- Timberline Lodge, unsure whether its ordered new lift can be built this summer, holds off on removing Pucci.
- In Serbia, the world’s longest multi-stage gondola gets set to open next month (29,088′ slope length!)
- Another postponement: the Goldenhorn surface lift at Aspen Highlands, now scheduled to be built next year.
- Carvatech, an independent manufacturer of gondola and tramway cabins, launches a cool new website.
- Mexico’s Grupo Vidanta updates customers on COVID-19 and includes awesome footage of its future gondola system.
- As tax revenues fall, a new chairlift for Great Bear may be one of the first items to go from the City of Sioux Falls’ 2021 budget.
- Jon Schaefer, the first US ski area owner to close due to the coronavirus and creator of Goggles for Docs, turns his attention to getting resort employees back to work.
- Aspen Skiing Company delays updating plans for the Pandora’s expansion due to COVID-19.
- The new owner of Teton Pass calls reopening a success.
- A Vail lift operator may not have been paying attention leading up to a man’s death on the Skyline Express in February.
- Citing favorable financing conditions, Zermatt Bergbahnen AG commits to spending $62 million on lifts over the next two years, including a D-Line gondola and the Alpine Crossing 3S.
Teton Pass
News Roundup: Stalking Horse
- A power outage leaves guests stuck on the Skyeship Gondola at Killington for more than an hour.
- A broken bolt leads to a similar situation at Mt. St. Louis Moonstone.
- Teton Pass, Montana reopens after a few years shuttered.
- A second American Dream location with an indoor ski slope may break ground in 2021 near Miami.
- Travis Seeholzer, owner of Beaver Mountain, talks about running one of Utah’s oldest resorts.
- Former members look to save Hermitage Club assets from a stalking horse reportedly prepared to bid $3.6 million for the Barnstormer six pack.
- Vail’s new lift opens but not to the public. It will be available to all on select Tuesdays at noon.
- Marquette Mountain evacuates a lift during the busy holiday week.
- A man falls from Steamboat’s Sunshine Express due to a medical issue.
- Windham’s former Wonderama triple turns up in the Ski Butternut parking lot.
- Staff from the downed Sea to Sky Gondola will present what they learned about crisis management on January 30th.
- Juneau weighs partnering with the cruise industry to fund a proposed adventure park and gondola at Eaglecrest.
- The new Steamboat Gondola delivers fast ride times and short lift lines during its first Christmas break.
- The Forest Service expects to weigh in on the Sunlight East Ridge project in May.
- Mt. Abram becomes Indy Pass resort number 47.
News Roundup: Big Picture
- Copper’s new lift up Tucker Mountain will be named Three Bears after three members of the Cumming family who founded Powdr Co.
- Parks Canada green lights Lake Louise’s new long range plan including nine new lifts.
- The Forest Service weighs environmental concerns about Breck’s planned Peak 7 infill lift.
- Proposed federal legislation would set aside large swaths of the Wasatch for conservation and limit ski terrain expansion options.
- The fixed grip chondola in Illinois still doesn’t have an opening date but progress is ongoing.
- Revelstoke Mountain Resort previews the Stellar expansion and introduces a new trail map.
- A local TV reporter learns how to operate the Portland Aerial Tram and a Discovery Channel personality plays tram mechanic in Palm Springs.
- Wooward Park City, the all-new actions sports park with a Doppelmayr quad chair, will launch November 27th.
- Charles Hlavac purchases Teton Pass and plans to reopen as soon as possible under a new name.
- Disney bloggers discover the Disney Skyliner cabins feature automated narration. T-minus 16 days!
- Stevens Pass will sell 216 chairs from Daisy and Brooks on Thursday, September 19th with proceeds benefiting the Epic Promise Foundation.
- Eaglecrest opens a public survey to gauge interest in its gondola proposal and other projects.
- Here’s a rundown from the Saddleback community meeting.
- Mt. St. Louis Moonstone invests over CAD$6 million on a Leitner-Poma detachable six place lift to replace the Louis Express.
- A new lawsuit seeks to block approval of the Squaw-Alpine gondola project.
News Roundup: Companies
- All of a sudden, the Aspen Lift One project finds itself in jeopardy.
- The City of Branson ends its exclusive agreement with a would-be gondola developer after years of false starts.
