Snowbird – Lift Blog

News Roundup: Power Problems

December 5, 2025Peter Landsman10 Comments

Crescent Hill, Iowa to install a new (used) drive terminal on its double chair.
Approval of a new gondola in Hawaii may be rescinded.
The private ski resort planned near Steamboat faces a mix of public backlash and support.
Deer Valley President & COO Todd Bennett says several more lifts are planned for Deer Valley East, timeline TBA.
Megève, France joins the Ikon Pass.
Doppelmayr wins the tender to build a nine station urban gondola in Puebla, Mexico.
Val Bialas, New York to reopen after several years closed.
Lifts and ski trails return to Google Maps after a one year hiatus.
A power outage leads to a rope evacuation at Sunburst, Wisconsin.
Electric infrastructure problems will delay the start of Mont-Sainte-Anne’s season for at least another week.
Skeetawk, Alaska seeks public funding for a second lift, possibly a gondola.
Eaglecrest extends the bid deadline for a gondola general contractor, wants to open in 2028 but doesn’t have enough money to finish.
Lost Ontario ski area Talisman to be preserved as conservation land.
Aspen Mountain’s Nell Bell approval moves along.
The New York Times spends a day with Snowbird’s mountain operations team.
Holiday Mountain, New York sends a Poma bullwheel and gearbox to help Whaleback, New Hampshire revive its chairlift.
Welch Village, Minnesota’s new quad is named Joy Ride.
Spirit Mountain’s new trail map shows where the Highline Quad runs.
Toronto Zoo’s SkyPod to open in 2027.
Leitner-Poma and Skytrac celebrate completing 20 lifts on time or early.
Pico to auction 1965 Bonanza chairs for charity.
Bear Mountain, California purchases new Skytrac chairs for Lift 7.

News Roundup: Bigger Daddy

June 20, 2025June 21, 2025Peter Landsman15 Comments

Big White announces a CA$3 million renovation of Black Forest Express with Ridge Rocket Express to receive similar treatment next year.
Dagmar, Ontario to lengthen the Big Daddy quad.
Waterville Valley’s awesome ops blog shares stories of freeing a chair hung up in a comm line, sending a snowmaker cross country for a lift engine and summer preventative maintenance.
The Bitterroot Resort property that never really got off the ground south of Missoula is for sale.
More details emerge on possible aerial transit in Oshawa, Ontario.
The Tennessee State Fair christens its new sky ride chairlift.
The new head of NSAA calls for a cultural shift toward restraint bar use following a tough season.
Sigma Cabins introduces a new logo to match sister company Poma’s rebranding.
An update on the Los Angeles Dodgers gondola project with Leitner-Poma and Zero Emissins Transit.
Insurer Safehold pulls out of Oregon, leaving resorts scrambling with just one carrier in the state.
Sipapu formally announces its Lift 3 replacement (no it’s not the last of its kind in North America.)
Chair sales are ongoing at Mammoth and Alpental.
London’s IFS Cloud Cable Car adds glass floored cabins to increase revenue.
Guests got stuck mid trip on Snowbird’s Tram for two hours yesterday.

News Roundup: Pass Edition

March 7, 2025March 11, 2025Peter Landsman12 Comments

Ikon Pass adds Ischgl, Austria; loses Windham Mountain Club, New York and makes Arapahoe Basin unlimited with no blackouts. Full Ikon also adds two bonus days at Buck Hill, Minnesota; Cranmore, New Hampshire; Jiminy Peak, Massachusetts and Wild Mountain, Minnesota.
Arapahoe Basin leaves the Mountain Collective Pass.
Vail makes minimal changes to Epic Pass for next year.
Indy Pass adds Burke Mountain, Vermont and Tenney Mountain, New Hampshire.
The family behind Wisconsin Resorts Inc. want to buy Burke Mountain but the resort’s receiver says he has a better buyer.
Wisconsin Resorts-owned Searchmont, Ontario teases multiple future terrain expansions on a new trail map.
The group behind Perfect North Slopes, Indiana will operate Swiss Valley, Michigan
A rope evacuation at Norway Mountain, Michigan.
Fresh off building four new lifts, Powder Mountain has two more in the pipeline.
Ski Cooper, Colorado slashes midweek tickets to $45, revenue surges.
Also at Cooper, a skier is airlifted to the hospital after falling from a lift.
Vail settles a lawsuit with a woman who fell from a lift at Stevens Pass.
Park City gets Pioneer going for the first time this season.
Woods Valley, New York to replaces its T-Bar with a CTEC quad ending higher on the mountain.
7th Heaven at Blackcomb suffers from delayed openings, closures and reduced speeds due to an electrical issue.
Snowbird’s Mineral Basin Express repair timeline is extended due to storms.
Whaleback Mountain’s only chairlift is closed all week due to mechanical.
Sandia Peak works to revive mothballed Chair 2.
A 2005 Doppelmayr Funifor suffers a serious incident in Italy involving a severed haul rope and cabin colliding into the bottom terminal. The lift was outside operating hours and one operator suffered minor injuries.

