- Cape Smokey in Nova Scotia plans to build a gondola beginning this spring to replace a disused quad.
- Here’s the latest from Saddleback.
- Australian bushfires destroy a ski resort which vows to rebuild.
- The Town of Jackson approves Snow King’s updated master plan, leaving just the Forest Service left to weigh in.
- Silver Mountain reopens three days after a fatal inbounds avalanche.
- More than 2,000 visitors a day are skiing and snowboarding Big Snow and Alterra is watching the experiment closely.
- An employee who lost his arm in a conveyor lift receives a $10 million settlement.
- Eleven years in, the Jackson Hole Aerial Tram gets a new haul rope.
- Sunridge completes a successful rope evacuation of the Parkview Quad on a cold night.
Snow King Mountain
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.
News Roundup: Affirmation
- White Pass and Mission Ridge join the Powder Alliance as SilverStar and Stevens Pass exit.
- Soldier Mountain’s owners aren’t having much luck finding a buyer.
- An appeals court affirms the Jumbo Glacier Resort project can’t proceed without a new permit.
- Red Mountain is posting construction updates on the Topping Creek expansion every Tuesday.
- KSL Resorts becomes the new operator of Camelback.
- New runs are cut on Vail Mountain with lift installation to commence shortly.
- Snow King modifies its master plan to shift a proposed gondola and eliminate the existing Cougar lift.
- A worker dies while performing overnight maintenance on the La Paz urban gondola system.
- Hermitage Club stakeholders consider what might happen at the next bankruptcy court hearing, scheduled for August 23rd.
- Europe’s 15th 3S gondola system launches November 30th.
- Big White to add new, larger capacity cabins to Lara’s Gondola.
- Bittersweet in Michigan is significantly lengthening its Hawthorn triple.
News Roundup: Privatization
- America’s only indoor ski lifts debut October 25th in New Jersey.
- The Forest Service and Vail Resorts react negatively to the idea of a $5.2 million chairlift from Eagle-Vail to Beaver Creek Mountain.
- A deropement turns into a 10 hour ordeal for passengers on a gondola in Pakistan.
- The City of Steamboat considers a deal with Alterra to operate Howelsen Hill.
- Snow King’s proposed expansion may get another alternative before a 2020 decision.
- Timberline, West Virginia seeks permission to sell off snowmaking equipment and the CEO is charged with a felony for allegedly providing resort employees paychecks that never cleared.
- Manning Park seeks a name for its first quad chair.
- The Salesforce gondola is carrying passengers!
- Vail ropes down 74 employees from a broken Eagle Bahn Gondola, which remains closed three days later.
- Berkshire Bank wants the Hermitage to be liquidated.
- Steamboat’s new gondola towers are multiplying.
- A Stevens Pass employee snaps some awesome shots of the resort’s ongoing lift projects.
- James Niehues is at work on an all new trail map for Wolf Creek.
News Roundup: Slow Boat
- After years of gondola negotiations with the Town of Jackson, a frustrated Snow King Mountain presses pause while it waits for the U.S. Forest Service to weigh in.
- Doppelmayr completes the final link in the world’s largest gondola chain. The stats: 10 lines, 21 miles, 34 stations and 1,324 cabins carrying 300,000 daily passengers.
- Crested Butte’s longest lift goes down for more than four days due to communication line damage.
- The announced sale of Montana’s Great Divide won’t happen.
- Peak Resorts posts a solid financial quarter with organic growth in revenue and earnings.
- The Whistler paper highlights what happens when the big Blackcomb Gondola goes down.
- SkyTrans Manufacturing says it’s not to blame for the Ohio State Fair’s delay in replacing potentially corroded chairs on its skyride. As a result of the chairlift situation, Ohio will require all ride operators to forward manufacturer directives to state inspectors going forward.
- After tons of hard work by its lift mechanics and contractors, Attitash concedes it won’t be able to fix Summit‘s gearbox this season. “We’ve heard your calls for a new lift to replace the Summit Triple, and while we appreciate all your feedback, this is not a project our parent company, Peak Resorts, is looking to do in the near future,” says GM John Lowell.
