Sugarloaf – Lift Blog

News Roundup: Many Uses

December 10, 2021December 17, 2021Peter Landsman24 Comments

Cranmore announces an over $1 million overhaul of the Skimobile Express to take place next summer.
Granite Gorge’s owner says he’s unlikely to reopen skiing.
Catamount and Berkshire East owner Jon Schaefer explains his strategy of relentless capital improvements.
Park City Canyons Village skiers get stuck for a few hours when the Red Pine Gondola goes on wind hold.
In Japan, a gondola lift doubles as a device to cure salmon.
Carrabassett Valley Academy seeks to raise $1.6 million to build a T-Bar at Sugarloaf next summer.
In other Sugarloaf news, pieces of Big Sky’s former Swift Current reportedly begin arriving.
Telluride confirms it has ordered a Doppelmayr detachable quad to replace Plunge/Lift 9 in 2022. The existing triple will be sold to another resort.
Chairs for Welch Village’s new Cannon Valley Quad arrive after a delayed journey from Asia through Canada.
Alyeska’s tram will remain closed through December due to ongoing maintenance.
Doppelmayr says its global market share stands at 55 percent.
The gondola at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay will reopen in Summer 2022 after a more than two year Covid closure.
An interesting tidbit from the Colorado Passenger Tramway Safety Board: a suspected bullet damaged the haul rope of Game Creek Express at Vail, requiring a repair.

Vail Resorts sells more than 2.1 million season pass products, 700,000 more than last year.
The 2022 Epic Lift Upgrade expands from 19 to 21 projects with additional lifts announced for Jack Frost and Big Boulder.
Indy Pass will add yet another Western resort next week.
Former Palisades Tahoe President Andy Wirth signs on to advise Alpine-X.
Sundance says the Outlaw Express opening is delayed until December 22nd due to weather and construction timing.
Doppelmayr flies towers in December for Juniper at Lake Louise, set to open in January.
Steamboat considers a fourth gondola connecting the base area to town, Greenhorn Ranch will include a chairlift and eight passenger chairs are in play for future lift replacements.
Maine’s Bigrock Mountain fundraises to purchase a Doppelmayr quad.
Les Otten partners with Provident Resources Group to revive the Balsams redevelopment (same firm involved in reopening Big Squaw, Maine.)
Boyne Highlands becomes The Highlands at Harbor Springs with lift improvements planned, starting with the southern end of the mountain.

News Roundup: Race to Open

October 15, 2021Peter Landsman33 Comments

Wolf Creek opens tomorrow, Arapahoe Basin Sunday.
Carrabassett Valley Academy looks to build a T-Bar at Sugarloaf next summer for race training.
Powdr plans to operate Fast Tracks express lanes at 31 Copper Mountain, Killington, Mt. Bachelor and Snowbird lifts.
Bogus Basin eyes an expansion to meet rising demand.
A map shows Sunday River’s Merrill Hill may eventually include a second lift.
Lots of new trail maps are out: Big White, Crested Butte, Devil’s Head, Keystone, Snow King front and back.
Under construction Wasatch Peaks Ranch faces a legal challenge.
The latest Mayflower schedule has the first lift in 2023 with more to follow in ’24.
Bromley spends over a million dollars upgrading the Sun Mountain Express.
After four months of work, the Jackson Hole Aerial Tram is back in action.
Whitefish Mountain Resort previews next summer’s big six pack project.
A sobering fire update from Sierra at Tahoe acknowledges big challenges and uncertainty surrounding this season.
Massanutten will build its first detachable quad in 2023, replacing Lift 6.
The Chamonix Grand Montets cable car, destroyed by fire in 2018, will be replaced with a €110 million 3S gondola featuring stations designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano.
MMG Equity Partners takes full ownership of Tamarack Resort, buying out two other shareholders.
Incoming Vail Resorts CEO Kirsten Lynch says lift capacity and speed are key to managing crowding.