News Roundup: Lynx Express

February 28, 2025Peter Landsman11 Comments

June Mountain closes for two days due to issues with againg J1.
Loveland proposes replacing Lift 7 with a quad.
Indy Pass plans more resort additions through the spring and fall.
One of them is Tenney Mountain, which also looks to build a high speed quad.
Tenney’s Hornet double needs a gearbox rebuild, will be closed until mid-March.
Skeetawk, Alaska seeks state funding to develop electrical infrastructure for a future Lift 2.
Burke Mountain’s receiver says a sale may be near.
The proposed Burnaby Mountain Gondola in metro Vancouver would include significant transit oriented development.
Mt. Seymour, BC removes the Brockton chair from service for an unknown amount of time.
Manning Park, BC closes the similar Blue Chair for inspections due to the incident at Mt. Seymour.
Marble Mountain, Newfoundland hits the market.
Chair 8 at Bear Mountain suffers a grip slip incident with passengers.
Rezoning paves the way for more development at Powder Mountain.
Leitner to build a seven station gondola in Iraq.
Poley Mountain, New Brunswick works to repair its triple chair.
Bretton Woods applies to build a new lift, Attitash seeks to reduce capacity on the closed Flying Bear.
Solitude completes a mid-winter bullwheel bearing replacement on Sunrise.
The first terminal and towers go up for the winter build Saluda Skyride in South Carolina.
Mt. Crescent, Iowa rebrands as Crescent Hill.
An inside look at operating the largest lift fleet in the country.
And one of the smaller ones.
Mineral Basin at Snowbird to be closed for a week-ish due to a machanical issue.

News Roundup: Split Decision

November 8, 2024Peter Landsman17 Comments

Voters green light funding for continued operations of the Telluride-Mountain Village gondola and an eventual replacement.
Casper, Wyoming voters say no to a new chairlift for Hogadon.
Hunter Mountain shows off a brand new trail map showing two new lift alignments.
Arizona Snowbowl’s latest map shows the new Aspen quad.
Big Sky’s new map includes the paths of the new One&Only Gondola and Madison 8.
Ober Mountain’s three chairlifts gain new names.
Snowbird’s 24-25 map illustrates Wilbere’s new alignment.
The longest gondola in the world progresses toward completion in the Caribbean.
Closed Big Tupper, New York sells for $650,000 to investors hoping to reopen it.
The nonprofit that runs Anthony Lakes, Oregon is interested in resurrecting Spout Springs.
Leitner opens a new global logistics center in Italy.
A 162 foot tall wind turbine is installed at Skytrac’s new facility in Utah.

News Roundup: Ever Optimistic

September 27, 2024September 27, 2024Peter Landsman8 Comments

Vail Resorts reports annual skier visits down 9.5 percent, net income down 14 percent, EBITDA down 1 percent and season pass sales down 3 percent in units but up 3 percent in dollars. The company announced no new 2025 lift projects and will lay off 14 percent of corporate staff along with limited operational staff.
Hatley Pointe, North Carolina retires the Laurel double, plans to build a new chairlift eventually.
County planners unanimously reject the Shadow Mountain Bike Park proposal in Colorado.
Sleeping Giant, Wyoming will hibernate again this winter.
Huff Hills, North Dakota reaches a one year agreement to operate this winter.
Aspen’s proposal to replace Lift 1A remains alive.
Whitetail, Pennsylvania to sell Hall chairs from Jib Junction.
Leitner to build a seven station urban gondola in Morella, Mexico for $100 million.
Mexico’s President and President-elect inaugurate a six station urban gondola line by Doppelmayr in Mexico City.
A Hezbollah rocket strikes a chairlift in Israel held territory.
Snowbird turns an old tram cabin into a bar.
Sandia Peak proposes replacing Chair 1.
Tamarack scales down expansion plans to seven new chairlifts and an extension of the Wildwood Express with no new gondola.
The under construction One&Only resort with a two station gondola connecting to Big Sky Resort catches fire.
Ever optimistic Les Otten still aims to re-open The Balsams with three new chairlifts in phase one.