- Two companies bid to replace the Barrows double at Howelsen Hill in 2020 or 2021.
- Disney Skyliner attendants will start at $12 an hour.
- Competing resorts comment on the New Hampshire Vail acquisitions as Attitash touts major lift maintenance investments.
- A jury decides Wachusett Mountain should pay $3.3 million to the family of a child who was injured in a 30 foot fall from the Polar Express in 2015.
- The Placer County Board of Supervisors unanimously approves the California Express gondola project.
- Utah Olympic Park breaks ground on the first phase of its major expansion with a second new lift to follow in two to five years.
- A study concludes Teton Pass, Montana would need to attract 15,000 visitors annually to reopen as a viable resort.
- Big changes are coming to the EB-5 visa program, which some ski areas have used to pay for big ticket improvements in the past.
- Timberline’s owners hire an investment bank to sell the ski area.
- Berkshire Bank and others slam the latest Hermitage restructuring plan.
- TransLink gets serious about building a 3S in metro Vancouver.
News Roundup: Atria
- Poma’s largest single lift contract ever is worth more than $110 million for a six station, 100 cabin 3S system in China.
- Whitecap Mountains still wants to build its first new lift since 1991 but doesn’t yet have funding.
- A 70 year old woman is okay after falling from Whistler’s new Emerald 6 Express last Saturday.
- Doppelmayr will introduce two new products at Interalpin: a new 3S cabin called Atria and something called Smart Ropeway.
- Mi Teleférico crosses the 200,000,000 passenger mark and is on track to transport more than 40 million by gondola this year.
- A feasibility study will look at whether Teton Pass could reopen as private company, nonprofit or co-op.
- West Mountain confirms a Partek quad will replace its last classic chairlift.
- Casper, Wyoming is unlikely to put six figures towards a Hogadon quad chairlift after all.
- The Glenwood Gondola reopens today with all 44 cabins.
- The Hermitage Club founder’s wife files for bankruptcy and lists $8.5 million in debt related to the closed ski resort.
- Mount St. Louis Moonstone’s Louis Express is up for sale.
- Arapahoe Basin is in talks with the Mountain Collective and others about possibly joining a multi-resort pass on a limited basis.
- A judge will consider whether to place Timberline Resort into receivership next Thursday.
News Roundup: Available
- The latest Doppelmayr Wir highlights Yellowstone Club’s expansion and more.
- The Gondola Project updates us on the Leitner-Poma tram project at San Francisco’s Salesforce Tower transit center.
- Aspen Skiing Co. eyes opening the Pandora quad chairlift on Aspen Mountain in 2020.
- Majella Group CEO Sebastian Monsour tells the Bangor Daily News his Australian company is still working to close on the purchase of Saddleback Mountain while a former employee is suing for unpaid wages.
- A Montana community grapples with options for Teton Pass, a closed ski resort listed for $650,000 with one SLI double.
- In advance of its new gondola, Silver Star’s 1970 Mueller is listed for sale on SAM.
- CWA launches a slick new website and refreshed logo.
- Val Neigette, Quebec will close for good on April 1st and its 1990 Doppelmayr quad is on the market.
- An editorial in the Park Record floats the cool idea of a gondola from offsite parking at Kimball Junction to Park City’s Sun Peak zone with a possible mid-station at Utah Olympic Park.
- Big White’s Powder Chair will soon be available for $150,000 CAD.
- Alpine Media Technology raises $1 million to bring digital screens to more lifts including Winter Park’s new gondola.
- SkyTrans hopes to build and operate a $2 million gondola at an Illinois winery.
- A lawsuit against Sugar Mountain filed by the family of a child who jumped from a lift after closing has been settled.
- Leitner’s fifth 3S gondola will be a spectacular one with Symphony cabins and a combination gondola/railway/transit station.
- A Jacksonville, Florida developer proposes a river crossing gondola.
- What appears to be Walt Disney World’s gondola cabin maintenance facility is taking shape.
- Instagram suggests the Hermitage Club may have reached a deal to open this weekend following a state-ordered closure.
News Roundup: On the Block
- Alterra’s David Perry says significant capital is likely be spent at Steamboat in 2018 and 2019 with phase two of the gondola rebuild and other big projects on the table.