News Roundup: Fire Sale

July 23, 2021July 23, 2021Peter Landsman4 Comments

A fallen tree forces the evacuation of a tramway in Italy.
The Stresa-Mottarone cable car which crashed in May may be replaced by a gondola.
Doppelmayr hosts a webinar all about urban mobility.
Sugarloaf will update the public on the West Mountain expansion Monday.
The latest Indy Pass additions are Marmot Basin, Montage Mountain, Snow Valley, CA and Titus Mountain.
Big Sky posts sneak peak photos of premium chairs for Swift Current 6.
Spirit Mountain lists the Double Jaw double for sale with an asking price of $1.
Voting is open for the Rise Up Challenge; one of six lift mechanics will win $3,500 from Leitner-Poma of America and Ski Area Management.
A Quebec appeals court judge writes in a dissenting opinion that a mountain biker left on a chairlift at Bromont should be held partially responsible because he did not carry a cell phone.
TikTok drives record ridership on London’s Emirate Air Line.
Caberfae Peaks plans to build a Doppelmayr triple in 2022 replacing Shelter.
After lengthy repairs, the Purgatory Village Express is open.
Crested Butte will auction chairs from Peachtree.
Vail Resorts details plans to boost wages significantly across its resorts.
Sunshine Village provides an update on it long range plan, including a second Goat’s Eye chairlift.
The State of New Hampshire may seek federal funding to upgrade or replace the Cannon Mountain Tramway.
Hear the story of how Rick Schmitz acquired three Wisconsin ski areas beginning at age 22.

News Roundup: Insights

April 16, 2021Peter Landsman26 Comments

A tram in Butte, Montana?
The Utah Department of Transportation hosts a podcast all about the proposed Little Cottonwood Gondola.
Saddleback passes its skier visit goal for the season, secures $1.5 million in new financing and orders another new lift to run up the Cupsuptic line.
Pat Campbell steps down as President of Vail Resorts’ mountain division.
The group proposing a West Seattle SkyLink embarks on a public education campaign.
Keystone says goodbye to both Argentine and Peru Express.
461 US ski areas operated in 2020-21, down by 9 from 2019-20.
Doppelmayr USA is hiring for lots of positions right now.
Bartholet to build its first gondola in Austria.
Bloomberg interviews Vail CEO Rob Katz.
Doppelmayr will host a virtual event featuring product news and more on May 5th.
Publicly-owned Spirit Mountain reports a 17 percent increase in revenue.
Due to an electrical issue, the Sugarloaf SuperQuad will operate on a diesel engine for the rest of the season.
The Forest Service green lights Arapahoe Basin’s Lenawee lift replacement project.
This cool video explores how one Swiss T-Bar is able to turn sharply both left and right.

News Roundup: Exceptional Ride

February 19, 2021Peter Landsman10 Comments

Blue Mountain provides younger guests with a two minute introduction to how lifts work.
Soldier Mountain’s major midseason repair is a success.
Whaleback gets its summit lift operational for the season after replacing bullwheel bearings.
A crowdfunding campaign seeks to purchase Big Tupper out of foreclosure.
Drone video shows the damage to Eaglecrest’s Ptarmigan chair (now back open).
Two class action lawsuits proceed regarding gondola incidents at Mont-Sainte-Anne last winter.
The girl who fell from a Sugarloaf chairlift last week makes the network morning show rounds.
Another video shows a perfect catch of a six year old who fell from a Crested Butte triple chair.
A boy is also uninjured after landing in a net at Diamond Peak.
Utah legislators weigh funding a Little Cottonwood Canyon gondola amid a long list of wish list projects.
Speaking of LCC, proponent Chris McCandless joins the Ski Utah podcast to talk gondolas.
North America’s largest city looks to build a fourth urban gondola line in 2022.
Bousquet Mountain debuts the Yellow triple following a delay due to six towers needing to be moved.
Doppelmayr prepares to ship 80 containers worth of lift components from Austria to the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
Italy’s ski reopening is postponed just hours before lifts were set to spin.
In Wisconsin, a T-Bar ski area opens for the first time in 25 years.
Aspen Skiing Company puts the Ajax Pandora’s expansion back on the front burner.
The first riders ascend Mission Ridge on the Wenatchee Express.
Developers at Moosehead Lake look for up to $135 million in financing.
For the second time this winter, the Purgatory Express is down due to technical problems.
Two more resorts get set to join the Indy Pass next week.
The Forest Service seeks public comments on Arapahoe Basin’s proposal to replace Lenawee with a detachable quad or six pack in 2022.
Snow Valley blogs about its lift history and claims the world’s fastest fixed grip quad.
Magic Mountain provides the below update on progress towards opening a third chairlift.

