- Several rope evacs this week – Heavenly, Mt. Baker, Snoqualmie and Maple Ski Ridge, New York.
- Sadly also two fatal falls from lifts at Cypress Mountain, BC and Ski Apache, New Mexico.
- A death at Timberline Mountain, West Virginia last week is also revealed as a chairlift fall.
- Levi, Finland signs on to the Indy Pass.
- Facing a large insurance payment in a few weeks, Camp 10, Wisconsin could close without community support.
- An update on the soon-to-open new T-Bar at Waterville Valley.
- A Doppelmayr gondola is proposed in Lookout Mountain, Georgia.
- Doppelmayr could also build a sightseeing gondola in Butte, Montana.
- Leitner-Poma is expected to supply the first lift for the Trails at Mena in Arkansas this summer.
- Doppelmayr and Leitner split an order for urban gondolas in Queenstown, New Zealand.
- Cannon Mountain continues structural analysis on the recently-retired aerial tram with a May target to solicit bids from manufacturers for replacement reusing tower and terminal structures (starts at 18:00.)
- A new map shows where the Showcase quad will run on Blackcomb Mountain.
- The brand new urban gondola in Paris is already carrying 12,500 riders per day, 14 percent more than forecast, and a second line is under consideration.
- During the Telluride strike, an entity controlled by local elected officials proposed buying a majority stake in Telski.
- Chris Cushing of SE Group discusses designing 100 new trails and 10 new lifts at Deer Valley.
- The North chair to reopen soon at Snow Ridge, NY after a year closed due to tornado damage.
- A look into the world of restoring gondola cabins instead of replacing them or an entire lift.
- Early season visits to Vail Resorts North American mountains declined 20 percent through January 4th compared to a year earlier.
- Update: An empty chair detached from Shedhorn 4 at Big Sky today. I’m told a grip did not attach properly leaving the bottom teminal. The empty chair ended up in the pit. Statement from Big Sky Resort: “Around 2:45pm today on Shedhorn 4 lift, a grip failed to reattach to the haul rope while exiting the bottom terminal. The chair was unoccupied at the time, and the lift’s automatic safety system immediately stopped operation. The team acted quickly to offload all remaining guests from the lift. Shedhorn 4 will remain closed while we thoroughly inspect every grip before reopening. We appreciate your patience as safety remains our top priority.“
Snow Ridge
News Roundup: Mechanics
- New hanger arms arrive at Kicking Horse five months after a cabin fell from the Golden Eagle Express.
- Snow Ridge, New York moves two towers on the North lift damaged by a 2023 tornado.
- Two possible buyers emerge for Toggenburg, New York, one of which would reopen the mountain for skiing.
- Powdr continues to work toward a transaction to sell SilverStar, BC.
- Virtually all candidates for Park City Council support exploring aerial transit for the region.
- The family of a Montana man who died in a lift deropement at Red Lodge Mountain last winter hold a community car show in his honor.
- Leaders of the European Union and United States settle on a 15 percent tariff for goods moving stateside.
- The tariff rate on Swiss goods soars to 39 percent beginning next week.
- Mexico’s President announces construction of the world’s longest urban gondola line in Mexico City with eight stations over 7.1 miles and 398 cabins.
- Oaxaca to join the urban gondola train too.
- The proposed Zincton project in interior British Columbia to bypass a full environment assessment.
- Here are two great snapshots of the lift maintenance profession.
- Telluride looks toward a 10 place gondola with a design capacity of 2,500 to 3,000 people per hour and two cabin parking/maintenance facilities.
- Vail Resorts and unionized Park City mechanics reach a tentative agreement good through mid-2028.
News Roundup: Free Gondola
- Indy Pass promises 200 resorts next season, Powder Mountain will no longer be one of them.
- Garaventa Chief Rigger Cédric Aellig talks about building America’s newest tram.
- Big Sky shows what Madison 8 chairs will look like.
- The Wall Street Journal tackles billionaires buying ski areas such as Taos, Powder Mountain and Windham.
- Speaking of billionaires, here’s a peak inside Wasatch Peaks Ranch.
- Bystanders make a very good catch of an unseated passenger on Blackcomb’s Crystal Ridge Express.
- A European cat driver climbs on the roof of his machine to help another unseated passenger.
- A profile of Stephen Kircher, lift visionary and President of Boyne Resorts.
- Snow Ridge owner Nick Mir explains why North Chair kept rolling after a deropement last week, says the lift won’t reopen until next season.
- Eaglecrest is approved to break ground on its pulse gondola project this summer.
- Skytrac shows off progress on its new factory, gears up to build 9+ complete lifts this summer.
- Steamboat works toward building an 8 or 10 passenger gondola from the Meadows area to the village.
- Sponsored: Skytrac is hiring parts and service technicians.
Deropement Causes Chair Pileup at Snow Ridge, New York
Snow Ridge has had a tough year. An EF-3 tornado tore through the small Upstate New York mountain last August, damaging all four of the mountain’s lifts. A number of other ski areas, volunteers and resort staff joined forces to put the mountain back together all fall. North Chair, the final lift to reopen, just returned to service last Saturday. Unfortunately today the lift deroped on both sides of tower 6, causing two chairs to fall to the ground and four additional chairs to stack up on the light side of the tower. Thankfully none of the impacted chairs were occupied and no one was hurt. According to a post by Bob Bennett on Ski the Northeast Facebook Group, the mountain had just opened for the day and only one person had to be rope evacuated. The incident follows just two days after a significant deropement at Sunday River, Maine required 200+ skiers to be rope evacuated. No one was injured in that mishap either.
