- Ragged Mountain, New Hampshire is sold to local investors, will no longer be operated by Pacific Group Resorts.
- Voters in Mountain Village, Colorado enact a 5 percent tax on Telluride lift tickets starting next week to fund gondola construction, operations and maintenance.
- The Texas Parks & Wildlife Foundation launches a multi-million dollar fundraising effort to finish replacing the Wyler Aerial Tramway in El Paso.
- Sugarbush intends to operate the Slide Brook Express this winter after it missed last season.
- Honolulu’s City Council passes a resolution opposing construction of a sightseeing gondola on the island.
- A study finds Utah’s ski industry generated $2.5 billion in spending last season, directly supporting 31,800 jobs.
- Angel Fire’s new map shows off an all-new lift alignment.
- Big Sky’s fresh map depicts the new, curved Explorer Gondola.
- Mount St. Louis-Moonstone shows where its fifth detachable runs.
- Compagnie des Montagnes de Ski du Quebec (CMSQ) to operate Massif du Sud, its fourth Quebec ski area. Planning is underway for a base-to-summit detachable.
- Camp 10, Wisconsin remains unsure about the future of the Red T-Bar, damaged by an October fire and uninsured.
- The first Doppelmayr TRI-Line gondola is commissioned and ready for winter.
- Saskadena Six retires Chair Two, may build a new lift in the future.
Sugarbush
News Roundup: Rescues
- Whiteface joins the Mountain Collective Pass.
- The Forest Service approves up to three lifts for the Trails at Mena bike park in Arkansas, down from a proposed five.
- Nearly a thousand people show up to watch Doppelmayr install East Village Gondola towers at Deer Valley.
- Big Sky’s ski patrol debriefs the avalanche that hit the top of Swift Current 6 last winter.
- Snow Ridge, New York is selling chairs from the old Snowy Meadows double.
- A zoo chairlift in Massachusetts is evacuated by ladder truck and boom lifts.
- A dangling man is rescued from the chairlift at Lagoon, Utah.
- A tower from Killington’s Superstar Express heads to Sugarbush – not sure why but I have asked.
- Foreign investors sue Powder Mountain seeking $76 million.
- Enjoy this small glimpse into mountain planning and design.
- Hogadon, Wyoming floats price increases and a 10 percent facility surcharge to help pay for a new chairlift.
News Roundup: Valentine’s Edition
- Vail Resorts reaches an agreement with Crested Butte lift mechanics, averting a strike.
- A window falls from a cabin on Stowe’s Mansfield Gondola during operations.
- Mission Ridge acknowledges three different chairs have detached this season from Chair 4, a 1971 Riblet double (all empty and no injuries).
- Waterville Valley completes a midseason splice on the High Country T-Bar.
- A new owner looks to reopen Crystal Mountain, BC via crowdfunding.
- Winter Park’s High Lonesome Express is back after a four week maintenance closure.
- Still no Slide Brook Express at Sugarbush but hopefully soon.
- The Glade Triple at Catamount will miss the rest of the season.
- Badger Pass, California won’t open this season.
- Ditto for Cedar Pass, also in California.
- Park City gets serious about a gondola connecting Main Street to Deer Valley.
- President Trump imposes 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports with potential impacts on lift manufacturers.
- The US Forest Service, landlord to 124 ski areas, lays off 3,400 employees.
- A bipartisan group of Senators sponsor a bill that would direct the Forest Service retain some of the fees resorts pay to the federal government for ski purposes, such as processing resort improvement projects.
- The gondola in Moab, Utah which sat for 25 years without ever opening, is finally being removed.
- Solitude demystifies lift maintenance for customers.
News Roundup: Short Films
- Homewood’s new gondola is finally approved.
- Eaglecrest receives a key gondola construction permit.
- The Wall Street Journal covers several challenges facing Vail Resorts.
- Unionized Crested Butte lift mechanics authorize a strike should they be unable to reach a contract agreement with Vail.
- Breckenridge lift staff stage a one day sick out in protest of employee housing conditions, closing several lifts on Wednesday.
- Pioneer at Park City hasn’t opened this season due to an offseason deropement still being repaired.
- Blackcomb’s Glacier Express to be closed a week or longer due to a possible gearbox issue.
- Mount Snow’s Challenger has been inoperative since January 13th.
- Mammut sponsors a short film exploring the transformation of Shames Mountain, British Columbia into a community co-op.
- British Columbia opens public consultation for the proposed Bridal Veil Mountain Resort.
- A gondola transit network in Oshawa, Ontario could cost CA$1.1 billion.
- Reed Hastings explains his sweeping changes at Powder Mountain including four new lifts in one summer and partial privatization.
