- Construction will begin early next year on a new point of interest chairlift in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
- Amazon files a patent for a skier-pulling drone.
- Mission Ridge provides another fantastic construction update.
- 2020-21 is the final season the largest ski resort in California will be known by the name Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows.
- The Forest Service seeks public comments on eight lift projects and more included in the Grand Targhee master plan.
- Big Snow American Dream reopens Tuesday after nearly six months closed. The snow never melted!
- Utah Olympic Park expects to add a fourth chairlift and new terrain next summer.
- After years focusing on snowmaking, Telluride’s owner considers lift upgrades.
- Ski Santa Fe fires up snow guns to help protect lifts from wildfire.
- Glenwood Caverns reopens today following a 16 day fire closure.
- Riders get stuck on the Sandia Peak Tramway for hours.
- Vermont may provide direct payments to ski resorts.
- Harry’s Dream at Beaver Mountain gets a new Skytrac return terminal.
- Vail Resorts won’t sell day tickets early season and will require passholders to make reservations at all 34 of its North American mountains for 2020-21.
- The Denver Post catches up with Colorado mountain leaders to talk winter plans.
- The Lower T-Bar at Pass Powderkeg, AB is being extended.
- Doppelmayr begins testing its D-Line gondola to the beach in Mexico.
- The City of Los Angeles releases four gondola alignment alternatives it’s studying for Griffith Park and the Hollywood sign.
Telluride
News Roundup: Transitions
- Both Mountain Capital Partners and the owners of Silverton Mountain are interested in turning Colorado’s Kendall Mountain into larger resort with more lifts.
- Ariel Quiros pleads guilty to three felonies related to his ownership of Burke Mountain and Jay Peak.
- Separately, an employee is accused of embezzling more than $125,000 from Jay.
- Sunlight pauses financial planning for the new East Ridge lift, which remains under Forest Service review.
- Another lost ski area gets on the road to reopening: Paul Bunyan near Lakewood, Wisconsin.
- There’s more trouble at Spirit Mountain as two top executives resign.
- Arctic Valley secures a new 20 year lease to operate in the mountains above Anchorage.
- The home of Big Snow remains in big financial trouble.
- One year since the Sea to Sky Gondola haul rope was brazenly cut, the culprit(s) still have not been caught.
- Aspen Skiing Company makes tough cuts to benefits and compensation for year round employees.
- It turns out Soldier Mountain sold to a new owner just one day before last week’s fire.
- You’ve heard of a chair sale but how about a T sale?
- Titans of industry Win Smith and Bill Jensen end their runs atop Sugarbush and Telluride, respectively.
- Glenwood Caverns temporarily closes to conduct fire mitigation.
News Roundup: Mask Up
- Nitehawk removes three lift towers which were carried away from their original locations by a landslide.
- Walt Disney World hasn’t set a Skyliner reopening date but cabins were back on the Epcot line last week.
- The Telluride’s Mountain Village public transit gondola returns to service.
- LST Ropeways and Bartholet will partner to build a 50 passenger urban aerial tramway on the island of Réunion.
- Dodge Ridge begins removing Chair 6 for an upgrade project.
- A fire threatens America’s southernmost ski area.
- When it opens later this year, Medellín’s sixth Metrocable line will become the world’s first urban gondola with 12 passenger cabins.
- The Juneau Tram will not operate at any point in 2020.
- Timberline’s Palmer Express opens for summer glacier skiing.
- Aspen Skiing Company says hiring a lawyer was a last resort in an ongoing dispute between Liftopia and Mountain Collective resorts.
- Aspen Snowmass skier visits fell 20 percent last season.
- Many Vail Resorts properties will reopen over the next few weeks but most of the company’s bike parks will remain closed.
- Mt. Sunapee and Stevens Pass are suspending summer operations entirely.
- On all Vail Resorts lifts, face coverings will be required when loading/unloading and at all times while on gondolas and bubble chairs.
- Authorities seek information on a vandal who damaged lift sensors and other property at Pine Knob.
- Pajarito cancels summer operations.
News Roundup: Graduation Season
- A member group officially owns the Hermitage Club property and will consult with leaders at Berkshire East and Catamount to get back up and running.
- Publicly-owned Gunstock Mountain Resort lost 9 percent of expected skier visits due to the pandemic but still turned a profit this season.
- Another publicly-owned ski area, Eaglecrest, has been placed near the top of the list for municipal budget cuts.
- Disney Parks Monopoly now includes the Disney Skyliner.
- CEO Rob Katz tells the Vail Resorts COVID story in a three part podcast.
- Two new gondolas at Icy Strait Point are really coming along.
- Timberline Lodge reopens for skiing and snowboarding today.
- Mt. Bachelor plans to operate starting Saturday with two lifts for season pass holders only.
- Beartooth Basin will open for skiing May 30th.