- A Denver TV reporter heads to Texas for a two-part interview with the husband of Kelly Huber, the woman killed during a lift malfunction last year at Granby Ranch.
- Two loaded chairs collide at Owl’s Head, Quebec after the Green Chair was pressed into rare operation amid downtime on a neighboring high-speed quad. The 1972 Heron-Poma is the former Big Hitch lift from Stagecoach, Colorado.
- China Peak’s owner wishes he still had the $900,000 he spent to build a new lift last summer that can’t open with no snow.
- The new Peak triple was rope evac’d at Pats Peak last Monday, apparently due to a gearbox issue.
- Poma dedicates its newest factory in France.
- Disney Skyliner’s first tower is up and it’s tapered in the cool Wolfurt style.
- Ian Cumming, founder of Powdr and majority owner of Snowbird, dies at age 77.
- Granite Gorge’s chairlift opens for the season after a gearbox issue and other problems.
- Ariel Quiros officially settles with the Securities and Exchange Commission for $82 million, paving the way for the sale of Jay Peak and Burke Mountain.
- The world’s longest lift is open!
- Killington formally applies to replace the South Ridge triple with a quad chair, manufacturer unknown. The sample profile confusingly shows a Poma Alpha drive and Doppelmayr Eclipse return terminal.
- Teton Pass, Montana won’t reopen under current ownership and is up for sale.
- Skier visits have declined 30 percent in South Korea over the last five years and there are several lost ski resorts in the Olympic region.
- The Sawtooth National Forest tentatively approves Sun Valley’s project to replace the Cold Springs lift with a longer high-speed quad as soon as this summer.
- A chairlift will be studied studied for one of Alabama’s most popular state parks.
- Alterra names Mammoth veteran Rusty Gregory as the company’s first CEO.
News Roundup: 2019
- Valemount Glacier Destinations says it’s in talks with both Leitner-Poma and Doppelmayr for construction of phase one lifts in 2018-19.
- SE Group to present nine alignment options for a new Lift 1A on Aspen Mountain.
- La Paz breaks ground on its 17th and 18th gondolas, set to open in 2019.
- The Saddleback sale still hasn’t closed and an update suggests a shift in focus from building new lifts to reopening with a limited number of existing ones.
- Here’s a great rundown of Sigma’s new Symphony 10 gondola cabin, which complements the Diamond series.
- In surprise announcement, Teton Pass says it won’t open this winter. This awesome but remote Montana resort has a 1973 SLI double and a number of used chairlifts in the parking lot for possible expansion.
- New Zealand’s longest chairlift will reopen December 5th, nine months after a wildfire burned chairs and ruined the haul rope.
- Forest Service releases draft draft Environmental Assessment for Alta’s Baldy tram, Flora lift and Wildcat/Sunnyside replacement projects. Final public comment is now open.
- World’s largest gold producer proposes building a ski resort with up to 18 lifts on a former mine site near Hope, BC.
- The Economist looks at why Latin American countries build so many urban gondolas.
- The Grand Canyon Escalade bill goes before the Navajo Nation Council on Tuesday and needs a two-thirds majority to pass.
- Squaw Alpine names 13,000-foot interconnect gondola California Express, plans 2019 opening.
News Roundup: Shuffle
- Bridger Bowl is sending Virginia City up to Teton Pass.
- Oakland Zoo’s California Trail gondola
opened Mondaywill open soon. - China Peak will replace Chair 2 with a Yan quad from Steamboat this summer.
- The Subway in the Sky celebrates three years.
- Alyeska is removing its oldest, longest and tallest lift with no replacement immediately planned.
- Eldora’s new six-place has a name: Eldo Express.
- Cranmore is moving the bottom terminal of the South Quad to make room for a real estate project.
- Intrawest shareholder sues to stop Aspen Skiing Co. and KSL purchase.
- Vail-Stowe deal closes.
- Vail Resorts says in its third quarter results that Epic Pass sales are up 10 percent over last year. The company typically announces new capital projects just after Epic Pass sales conclude in late November.
- The Indiana State Fair is getting a chairlift.
- Beartooth Basin’s two platters open for summer turns for the first time since 2014.
- Urban gondolas are changing the world.
- Leitner Ropeways finishes its newest urban gondola in Mexico.
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