- Chicopee, Ontario explains why its three new lifts aren’t spinning yet.
- Bristol Mountain partially rope evacuates the Comet Express.
- Ditto for the Mt. Hood Express at Mt. Hood Meadows.
- The Balsams extends approval for long-delayed redevelopment.
- Mont Farlagne, New Brunswick reopens its only chairlift after a month-long closure due to a bullwheel issue.
- Ischgl invites guests to help build a life size replica of a 3S gondola cabin with Lego bricks.
- The latest New Hampshire tram board minutes hint at a possible new lift for Bretton Woods.
- Mountain Village and Telluride begin planning their new gondola in earnest.
- Vermonters ask Why hasn’t Burke Mountain sold? as receivership fees surpass $12 million.
- Sugarbush gets all but one of its chairlifts going after a challenging start to the season.
- Several videos show the chaotic aftermath of the bullwheel detachment in Spain last week.
- Colorado releases the Winter Park gondola crack incident report, a full report of investigation remains in progress.
News Roundup: The Bar
- Vail Resorts reports a 0.3% decline in North American skier visits through 1/5 with revenue up 4.5%, ski school up 1.1%, dining up 6.6% and retail/rental down 5.4%.
- Park City offers guests who visited during the patrol strike partial credit toward a season pass next year.
- Park City businesses report a drop in business following the patrol strike.
- Kimberley, BC’s Tamarack chair goes down for awhile.
- Another snowboarder falls from a lift in Colorado – this time at Copper.
- A man who fell from Willamette Pass’ Peak 2 triple in high winds seeks $3.6 million in damages.
- Europeans poke fun at the lack of bars on lifts and Americans’ refusal to use them on lifts that are equipped.
- A trial in British Columbia finds proper signage increases bar use dramatically.
- The Atlantic runs a story on ski industry consolidation, labor relations and cheap season passes.
- Mt. Hood Meadows provides an update on Heather Canyon, which has yet to open this season.
- An Alaska windstorm blows a lift shack over on one lift and sends a chair into the bullwheel on another at Arctic Valley.
- Sugarbush apologizes for not having Castlerock and Slide Brook operable at this point in the season.
- Leaders approve a large development at Nordic Valley, Utah; likely to coincide with a new out-of-base lift.
- The municipality of Whistler to study a valley gondola transit line.
- Castle Mountain seeks a name for its first high speed quad.
News Roundup: Strike Over
- Park City’s patrol strike ends after 12 days; Vail apologizes to guests and a class action lawsuit is filed.
- Spirit Mountain, Minnesota solicits bids to replace Gandy with a quad this summer.
- Bald Mountain, Idaho may not open this season due to inability to secure insurance.
- Leitner-Poma President Daren Cole joins Banff Sunshine’s podcast to discuss the Super Angel Express and lift business more broadly.
- A sit skier who fell from Winter Park’s Explorer Express and was seriously injured files suit.
- Pursuit completes its acquisition of the Jasper SkyTram.
- Saskadena Six, Vermont will not operate Chair Two this season, looks at a replacement.
- Eaglecrest, Alaska continues to look toward a sightseeing gondola to subsidize its money-losing ski operation.
- Killington’s Superstar six pack will cost $12.16 million,
- Mt. Bachelor plans several enhancements to the Northwest Express.
- Sugarbush to bring in additional staff from across Alterra to try and get non-functional lifts open.
- Four Seasons, New York is listed for sale.
- Sandia Peak proposes replacing Chair 1.
News Roundup: Auxiliary
- Mt. Ashland reopens on the tree-damaged Ariel double, opens one of the first all-electric chairlifts in the country.
- Sugarbush explains what’s going on with five lifts that have either gone down or not opened yet this season.
- California OSHA tells me it won’t investigate the lift incident that hospitalized five people at Heavenly because most of the Comet Express is in Nevada, including where the collision occurred.
- Whitefish is without Chair 2 while a systems modernization is completed.
- Black Mountain, New Hampshire seeks to raise $5 million to form a co-op.
- Winter Park reopens The Gondola just 48 hours after last week’s tower crack.
- Construction begins on a third Mexicable line in Greater Mexico City with 10 stations and 278 cabins at a cost of $149 million.
- A tower collapses on a fair chairlift in Mexico during operations.
- The Chondola at Telluride is rope evacuated.
- Alpental’s new Internationale chair opened today but was offloaded on auxiliary shortly thereafter due to a mechanical issue. “Our lift maintenance team is working with Doppelmayr and plans to complete full diagnostics and testing in the morning, with the goal of reopening the lift tomorrow once we are 100% satisfied we’ve eliminated all potential issues,” says The Summit.