- Urban gondolas in Bolivia’s capital will only carry no more than four passengers per cabin upon reopening.
- Cranmore’s Skimobile Express will host a unique high school graduation ceremony in June, with graduates receiving their diplomas individually at the top of the lift.
- Same goes for Telluride High School and the Mountain Village Gondola.
- Work resumes on Sun Peaks’ new quad chair but the old Crystal triple will remain in place as long as possible in case stay-at-home orders return.
- At Arapahoe Basin, Molly Hogan is no more but Pallavicini will remain for a few more weeks. Chairs are being sold for $2,550 apiece.
- Doppelmayr releases its 2020 yearbook.
News Roundup: Next Season
- Revelstoke drops more details and a map of Cupcake, coming next winter.
- Waterville Valley says the federal government shutdown is to blame for High Country and Sunnyside not opening yet this season.
- As the shutdown drags on, there are at least 13 resorts waiting on federal analysis of new lift projects by my count.
- A group of homeowners who invested to build the bubble six pack at the Hermitage Club worry Berkshire Bank could foreclose on the chairlift.
- Whistler Blackcomb loses its claim to the world’s longest unsupported lift span but now features the longest continuous gondola system and the highest capacity gondola in North America.
- Jay is officially available.
- Despite a completed new chairlift, Frost Fire won’t open this season as it continues to fundraise.
- The Telluride community considers what to do in 2027 when public funding for the gondola sunsets.
- Mountain Capital Partners still plans to reopen Elk Ridge but not this season.
News Roundup: Firsts
- One of Doppelmayr’s largest customers will open its first Poma gondola on February 7th.
- Leitner lift with new Pininfarina terminal design launches in Austria.
- Woodward Park City faces not one but three appeals.
- After more than a year of delays and false starts, LST’s first detachable opens again in France.
- The Balsams eyes April gondola groundbreaking.
- Telluride quits the Mountain Collective to join the Epic Pass, bringing together 14 Vail Resorts-owned mountains with two partner resorts.
- Sugar Mountain settles with the family of a boy seriously injured after jumping from a stopped chairlift two hours after it closed.
- Georgetown-Rosslyn Gondola project inches forward.
- Ascutney Outdoors raises most of the money needed to install a used T-Bar this summer.
News Roundup: Retirements
- Telluride weighs building at least one big detachable next summer as the Forest Service tentatively approves replacements for Plunge, Sunshine Express and Village Express.
- White Pass, WA retires its platter in favor of a 380’ carpet.
- LiftDigital goes live for testing at Winter Park.
- Taos says goodbye to two more chairlifts – that’s four in one summer!
- Song Mountain, NY is replacing its 1965 Thunderbird T-Bar with a chairlift.
Anyone know where it’s from? - The Rainforest Adventures crew gets one Skytrac back in action and works to repair the other following Irma’s devastation of St. Maarten.
- Scroll through these photos of a new high-speed quad in Switzerland with four stations, three sections, two haul ropes and only one drive!
- Albany gondola group to be led by former chief executive of the New York State Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration Thomas Madison, Jr.
- Authorities briefly seize Granby Ranch, site of last season’s fatal lift incident, over delinquent taxes.
- Spout Springs in Oregon won’t open for a second year in a row and remains for sale.
- Mi Teleférico’s Orange Line did 93,847 riders its first weekend.
- Frank F. sent over these photos of the new Skytrac Buttercup Quad going in at Mt. Hood Meadows:
Instagram Tuesday: Stars
Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQc7fc2gNe5/?tagged=cablecar
News Roundup: 360
- Portland’s next Transit on Tap talk on Jan. 24th features the story of the Portland Aerial Tram. The lift turns ten with a celebration planned for Jan. 28th.
- A veteran mechanic dies after falling from a catwalk at Killington’s Skyeship Gondola.
- Yesterday’s New York Times daily 360 video comes from the world’s largest urban gondola system.
- This is what happens when Toblerone sponsors a mid-station.
- Telluride extends gondola hours to 17.5 per day.
- 2016 New England lift projects stretch into 2017.
- LST launches an all-new website.
- Spotlight stays on urban gondolas.
- Squaw lifts got buried by 14 feet in 11 days.
- Grand Canyon Escalade bill tabled for a future meeting.
News Roundup: Climbing
- Suicide Six debuts new Leitner-Poma quad chair, Red River opens its new Doppelmayr quad.
- Sundance employees rush a ladder to a chair, climb up and pull a hanging child back up in just minutes. A man at Seven Springs fares worse.
- Two of Canada’s richest families still plan to build $3.5 billion ski resort near Squamish.
- Telluride Mountain Village Gondola turns 20.
- Jay Peak’s tram is back in action.
- The AP runs a story on future urban gondolas in the United States.
- Cannon Mountain’s new LST T-Bar goes down ahead of dedication.
- If you enjoy this blog, Ski Inc. is a must read.