News Roundup: Antitrust Scrutiny

June 28, 2024Peter Landsman2 Comments

Deer Valley initiates construction on Lifts 2, 3 and 4A with the rest of Expanded Excellence lifts in final engineering and procurement.
Detroit Mountain’s mountain biking lift goes down for the much of June due to a mechanical problem.
Proponents of the Cascade Skyline Gondola project criticize British Columbia’s slow approval process.
Snowbird and Jackson Hole both offer very expensive chairs with portions going to charity.
Doppelmayr introduces an underground vertical ropeway for the mining industry.
The American company which owns the Banff Gondola acquires the Jasper SkyTram from the Canadian firm that owns Marmot Basin for CA$25 million.
The Department of Justice seeks information on Alterra’s proposed purchase of Arapahoe Basin.

News Roundup: Gondola Down

January 5, 2024Peter Landsman20 Comments

The on-demand Ropetaxi gondola in Switzerland suffers from outages, slow speeds and confused riders after opening.
Gore Mountain’s Northwoods Gondola goes down for a week and counting due to a gearbox bearing issue.
The Heavenly Gondola is also out of service while bearings are replaced.
Both Doppelmayr and Leitner-Poma are expected to bid on the Cannon tram rebuild with completion targeted for December 2026.
A child is injured falling from the Gold Coast chair at Palisades.
The strong earthquake in Japan shakes running chairlifts.
Windham Mountain Club runs out of weekend Ikon reservations for most of the winter.
The Forest Service approves replacements for Mineral Basin and Gadzoom at Snowbird, the proposed Brighton Chondola and a Coach replacement at Bogus Basin.
Snowbasin plans to replace the Becker triple.
Boyne Mountain will spin lifts 75 hours straight for a good cause.
Alterra President and CEO Jared Smith participates in an interview with Colorado Public Radio covering a range of industry hot topics.

News Roundup: Mineral Basin

October 13, 2023Peter Landsman22 Comments

Snowbird proposes replacing both Mineral Basin and Gadzoom with six packs; Brighton plans a six passenger chondola in a new alignment.
In Quebec, Mont Grand-Fonds plans a new lift for next year.
Indy Pass adds 20 new North American downhill resorts including Big White, Montana Snowbowl and Shames Mountain.
SilverStar buys 21 more cabins for the Summit Express Gondola.
More Omega cabins show up at Homewood for the postponed Madden Gondola.
Skytrac will build Mt. Ashland’s next new lift.
Rabbit Hill, Alberta sells to new owners.
Vail Resorts reportedly shops for another Swiss resort.
Black Mountain, New Hampshire won’t open this season.
Sugarbush confirms new Heaven’s Gate for 2024.
Alterra buys Mike Wiegele Heli Skiing.
Snowriver’s new map shows several new and removed lifts.
An Austrian ski resort says its 15 passenger pulse gondola was sold to a ski resort in Canada.
Smugglers’ Notch will continue studying a gondola connection with Stowe.
Buck Hill and Red Lodge announce public chair sales.

Snowbird to Replace Wilbere Lift

September 27, 2023September 29, 2023Peter Landsman14 Comments

Doppelmayr has been selected to install a new Wilbere Quad next summer at Snowbird, the second new lift announced by Powdr for 2024. The quad will load in a new location in the Creekside base area and terminate near the top of the current Wilbere double, which Doppelmayr built in 1971. The modern AlpenStar fixed grip will feature a loading conveyor and carry 1,800 skiers per hour.

Exciting things are in store for the 2023-24 season, including the replacement and realignment of Snowbird's original Wilbere chair, starting in the late spring. Get all of the details & learn more: https://t.co/i6XDXtT0YX pic.twitter.com/TUjeNaShJE
— Snowbird (@Snowbird) September 27, 2023

“With a number of short- and long-term projects in the works, we are taking great strides to make our mountain more accessible, more efficient and more engaging for our passholders and our community,” noted Snowbird President and General Manager Dave Fields. Wilbere 2.0 is expected to open for the 2024-25 ski season.

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