News Roundup: Ambitious Plan
- Homewood submits a revised master plan with a new Madden Gondola.
- West Virginia’s governor celebrates a new state park gondola with another on the way.
- Willamette Pass’ proposed master plan includes six new chairlifts.
- Sugarbush to hold a chair auction.
- The first Doppelmayr TRI-Line detachable goes vertical in Europe.
- Powder Mountain will save the outgoing Paradise quad for future use.
News Roundup: Bonnie
- The Summit at Snoqualmie releases renderings of and begins construction on the new Wildside Quad.
- Jay Peak intends to replace Bonaventure next summer.
- Stratton eyes replacing Tamarack with a high speed quad in 2025, may swap the gondola for a bubble six or eight place chairlift after that.
- Brian Head, Utah appears to be working on an expansion.
- Powder Mountain plans to build a new lift in Wolf Canyon next year and add additional private terrain in the Davenport zone. Owner Reed Hastings tells the New York Times privatized terrain will subsidize the money-losing public operation.
- A wild video from Italy shows the dangers of bubble chairs in high winds (no injuries).
- Obstructors sue to halt progress on the proposed Los Angeles Dodger Stadium gondola.
- Park City highlights unique operational aspects of opening Ninety Nine 90 with no electricity or vehicle access to the summit.
- The Forest Service approves Sun Valley’s Seattle Ridge six pack, slated for this summer, and the future Christmas chondola.
- Whistler Blackcomb debuts two wrapped cabins on the Peak 2 Peak Gondola with designs crafted by indigenous artists.
- Hatley Pointe works to reactivate two backside chairlifts, teases another lift upgrade skiers will be “really surprised” about.
- Deer Valley hopes to break ground on a Snow Park-Silver Lake gondola in 2025, says the line could eventually become part of a five segment network from East Village all the way to Old Town Park City with stops at Park Peak, Silver Lake and Snow Park.
- Highlander is hiring construction crew members for multiple lift installations at Deer Valley this summer.
- Sun Peaks faces another lawsuit for another Burfield Quad mis-unload.
- Sugarbush catches flak for closing much of Lincoln Peak early to begin construction of the new Heaven’s Gate quad.
- There’s further evidence MND will launch a new detachable line at Mountain Planet next month.
- Funding for a new Telluride-Mountain Village gondola will likely be on the ballot this fall alongside the Presidential choice.
News Roundup: Above & Beyond
- A new park map shows where Legoland New York’s gondola will go.
- A skiing preview of Deer Valley Expanded Excellence.
- The Colorado Sun embeds with departments who work all night to make Winter Park run.
- Afton Alps removes Chair 18 to make way for a tube park.
- Vail Resorts reports season-to-date skier visits are down 9.7 percent and lowers earnings guidance.
- From the classifieds: a 1987 Poma Quad for sale.
- Doppelmayr assumes patents needed for Autonomous Ropeway Operation (AURO) installations in the USA.
- Kimberley, BC files a new master plan.
- MND to make an announcement on April 16th.
- Upon learning of a young guest named Reid with a phobia of chairlifts, Stevens Pass staff spring into action, giving him a full day tour of mountain operations and making him an honorary lift operator.
- Red Lodge Mountain closes the Cole Creek quad due to a component failure within the lift terminal structure.
- A high speed quad is rope evacuated at Burke Mountain.
- Flat Top Flyer at Powderhorn remains closed awaiting delivery of parts.
- Sugarloaf closes King Pine for whatever this “mechanical problem” is.
- Guests were stuck on Blackcomb’s new gondola for hours yesterday.
- The OITAF World Congress for Ropeways is coming to Vancouver June 17-21.
- Leitner has reportedly paid more than $16 million in settlements to families of victims of the 2021 Stresa-Mottarone tram disaster.
- A D-Line gondola in Austria will run entirely on solar energy produced on site this summer.
- Grouse Mountain provides a gondola construction update.
- A raccoon rides Sugarbush’s Village quad.
- Costs double for the proposed gondola-served transit center at Steamboat.
- Also at Steamboat, Leitner-Poma appears to have won the contract to replace Sunshine Express.
- Leitner-Poma also appears to have upcoming projects at Big Bear Mountain Resort, Snowbasin and Wasatch Peaks Ranch.
- Chapman Hill will replace its main rope tow with a Leitner-Poma platter.
- Wachusett nears a decision to replace Polar Express with a six pack.
- The Town of Alta passes a resolution opposing the Little Cottonwood Canyon gondola.
- Red River shares renderings of its upcoming Copper Chair, will sell retiring Riblet chairs.
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