- Leaders of Alta, Aspen Snowmass, Big Sky and Jackson Hole all pen letters addressing the chorus of Ikon Pass crowding criticism.
- The Glenwood Caverns gondola takes flight tomorrow with 17 Sigma cabins. 27 more are on a delayed boat from France and will be put on line when they arrive.
News Roundup: Working Together
- It’s not looking good for Mt. Timothy, BC.
- Two Aspen developers amend their plans to accommodate the new Lift 1 alignment.
- Horseshoe Resort commits to replacing Chair 6 with a quad in 2019.
- The Hermitage Club is still trying to ink a reopening deal with members and Oz Real Estate.
- Powdr breaks ground on Woodward Park City, set to debut with a fixed-grip quad in November 2019. No word yet on the manufacturer.
- The Forest Service green lights Aspen Highlands’ Goldenhorn platter project.
- Peak Resorts posts quarterly results: an $11.8 million net loss on $7 million in revenue as the company worked to build Hunter North and the Carinthia Lodge at Mt. Snow. SKIS had $10.1 million in cash on hand as of July 31st with $180.6 million in debt. CEO Tim Boyd says he’s still open to acquiring more mountains.
- Disney will build and maintain a boat and dock specifically for Skyliner gondola evacuation purposes.
- Hall double area Navarino Hills, Wisconsin closes for good.
- With rumors swirling about its future, Black Mountain, NH clarifies it will open this winter.
- Snow King’s gondola/expansion scoping is extended for the third time to October 4th.
- A cabin is spotted in one of the Disney World gondola stations.
- $51 million in new lifts are on track to spin for American Thanksgiving at Whistler Blackcomb. Thanks Jordan N. for these photos.
News Roundup: Bahn
- Bretton Woods’ upcoming gondola gets a great name: Presidential Bahn.
- Copper updates the public on its big new American Eagle and American Flyer lifts.
- For the third time in six years, Soldier Mountain, Idaho hits the market. “The current owners have experienced the typical start up challenges that come with operating a ski area that has been under capitalized, under managed and under marketed for many years,” writes Mike Krongel of Mirus Resort Advisors.
- The BC Supreme Court orders the province to reconsider its 2015 decision to pull Jumbo Glacier Resort’s construction permit over lack of progress.
- Mont Cascades scores a $1.2 million grant from the Government of Quebec to help build the resort’s longest chairlift yet.
- The criminal case of a former employee who may or may not have been stuck on a Gore Mountain chairlift overnight last winter heads to trial.
- Snow King’s possible gondola gains two new alignment options. GM Ryan Stanley tells the Jackson Hole community “After struggling for so many years to keep the lifts spinning, it is sad to see the negativity associated with proposed improvements to the mountain.”
- The 380 acre Cold Springs Canyon expansion and detachable quad are officially a go for next summer at Sun Valley.
- Doppelmayr nears commissioning of a very cool gondola with spherical cabins, loopy towers and whimsical stations in Moscow.
- Stratton says goodbye to the SMS Poma, leaving just seven detachable surface lifts in the country by my count.
- 36 days before opening, go inside the eye-catching Matterhorn 3S gondola by Leitner Ropeways.
- Thanks to Everett and Will for these shots of Big Sky’s trailblazing Ramcharger 8 project.
News Roundup: Color Choices
- The Adirondack Park Agency approves construction of a new chairlift at the Lake Placid Olympic ski jumping facility.
- Ascutney seeks permission to build a 1,760′ T-Bar with 11 towers.
- As Oz Real Estate weighs investing more than $50 million, the Hermitage Club receiver reports the resort’s lifts need $86,000 in maintenance that neither the bank nor members have agreed to fund.
- Mountain Capital Partners hosts a packed public meeting regarding its Nordic Valley expansion. “I’ve never had a project not be successful and I’m not going to start with this one,” James Coleman tells the crowd.
- Days before the deadline for public comments, Sunshine Village CEO Ralph Scurfield pens an op-ed criticizing Parks Canada’s proposed site guidelines that would eliminate three future lifts from consideration.
- Leitner-Poma looks to immediately hire installation team members for the big Winter Park gondola project.