North is very old and contains parts from multiple defunct manufacturers, primarily Hall. According to New York Ski Blog, the double chair was just inspected and cleared by the State of New York to operate on February 16th. It was not immediately clear why safety systems designed to stop a lift after a deropement failed to do so for at least four chair lengths this morning.
News Roundup: Ropetaxi
- Hesperus, Colorado won’t open this season due to gearbox failure on the Bighorn double.
- Parents of a child who jumped from a chairlift at Hidden Valley, PA during a mechanical breakdown sue Vail Resorts.
- Numerous trees fall on a detachable quad in Italy, causing chairs to stack up and injuring seven people.
- The first Bartholet Ropetaxi with multi-station selection commences operation in Switzerland.
- The brand new 3S between Switzerland and Italy will close from January to March for maintenance.
- With construction stalled, Wasatch Peaks Ranch will make its case to the public.
- Snow Ridge, New York says three of five lifts are back operational after last summer’s tornado.
- Eleven ski areas in Colorado account for 65 percent of all revenue-based fees the Forest Service collects nationwide.
- Pleasant Mountain’s Summit Triple goes down for a week or more.
News Roundup: The Notch
- Snow Ridge plans to spin all five lifts this season despite extensive tornado damage sustained in August.
- Mt. Holly postpones completion of the Lightning Express to next summer.
- Cockaigne, New York won’t open this season.
- Norway Mountain, Michigan begins maintenance on lifts in preparation for reopening next season.
- Whiteface’s new trail map shows the new Notch lift and angle station.
- Park City shares more details on the upcoming Sunrise Gondola.
- The New York Times profiles Vietnam’s record-breaking ropeways.
- A trial is set for January for eight defendants implicated in the 2021 Italian tram disaster.
News Roundup: Von Rolls
- Wolf Ridge, North Carolina re-brands as Hatley Pointe.
- New tram cabins land in Big Sky after a journey from Switzerland.
- Steamboat advances construction of a parking lot transport gondola.
- The Forest Service explains why it rejected Lutsen’s expansion proposal.
- Snow Ridge will host another tornado cleanup this month.
- Cleanup begins after the epic flood at Lee Canyon.
- Massanutten plans to open the first brand new lift of 2023 next weekend.
- Holiday Valley will open its new six pack in October for pre-winter rides.
- MND reports a 27 percent revenue increase with €140.1 million in outstanding orders.
- The former Tulsa Skyride will live on at an Iraqi amusement park.
News Roundup: Enhancement
- Four years after the Sea to Sky Gondola’s haul rope was first cut, the criminal case remains open.
- Adventureland, Iowa decommissions its SLI double chair.
- An assessment finds extensive damage to lifts at Snow Ridge.
- Echo Mountain, Colorado appears to be for sale.
- Tremblant’s gondola reopens a month after a fatal accident.
- Fernie shifts hiking and biking operations from one side of the mountain to the other due to a mechanical issue with the Elk chair.
- Utah Governor Spencer Cox says the Little Cottonwood gondola should be a public-private partnership.
- Baghdad, Iraq plans an urban gondola.
News Roundup: Great Causes
- Alpine Ski Club, Ontario lists the Arrowhead Quad for sale with a replacement planned for 2024.
- Big Moose Mountain, Maine fundraises to revive trails abandoned since the summit double last ran in 2004.
- Snow Ridge, New York shares more photos of devastating tornado damage and fundraises for rebuilding. A volunteer cleanup day is scheduled for August 26th.
- Nonprofit Skiland, Alaska seeks donations to operate next season.
- Busch Gardens Tampa Bay teases a reopening of its gondola that has been closed since Covid.
- A power outage strands hundreds of guests overnight at the Banff Gondola.
- Seven Oaks leaves the Indy Pass.
News Roundup: Retirements
- Snow Ridge, NY retires its Snowy Meadows double in favor of a conveyor.
- Ditto for the J-Bar at Suicide Six, Vermont.
- The San Francisco Chronicle checks in on Sierra at Tahoe‘s recovery.
- An electrician is hospitalized following a possible lightning strike at Cypress Mountain.
- An anti-gondola candidate is elected mayor of the town where a Little Cottonwood Gondola would begin.
- A local author tells the story of how a hodgepodge of used chairlifts set the stage for Big Sky’s cutting edge lifts.
- The Italian tram car involved in last May’s deadly incident is removed from the mountain by helicopter.
- The Breckenridge Town Council approves a plan for the Breckenridge Grand Vacations gondola and stipulates its developer must choose a detachable model.
- Sun Peaks Resort won’t operate the West Bowl T-Bar for the second year in a row.
- Reopening Hickory, NY intends to operate all three lifts this season when snow permits.
- The Prairie Sky Gondola is officially under development in Edmonton.
- Shawnee Mountain’s next new lift will likely be a fixed quad replacing the double–double.
- Prague looks to build an urban 3S gondola with three stations.
- Discussions continue regarding the future of the aging Telluride-Mountain Village gondola system.
- Palisades Tahoe confirms the new base-to-base gondola won’t open this winter.
- Aspen Snowmass ups its minimum wage to $17 for hourly employees and $50,000 for salaried workers.
- Brundage says new lifts and terrain are coming, though specifics are pending.
- Loon Mountain gets ready to welcome guests aboard the new Kanc 8.
Lift Blog 
