News Roundup: More Cabins

  • A live streaming webcam shows New Hampshire’s largest and fastest gondola going in at Bretton Woods.  Some tidbits on the lift from the New Hampshire Tramway Board: line speed will be 6 m/s with 36 cabins and a design capacity of 2,600 using 62 cabins.  SkyTrans is taking the retired B double and the gondola’s load test is slated for December 20th.
  • Sunrise Park Resort abruptly ends all summer operations.
  • In Europe, some pulse gondolas are on the way out.
  • As it works to finalize its lease of Mt. Sunapee, Vail Resorts assures New Hampshire residents the company is in for the long haul and doesn’t plan any real estate development at the state-owned mountain.
  • A stack up of at least nine cabins on the White urban gondola line in La Paz last Monday is deemed the result of human error.  No passengers were on the lift at the time.
Photo credit: Página Siete

News Roundup: Colorado

announcednewlifts3-15
Likely new lifts for 2017 are pacing 39 percent ahead of last year, when 28 new lifts had been announced on this date.  I’ve identified 39 lift projects for 2017 and if last year’s pattern holds, lift manufacturers will build approximately 57 new ropeways in N. America in 2017, the most since 2004.  We’ll know by about July 1.

News Roundup: Quebec

  • Intrawest likely won’t buy any new lifts this year.
  • TV station in Maine highlights lift maintenance and oversight with visits to Sugarloaf and Camden Snow Bowl.
  • Denver7 lands the first interview with Larry Smith of the Colorado Passenger Tramway Board following Granby Ranch incident.
  • Sunshine Polishing moving gondola refurbishing operation to Grand Junction.
  • A $67 million, six-year old gondola in Rio sits abandoned.
  • Poma double rope evacuated at Mont Orford.
  • Heron-Poma double rope evac’d at Sleeping Giant before problem apparently fixed with a screwdriver.
  • French lift site reports on two brand new lifts in Quebec.
  • Waterville Valley’s new Green Peak triple will finally open Saturday.
  • “Mexicable is a great experience and it is something that you need to do should you ever visit Mexico City.”
  • Austrian rope manufacturer Teufelberger acquires Italian competitor Redaelli (Fatzer of Switzerland and ArcelorMittal of France are the other big two.)
  • See more photos of the mind-blowing Giggijochbahn gondola.
  • La Paz’s fourth gondola opens March 6th.
  • Leitner Ropeways will complete the new 8-passenger gondola in Torreón, Mexico in April.
  • British Columbia approves construction of Revelstoke Adventure Park with chairlift/gondola construction planned for 2017 and 2018 adjacent to Revelstoke Mountain Resort.
  • Seilbahn Blog has some awesome new photos of the first and only D-Line chairlift.
  • Seven year-old falls from chair at Thunder Ridge.
  • The New York Times checks in at Tamarack.
  • Arapahoe Basin formally unveils Beavers/Steep Gullies trail map & expansion plan with fixed-grip quad chairlift to debut in late 2018.
  • Doppelmayr to build 21,000′, $18 million gondola in Silao, Mexico.
  • Sugarloaf and Doppelmayr are doing a mid-season load test of Skyline on Thursday.

News Roundup: Eurotrip