- The Hermitage Club’s new detachable quad to cost $6.25 million and include a chair parking facility.
- Oregon ski areas celebrate passage of an outdoor recreation liability reform bill.
- Castle Mountain rope evacuates the new Stagecoach Express.
- An investigation into the fatal Swiss gondola crash this week focuses on weather and operational factors, not a design issue. The lift was being unloaded at the time and the cabin involved likely hit a tower.
- A tree falls on the BreckConnect Gondola at Breckenridge.
- Red Lodge Mountain’s owner and an insurance company argue over coverage related to a wrongful death lawsuit by the family of a man who died on a lift last season in high winds.
- Wind blows the roof off the Silver Fir Express at Snoqualmie, shuttering it until further notice.
- Alberta opens public consultation for the proposed Silvertip Gondola in Canmore.
- Aspen skiers struggle to ride the new T-Bar atop Snowmass.
- Holiday Mountain, New York to install new Partek chairs on Roman Candle this fall.
- A child is unharmed after falling from a lift and being caught at Pats Peak, New Hampshire (video)
- Oz Trails Bike Park to open June 12th.
- Sun Valley confirms construction of two new detachables this summer.
- Lee Canyon to construct the final lift from its master plan this summer, manufacturer TBA.
- Hogadon, Wyoming likely to construct a new chairlift next summer.
- Craigleith, Ontario addresses downtime on the Funnel chair.
- Last day riders of Killington’s Snowdon triple tomorrow will be entered to win a chair.
- Little Switzerland, Wisconsin give skiers the opportunity to own a Riblet chair.
- In an interview with the Vail newspaper, Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz makes the case mega passes have kept crowds stable or even reduced crowding.
- Vail also releases an insightful investor presentation outlining shifting priorities.
Tamarack
News Roundup: Explorer
- The Palm Springs Tramway reopens tomorrow after a week closure due to a faulty motor contactor.
- The public operator of Belleayre, Gore and Whiteface, lost a record $50 million last year.
- Wasatch Peaks adds an eighth lift to its fleet this summer.
- Montage Mountain, PA appears to leave the Indy Pass but new additions are coming soon.
- Mt. Norquay displays demo cabins from both manufacturers with gondola installation planned for 2026.
- Vail Resorts increases the discount Epic Pass holders can give friends to 50 percent.
- In an interview, Vail’s CEO says the company will refocus on North American investment.
- Austrian Fabian Dankl rides a bike on a haul rope between two lift towers (with permission).
- Unseated passengers aren’t just a winter problem.
- Snoqualmie raises $194,000 for charity from the sale of 97 Riblet doubles.
- Gore Mountain to sell chairs from Topridge in a race-to-the-parking lot format August 23rd.
- Riverbanks Zoo to open South Carolina’s only gondola this month.
- A lightning-caused wildfire burns much of Tamarack’s proposed expansion area but spares resort infrastructure so far.
- Purgatory runs into permitting delays with the Gelande lift project.
- Butternut releases a new trail map showing the Jane’s Quad.
- Sponsored job: Cable Propelled Transit Engineer at SCJ Alliance.
- I snapped a few photos of the Sunrise Gondola and parking garage projects at Park City last week.
News Roundup: Consolidation
- One of Eaglecrest’s main chairlifts is confirmed to miss this season; a $5.8 million used gondola sitting in the parking lot may never be installed.
- Montana Snowbowl looks to add a third lift on TV Mountain.
- Spirit Mountain, Minnesota plans to replace two chairlifts with one new one.
- Big Moose Mountain, Maine hits the market again for $27 million.
- Kissing Bridge, New York is sold to a California investor for $1.06 million.
- Idaho’s Tamarack Resort acquires more than 500 acres of private land needed for southward expansion.
- Testing of the new Grouse Mountain gondola reveals another tower is needed along with concrete removal to meet clearance standards.
- Sunday River, Maine and Megève, France join the Mountain Collective Pass.
- Granite Gorge, New Hampshire works to remove a mid-station from the Pinnacle double.
- Belleayre, New York adds a mid-station to the Overlook quad.
News Roundup: Ever Optimistic
- 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.
Fire Reaches Mountain High; Resorts Threatened Across the West
The Bridge Fire made a run through Southern California’s Mountain High Resort this afternoon, inflicting unknown damage. The resort’s own webcams showed extreme fire activity with flames surrounding both fixed grip and detachable lift terminals. An online fire map showed nearly the entire resort potentially impacted. The resort posted that San Bernardino County Fire was on the scene and to stay tuned for updates.
Unfortunately Mountain High is not alone being threatened by wildfire. Snow Valley and Mt. Baldy in Southern California; Mt. Rose and Sky Tavern in Nevada and Tamarack, Idaho all face evacuation orders this evening due to wildfires. Mt. Baldy is under a mandatory evacuation order due to the same fire that impacted Mountain High.
Snow Valley, part of Alterra’s three mountain Big Bear Mountain Resort complex, is being threatened by the 28,000 acre Line Fire. Snowmaking guns could be seen dampening lift terminals this afternoon.
Further north near Lake Tahoe, the 5,600 acre Davis Fire reached near Mt. Rose and could also impact nearby community ski hill Sky Tavern. Sprinklers could be seen spraying Mt. Rose base areas before webcams were turned off.
In Idaho, Tamarack Resort shut down operations until further notice due to a “Set” evacuation status, one level below “Go.”
News Roundup: Three Continents
- Vail Resorts to acquire a majority stake in and operate a Swiss ski resort with 32 lifts.
- A Vermont perspective on why some people are unhappy with Vail.