On the Black Quad lift front, there always seems to be something. And, the engineering firm who designed the lift has come back with quite a few changes that need to be implemented by Pfister Mountain Services, including changing out some sheave assembly wheel combinations at a few towers and a major overhaul of tower 13 cross arm and uphill sheave assembly. None of this is a quick fix at this point in our construction phase and comes as unwelcome news. And, of course, tower 13 is in a very difficult spot to get to, especially for what equipment will be needed to execute the cross arm changes. No timetable or budget as been provided as of yet. We will continue to keep you posted as news warrants. Certainly frustrating after all this time as we’d like to see our money put to good use for you. All I can say is that the Quad will be a part of our future here at Magic so we can expand uphill capacity and lift redundancy as we grow.

News Roundup: So Close

February 12, 2021February 13, 2021Peter Landsman23 Comments

Soldier Mountain loses its only out of base lift for one weekend and possibly longer due to a mechanical issue.
Grizzly at Montana Snowbowl gets rope evacuated following a power outage.
Approaching a year without its gondola, Mont-Sainte-Anne says any new lift remains years away and the resort is not for sale.
A unionization effort at Whistler Blackcomb suffers a setback.
From Colorado to Ohio, Maine North Carolina and New Hampshire, skiing is booming.
Green Mountain Valley School officially dedicates its new Leitner-Poma T-Bar.
Most Ontario resorts are cleared to reopen.
Searchmont won’t open this season but will complete an expansion for next winter.
Italian ski resorts begin to reopen.
With so many Colorado resort workers living in groups, communities consider whether to offer them vaccine priority.
Showdown Montana passes from one generation to another.
Yet another new haul rope arrives at the Sea to Sky Gondola.
Tampa issues an RFP for a formal gondola study.
A girl falls 20-25 feet from Snubber at Sugarloaf.
Canada will invest billions per year on transit which could jump start the Burnaby Mountain 3S project.
Steamboat announces what will replace the existing village gondola station.
Chair 8 reopens at Dodge Ridge, one month after a crazy wind storm damaged it.
The City of Edmonton recommends planning continues for a five station urban gondola.
More than 50 entities formally oppose the Forest Service’s planned approval of the Snow King Mountain gondola and expansion.
Arapahoe Basin looks to replace the Lenawee Mountain triple.
Eaglecrest’s Ptarmigan chairlift is closed indefinitely after two chairs become caught in a tower on startup.

News Roundup: On the Map

December 4, 2020December 4, 2020Peter Landsman2 Comments

Sugarloaf’s forthcoming West Mountain expansion makes the trail map.
Disney blogs report some recent downtime on the Skyliner.
Pine Knob removes Chair 4 and puts a rope tow in its place.
Four mountains get new trail maps from VistaMap: Granite Peak, Loon Mountain, Sunrise Park and West Mountain.
Winter Park renames Eskimo Express Explorer Express with the following reason behind it:

Last summer, we examined the names of our trails and lifts, and recognized that the name “Eskimo” is considered derogatory and offensive by many. Through research we learned people in many parts of the Arctic consider Eskimo a derogatory term because it was widely used by racist, non-native colonizers. Many people also thought it meant eater of raw meat, which connoted barbarism and violence. Brands with longer histories than Winter Park’s have also decided to abandon the term. The iconic Eskimo Pie dropped the name in 2020, and the Edmonton Canadian football team announced it would no longer use the name as well.
Winter Park is a place for all people to Venture Out, to escape and retreat, to transform and trailblaze. Winter Park is an inclusive place and that’s why we moved to change the name of the Eskimo Express Lift to the Explorer Express Lift. The name “Explorer” more accurately represents our resort, our brand, our team, and our guests.

