary competitor imports much of its equipment from Europe. Leitner-Poma is Italian-owned but offers a largely North American-designed and manufactured product line.
The Tooele facility will support not only the ski industry but also future projects for amusement parks and urban transit. “We want to welcome Leitner-Poma to the fastest growing county in the fastest growing state in the nation,” said Utah Lieutenant Governor Diedre Henderson. “Here in the heart of Utah’s industrial landscape our partnership with Leitner-Poma will pave the way for groundbreaking new developments in the transportation industry with its cutting edge new manufacturing facility.”
Leitner-Poma plans to install solar panels and a 250 kilowatt wind turbine from fellow HTI brand Leitwind to provide 100 percent of the factory’s energy needs.
Expansion Under Construction at Lee Canyon
Just three months after Mountain Capital Partners purchased Lee Canyon, Skytrac is already working to build a new lift to the east of existing terrain. The fixed grip quad, shown as Chair 5 on the above map, will service three new beginner trails with a capacity of 1,800 skiers per hour. The chairlift will span approximately 1,400 feet with a 310 foot vertical rise. The Forest Service approved the project last year when the resort was still owned by Powdr.
The project has not been formally announced but Skytrac posted photos on Instagram yesterday of its ninth and final line survey of the year at an unnamed mountain that looks a whole lot like Lee Canyon. Aerial imagery from the Sentinel satellite network taken this morning confirms the scope of work at Lee Canyon, the only ski resort in the Las Vegas region.
In addition to Chair 5, Lee Canyon also has Forest Service approval to build two new conveyors and a westward expansion with another fixed grip quad in the coming years.
Leitner-Poma and Skytrac to Build 130,000 Square Foot Facility in Utah
A new manufacturing and support base for HTI Group’s American lift brands is coming to Tooele, Utah. Located about 30 minutes from Salt Lake City, Tooele will become the new home for Skytrac and also serve as a satellite facility to Leitner-Poma’s headquarters in Grand Junction, Colorado. “This new Utah-based facility will allow us to continue to grow our American-made capabilities while expanding our existing headcount in Utah by up to 60 percent,” said Daren Cole, President of Leitner-Poma of America. “We’re proud to produce all Skytrac parts and nearly all LPOA parts in America,” he continued. Tooele will become the largest HTI facility in the United States at 130,000 square feet and represents an investment of $27 million.
In addition to state-of-the-art manufacturing capabilities, the 25 acre site will also include a 162 foot tall LEITWIND turbine capable of generating 100 percent of the plant’s electricity needs. Turbines from HTI subsidiary Leitwind utilize a DirectDrive generator similar to those used in the company’s detachable lifts.
The Tooele site is expected to increase Leitner-Poma’s Utah headcount to 120 employees. “We welcome Leitner-Poma of America’s expansion to Tooele,” said Utah Governor Spencer Cox. “Its new manufacturing facility will complement Utah’s thriving ski industry and give the company access to the diverse and talented workforce that exists in our great state.”
Skytrac’s move to a new plant comes on the heels of the company’s biggest sales year ever with 10 complete lifts in 2022. “New ropeway systems are rising at a record-setting pace worldwide,” noted Cole. “The output from this new campus, as well as our work to further onshore our supply chain, positions LPOA and Skytrac to better meet the growing demand throughout the country.”
The Tooele factory is expected to open in 2024.
Middlebury Snowbowl to Replace Sheehan Lift
The ski area owned and operated by Vermont’s Middlebury College today announced the purchase of a Skytrac quad chair to replace its aging Sheehan lift. The existing Poma double dates back to 1984 and rises 415 vertical feet. The new lift will follow the same alignment and service beginner and low intermediate terrain.
This is the first new lift project announced in Vermont for the 2023 construction season and the sixth project confirmed to be built by Skytrac in the United States this year. Middlebury will commence construction this spring as soon as state permits are received.
Perfect North to Replace Red Triple
Indiana’s largest ski area will make a major lift investment next year, replacing one of its five Riblet chairlifts with a modern Skytrac quad. The new Red chair will feature a loading conveyor and increase uphill capacity over an existing 1987 triple. The project is the fifth publicly-confirmed Skytrac project for next year. Other mountains adding new Skytrac lifts this offseason include Gore Mountain, New York; Nub’s Nob, Michigan; Stevens Pass, Washington; and Wild Mountain, Minnesota.