- Juneau Tram owner Goldbelt takes interest in financing a gondola at Eaglecrest Ski Area.
- Homewood says its business model has failed, plans to turn into a private club with two new lifts.
- Taos seeks Forest Service approval to build a base to base gondola and replace two lifts.
- Jackson Hole finds success keeping reservations post-Covid.
- A river crossing pulse gondola is proposed in Red Deer, Alberta.
- The Sun Valley Company is not for sale, will consider a village to mountain gondola in the future.
- A Boise TV station produces an eight minute summary of Tamarack’s checkered history and plans for the future.
- Alpine-X ends its crowdfunding campaign with $1.4 million raised.
- Sommet Saint-Sauveur calls two mid-season breakdowns of the three year old Sommet Express “unfortunate, unacceptable and incomprehensible.”
- As spotted on Interstate 70, someone’s getting a Leitner-Poma detachable named Snow Flyer.
News Roundup: Any Day Now
- British Columbia’s Troll Resort proposes an expansion serviced by a 2,600 foot T-Bar.
- Loon Mountain is selling a 1985 CTEC triple chair.
- White Pass’ former Doppelmayr platter is up for sale again.
- The Forest Service accepts Tamarack’s expansion proposal, which now moves to an environmental review.
- UDOT will announce soon whether it will pursue a gondola in Little Cottonwood Canyon.
- Kendall Mountain rope evacuates its only chairlift.
- Vail Resorts reports improving financial results with skier visits up 11.7% from last year and +2.8% from pre-Covid 2019/20.
- Vail will invest an extra $175 million in employees next year including implementing a $20 per hour minimum wage ($21 for maintenance technicians.)
- A child is uninjured after falling from the only chairlift in the Yukon Territory.
- Juneau moves ahead with its used gondola purchase.
- Keystone shows off a map of the Bergman Bowl expansion.
- The owner of Big Squaw appeals millions of dollars in fines.
- A dispute over whether to expand Gunstock Mountain gets very nasty.
- A new gondola has revitalized an entire community in Eastern Canada.
- Bill Jensen talks about the transformation of Sundance and teases a soon-to-be-announced terrain expansion.
- The lift line is cut for Mayflower’s first lift adjacent to Deer Valley.
News Roundup: Bounty
- Sandia Peak won’t open for skiing this season due to weather and staffing challenges.
- A snowboarder falls from Vail Mountain’s Avanti Express.
- The mall where Big Snow American Dream operates faces mounting financial problems.
- Kimberley offers a CA$100,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the Northstar Express arsonist.
- Castle Mountain loans Kimberley another passenger snow cat and Leitner-Poma prioritizes repairs in its production schedule.
- The Bode Miller Ski Academy at Granby Ranch will include a high speed surface lift for race training.
- Elk Mountain rope evacuates for the second time in a week, this time the C double.
- The same day, nearby Montage Mountain rope evacuates the Long Haul triple.
- Also last Sunday: 150 people evac’d from the double chair at Song Mountain.
- A Colorado mountain will join the Indy Pass for the first time next week.
- Tamarack removes a North Bowl lift from its expansion proposal, hopes to begin the NEPA process soon for its proposed gondola, south expansion lifts and Wildwood Express extension.
- The reincarnated Big Squaw would include a six person chairlift and new T-Bar.
- Outside Magazine talks with numerous Vail Resorts employees about operational challenges.
- Town of Vail leaders discuss the situation at the namesake company.
- A Sea to Sky-style gondola is planned for interior British Columbia.
- Sunshine Village posts some fascinating stats about its very unique gondola.
- Four men plead not guilty to felony vandalism charges following last month’s incident at the San Diego Zoo.
- Soldier Mountain closes for the weekend due to unspecified lift issues.
- Alaska’s first gondola system is complete and will open to the public in April.
- Cannonsburg laments contractor and supply chain delays which have kept its triple chair from operating this season.
- Aspen Skiing Company raises its minimum wage to $20 per hour, effective the day after tomorrow.
- Argentinian actress Vero Lozano breaks an ankle falling from height off an Aspen chairlift.
- The South Korean resort where a detachable quad rolled back on January 22nd won’t reopen any of its lifts this winter.
- Multiple parties file objections to Purgatory’s Ice Creek expansion approval.
- The State of New Hampshire will host a public meeting next week regarding the future of the Cannon Mountain Aerial Tramway.
News Roundup: Race to Open
- 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.
Tamarack Proposes Vast 3,300 Acre Expansion
Idaho’s Tamarack Resort today announced the submission of a special use permit application for thousands of acres of new ski terrain and six new lifts in the Boise National Forest. A flagship 10 passenger gondola would rise from Tamarack’s existing base village to Lone Tree Summit with a mid-mountain unloading station. Three new detachable quads and two triple chairlifts are also envisioned for the Overlook, South Bowl and Poison Creek areas. Another new lift would occupy private land at a new South Base Area and yet another on state land between the existing Tamarack Express and Wildwood Express lifts.
Tamarack Resort Holdings purchased a distressed Tamarack in November 2018 and immediately got to work restoring the Wildwood terrain pod and resuming construction of the Tamarack Village. Now the investor group is ready to look beyond the current ski terrain, which occupies state and private land rather than National Forest. “This application represents another step in the process of completing the grand vision of Tamarack Resort,” said Tamarack Resort President Scott Turlington. “We’ve all worked hard to get to this point, and we know a lot of work remains to be done. We look forward to continuing to work with the professionals at the U.S. Forest Service, and we are eager to begin engaging the public and other stakeholders in the public process that will soon follow the submission of this application.”
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