- Thanks to Rob and Max for these awesome shots of the Whistler Blackcomb megaproject.
- Some Alta land is withdrawn from a proposed land swap, maintaining the possibility of future expansion in Grizzly Gulch.
- Killington goes blue with its bubbles.
- Vail Resorts officially takes over Stevens Pass.
- Massachusetts awards the current operators of Blue Hills a new three year contract.
- Fatzer begins production of the first Compacta rope for the US lift market. At 54 mm, any guesses where it’s headed?
- The Jackson/Teton County Parks & Recreation Board unanimously says no to a Snow King Gondola alignment as the Forest Service extends public comment until September 13th.
- The Capital Gondola project moves along in Albany.
- Anyone can rent the six lifts at Pico Mountain for $6,500 on Tuesdays or Wednesdays this winter.
- The Jay Peak receiver plans to sell the resort by next summer while an offering of Burke Mountain is indefinitely on hold.
- Copper Mountain appears to abandon dark green lifts for more sophisticated copper-colored terminals.
News Roundup: Must Read
- A planning document shows Big White has applied to build two lifts east of Black Forest Express called Backcountry and Backcountry Connector.
- Snow King Mountain’s expansion officially enters the National Environmental Policy Act pipeline. Proposed lifts are a 1,500 pph gondola with cabin storage, a 3,015′ backside fixed-grip quad, one 679′ T-Bar or platter and two new carpets.
- The iconic Volkswagen funitel marks 15 years of operation, having delivered over three million vehicles from factory to test track.
- A proposed urban gondola in Loveland, Colorado would be built by Leitner-Poma with up to five stations.
- Arapahoe Basin drops its new trail map showing the big Beavers expansion.
- An avalanche takes out the last tower of a Doppelmayr six-pack in New Zealand.
- Skytrac is hiring for project foreman and general construction positions.
- Denver Post alum Jason Blevins, now writing for the Colorado Sun, traces the remarkable ski industry journey of the Mueller family from Vermont to Colorado. Insights from his must read piece: Tim and Diane Mueller took out a second mortgage on their home to buy Okemo, invested in Catamount before it failed, nearly bought Steamboat and once bid to operate Winter Park.
- Windham’s retired F lift heads to Greek Peak to upgrade lifts 3 and 5.
- The New Mexico State Fair will sport a new skyride-style chairlift beginning next month.
- Alterra Mountain Company hires an Executive Vice President/Chief Financial Officer from Wall Street and looks to name a Vice President of Planning and Resort Development.
- Enjoy the most detailed glimpse yet of the world’s longest lift.
- The name game continues: Wolf Creek’s newest high speed quad is now Charity.
- One of the world’s oldest high speed quads is going away in favor of a six pack.
- I’m in New Mexico this weekend checking out as many lifts as I can. First stop: Taos, where this yet-to-be-named Leitner-Poma detachable quad is the fourth new lift in five years!
News Roundup: Needs
- Mt. Sunapee plans to install the former Sunbowl quad in place of the North Peak triple and move that lift to the other side of North Peak as early as 2019.
- There are now four Snow King Mountain master plan alternatives; all include a base-to-summit gondola and three have a new backside chairlift.
- The first fly day of 2018 title goes to SilverStar, Doppelmayr and Vancouver Island Helicopters.
- A top ramp incident at Wachusett Mountain apparently leads to a $72,000 verdict.
- The approved Mt. Baldy tram at Alta remains contentious and may never happen.
- In hot and dry Arizona, officials close large swaths of National Forest including all outdoor summer activities at Arizona Snowbowl until further notice.
- The asking price for Blacktail Mountain is $3.5 million.
- As BMF builds its first detachable lift in Iran, the Swiss company says it has no interest in the U.S. market.
- OSHA proposes $64,673 in fines for 15 violations identified during the investigation into Loveland lift mechanic Adam Lee’s death.
- West Mountain needs a Poma return terminal and eight quad gauge towers in order to complete its third new lift of the decade.
- When Alta’s reimagined Snowpine Lodge opens in January, you will be able to get there on a dedicated Skytrac chairlift.