Mount Bohemia to Replace Frontside Lift
Skytrac will build the first truly new lift at Mount Bohemia over the next three years, replacing a used Riblet triple built in 2000. Bohemia announced a new drive terminal will be installed next summer, a top return terminal in 2024 and new towers and triple chairs will follow in 2025. The phased lift replacement will spread the capital cost of the project out over multiple seasons and bring Bohemia into the era of modern lifts.
“These build outs have been done by Skytrac all over the country,” said Mount Bohemia, using the above example of a Skytrac Monarch drive terminal retrofitted on a 1961 Riblet double at Mt. Spokane, Washington. “In a very short time Bohemia will have a completely brand new triple chairlift that will increase uphill capacity by roughly 50 percent. It will reduce our maintenance season on the new lift to four weeks allowing us to run the new chairlift for scenic lift rides all summer and fall.”
Nub’s Nob Announces New Quad for 2023
Michigan ski areas continue to invest in new lift technology as Nub’s Nob today became the latest to announce a project for 2023. Skytrac will build the new Green chair, a fixed grip quad replacing a 1978 Riblet. The existing lift serves as the main out-of-base people mover at Nub’s Nob.
In a video message announcing the project, General Manager Ben Doornbos identified three reasons Nub’s Nob chose a fixed grip quad over a detachable. “High speed chairlifts at Nub’s Nob just don’t make sense,” he said, noting the high cost and other drawbacks. A detach would only shave two minutes off the current five minute ride and would cause congestion as skiers favored the lift over nearby fixed grip chairs. “We want to stay future focused and continue to invest in the downhill experience,” he continued. “The only thing we’re ever going to care about at Nub’s Nob is making this place the home for the best Midwestern ski experience possible.”
Elsewhere in Michigan, The Highlands, Mt. Holly and Snowriver also plan to debut new lifts for 2023-24. The four projects announced already come on top of big investments by Michigan ski resorts this season including new lifts at Bittersweet, Boyne Mountain and Caberfae Peaks. That’s seven new lifts in two years for the Great Lakes State.
News Roundup: Gunstock & More
- Indy Pass signs its largest partner yet by skier visits: Mt. Hood Meadows.
- Former Indy Pass resort Marmot Basin joins the Mountain Collective.
- Some 300 people show up to what was intended to be an executive session of the Gunstock Area Commission to discuss legal, financial and employment matters. Two commissioners end up walking out. Another meeting is scheduled for today.
- Resigned Gunstock Area Commissioner and former Stowe CEO Gary Kiedaisch attempts to un-resign.
- A New Hampshire State Representative alleges former Gunstock General Manager Tom Day improperly donated $500 in public money to Governor Sununu’s 2020 re-election campaign.
- Organizers of a music festival set to take place at Gunstock next weekend threaten legal action if the Panorama high speed quad doesn’t run as contracted.
- Deer Valley and Mayflower work toward an operating agreement.
- Eaglecrest General Manager Dave Scanlan goes on the radio to talk about the gondola project.
- Skytrac is still hiring folks to build ski lifts, particularly at Jack Frost and Big Boulder in Pennsylvania.
- Smugglers’ Notch gives a rundown of all the work that goes into servicing a bullwheel.
- Sierra at Tahoe completes haul rope replacements on two more lifts.
- A bolt tightening contractor is hit by a tram carriage and seriously injured at Jackson Hole.
- Skytrac begins building on Eagle Peak at Lookout Pass.
- Greek Peak starts construction of a new Chair 3.
- Utah Olympic Park’s big expansion won’t be open to public skiing with limited exceptions.
- The first D-Line in California is approved, will feature unique angle stations.
- Closed Connecticut ski area Woodbury goes back up for sale.
- The company seeking to build a gondola in Edmonton, Alberta would pay $1.1 million a year to lease city right of way.
- A woman found dead under Anakeesta’s chondola last night is believed to have fallen from the lift, which remains closed today.
- Two men are killed while working to build a Doppelmayr gondola in France.
- Below is the July 8th Notice of Noncompliance the Forest Service sent Keystone regarding unauthorized road construction in Bergman Bowl. Since the letter is three weeks old, Forest Supervisor Scott Fitzwilliams sent an update on where things stand.
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