Both Gore Mountain’s new lifts run in somewhat new locations.
You can virtually tour the new 3K K-onnection 3S gondola, including on top of towers and inside stations.
Europe’s longest 3S opens tomorrow.
New ski area alert! Skeetawk sends first chair tomorrow after decades of dreaming.
Paul Bunyan, Wisconsin to reopen this month after 25 years shuttered.
Mt. Baldy, Ontario’s new quad chair isn’t finished so the ski area is closing for an hour to teach people how to ride the T-Bar.
Austria and Switzerland say yes to skiing while France, Germany, and Italy continue to keep lifts closed.
BousquetMountain.com goes live with a new trail map.
Liftopia will likely be sold with proceeds going to creditors.
Saddleback secures $1.3 million in new funding to support redevelopment.
Mountain Capital Partners’ bet that Texans would love lift-served mountain biking is paying off.
This fact sheet outlines the five transportation options for Little Cottonwood Canyon, two of which include a gondola.

News Roundup: Vail Numbers

September 25, 2020September 25, 2020Peter Landsman9 Comments

Vail Resorts has sold 850,000 season passes as of September 18th, an 18 percent increase compared to last year at this time.
CEO Rob Katz assures skiers reservations should be widely available for most resorts on most days.
Vail lost $153.6 million in the quarter ended July 31st compared with an $89.5 million loss in the same period last year.
For the full fiscal year 2020, Vail reported a net income of $98.8 million, a decrease of 67.2 percent.
The company also recently cut 410 jobs.
Regarding capital projects and the seven lift projects Vail postponed this year, Katz said on the conference call:

“We are of course going to be monitoring the season closely before we come out with any plan for calendar year 2021. We’ll make sure we’re incorporating what happened this year. We will likely still be in a conservative approach though hopefully not as conservative as last year because the environment around Covid and travel has all improved. We will definitely be prioritizing projects that we think will have a significant impact on the guest experience and certainly some of the projects that we deferred from last year will be top of the list.”

Government-owned Marble Mountain remains on the hunt for a private operating partner.
Towers are up for the largest new lift of the year.
A fire comes uncomfortably close to Mt. Waterman, California.
More than 6,500 people commented on Little Cottonwood Canyon transportation alternatives including a possible 3S.
Mont-Sainte-Anne’s gondola remains inoperable following last winter’s mishaps but the ski area expects it to reopen in December.
Disney won’t open chairlift-accessed Blizzard Beach until at least March of 2021.
The Sea to Sky Gondola reopens its base facilities.
Defunct Vermont ski area Snow Valley is for sale.
The Town of Mountain Village acquires 20 used gondola cabins for social distancing at the base of Telluride.
The last chance to comment on Burnaby Mountain Gondola routes is Wednesday.
The Forest Service signs off on two new lifts and removal of three old ones at Waterville Valley.
Snow King’s gondola is approved by the Town of Jackson.
Whiteface will auction off retired cabins from the Cloudsplitter Gondola.
Indy Pass adds Swain Resort in New York.
The Central Wasatch Commission seeks feedback on potential 3S gondola transportation from Alta to Brighton and/or Brighton to Park City.
Le Relais eliminates season passes entirely. Guests will buy blocks of skiing until they reach a certain total for the season, then all remaining blocks are free.
A local investment banker will take over operations of nonprofit Sleeping Giant Ski Area.
Bogus Basin’s Morning Star Express will miss the final two weekends of the season.
A lot of Covid operating plans are coming out these days. This one from Mt. Hood Meadows stands out as excellent.
Sugarloaf GM Karl Strand joins the Storm Skiing Podcast for a discussion on the West Mountain expansion and Sugarloaf 2030 lift plans.
Former Aspen CMO Christian Knapp launches Lift Ticket, a new series about resorts navigating Covid.
Doppelmayr unveils a new Wir magazine.

News Roundup: 2020 and Beyond

August 21, 2020Peter Landsman12 Comments

A dozen years after closing, North Carolina’s Hawksnest lists two Hall doubles for sale.
As it attempts to lower its tax bill, Jay Peak reveals it received several non-binding offers ranging from $38 million to $70 million.
Burke Mountain argues it’s worth only $11.2 million, citing seven figure losses each of the last three years.
Wachusett will sell four different sessions this winter rather than day and night tickets.
Garibaldi at Squamish now plans to break ground in 2023 and spin lifts circa 2027.
For the second time in a year, the tram in Juneau, Alaska has a new name: Goldbelt Tram.
An American visitor caught riding the Banff Gondola faces a CA$750,000 fine.
Not good: a paraglider gets tangled up in a chair.
Sugarloaf reiterates its commitment to West Mountain, which will include a lengthy detachable lift.
Holimont plans to eventually move Chipmunk, replace Sunset and build a new lift on WestMont Ridge.
Maine’s closed Eaton Mountain becomes a non-profit and will aggressively seek funding for a new chairlift.
Park City won’t be seeing gondola transit any time soon.
Nitehawk’s only chairlift will remain out of service for the entire 2020-21 season following last spring’s landslide.
Elk Mountain has not been sold.
North America’s 2019-20 ski season will come to an end August 30th.
Sunday River plans to build the Merrill Hill lift in 2022.
Quebec-based Samson Industries, which built more than 100 ski lifts, calls it quits after 160 years.
What was supposed to be New Zealand’s first 10 passenger Doppelmayr gondola will sit in shipping containers until tourism recovers.
Big Sky and Doppelmayr get to work on Swift Current 6 (shown below.)

News Roundup: Sunshine

March 6, 2020Peter Landsman21 Comments

The Summit at Snoqualmie shuts Hidden Valley for the season due to an “unusual mechanical problem.”
Sugarloaf closes King Pine due to a sheave assembly issue.
Dave Brownlie, former head of Whistler Blackcomb and current Revelstoke President, weighs in on the state of the British Columbia ski industry and his company’s plans for Grouse Mountain.
The Colorado Sun interviews three Colorado resort pioneers about industry trends and challenges.
As the gondola at Mont-Sainte-Anne reopens, the resort says an external power issue caused last month’s sudden stop. A lawsuit has been filed and the power company denies responsibility.
Just the Leitner portion of Mexico City’s new urban gondola network will feature seven stations and 300 cabins.
Experienced resort executives Andy and Jace Wirth may take over operations at Granby Ranch.
Limited Ikon/Mountain Collective visits to Arapahoe Basin are 69 percent lower than unlimited Epic visits last year and the “experience is way up,” says Al Henceroth.
Another informative podcast from Stuart Winchester features an executive from Mountain Creek and Big Snow talking about the next new lift and a possible Big Snow Miami.
Smugglers’ Notch has no intentions of losing its independence or ditching its fleet of fixed grip double chairs.
Whitefish will begin work in Hellroaring Basin this summer and move the current Hellroaring triple to a new alignment in 2021.

View this post on Instagram

The Hellroaring Basin Improvement Project will begin this spring! We're investing $1.4 million to create new runs, improve slopes, and relocate Chair 8. – Phase 1 (2020) Service road construction, clearing timber for new runs and gladed areas, and re-sloping areas of the Hell Fire run. – Phase 2 (2021) Relocating Chair 8 – A few benefits of this project are the ability to open the basin earlier in the season, increase accessibility and improve terrain. – Learn more at www.skiwhitefish.com/upgrades/ – #SkiWhitefish #CommitmentToReinvestment

A post shared by Whitefish Mtn Resort (@skiwhitefish) on Mar 5, 2020 at 10:59am PST

Jay Peak expects multiple parties to submit offers in a second round of bidding this spring.
The Epic Pass franchise keeps growing with added Northeast options and a new rewards program.
Wyoming’s Sleeping Giant changes its mind on closing after this season, citing an outpouring of community support.
Whaleback is closing early due to a lift problem.
Gatlinburg, Tennessee already has five scenic lift rides but an outfit called Pigeon Forge Snow plans to build a sixth.
A U.S. Department of Labor inspector finds 14 and 15 year old ski instructors riding chairlifts and lowering restraint bars constitutes “operating heavy machinery.”
Tremblant will announce its next major investments on March 10th, a day we may hear from other Alterra resorts as well.
Guests are responding well to a slate of recent improvements at Catamount.
Cuchara is on track to reopen one of three remaining chairlifts next winter.

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