- No ticket, no card. You can now ride lifts using only your phone at Sunshine Village.
- Berkshire East owners buy Catamount with summer business and upgrading aging infrastructure on the agenda.
- U.S. skier visits decline 2.8 percent for 2017-18 with the Midwest and Southeast up year-over-year, the Northeast flat and the Rockies, Pacific Northwest and Southwest regions down.
- New lift construction is nonetheless pacing 25 percent ahead of last year and 43 points above this date in 2016.
- Quebec area Val Neigette closes for good with its Doppelmayr quad chairlift headed to an unknown Ontario mountain to cover outstanding debt.
- Mi Teleférico is apparently in talks to build dozens more urban gondolas in La Paz between 2020 and 2030.
- The Balsams project faces a key state vote on May 21st.
- Add Nashville to the list of US cities considering public transport gondolas.
- Boyne Resorts closes on its purchase of seven mountain resorts, bringing its owned and operated portfolio to ten across North America.
- Jackson, Wyoming stakeholders mostly agree to site a new gondola in a public park at the base of Snow King Mountain.
- Loveland will hold a lottery for season passholders to win purchase rights for Lift 1 chairs.
- The final last chair for the Norway lift at A-Basin is Sunday.
Val Neigette
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: T-Bar Rebirth
- Gould Academy is fundraising to put a T-Bar up Monday Mourning at Sunday River but hasn’t signed a contract yet, I’m told. The race training lift could become New England’s sixth new T-Bar in three years.
- Grouse Mountain sells to Chinese and Canadian investors, Blue Knob goes to a group of Pittsburgh skiers.
- Waterville Valley’s new High Country T-Bar would follow an all-new alignment starting lower and ending higher than the current double.
- LiftDigital safety bar displays to debut at Wachusett and on the Super Gauge Express at Winter Park.
- Homeowners and insurers may sue the Christchurch Adventure Park in New Zealand over its decision to keep a brand new Doppelmayr high-speed quad running during a wildfire in an effort to save the haul rope. A video allegedly shows burning chairs starting new fires along the 5,790-foot lift line. The haul rope was written off and the park remains closed five months later.
- LST’s first detachable finally opens to the public in France.
- Val Neigette, Quebec is closing and selling off equipment, including a 1990 Doppelmayr quad chair.
- Developer floats building a gondola across Interstate 25 in Loveland, Colorado.
- Aspen Snowmass COO David Perry leaves Skico to help launch new, still nameless company which will include Intrawest, KSL and Mammoth resorts.
- Sunshine Village and Parks Canada fight hard to prevent a wildfire from crossing into the ski area.
- Disney Skyliner’s first lift line is already cut.
- Steamboat gondola reopening delayed a third time for more testing with the CPTSB.
News Roundup: Dramatic
- Leitner Ropeways publishes its Annual Report for 2015.
- Peak Resorts discontinues dividend for shareholders in continuing effort to save cash with $118 million in liabilities.
- Whaleback nonprofit decides a surface lift is key to the New Hampshire mountain’s future.
- Val Neigette, Quebec seized by creditors.
- Big SNOW America inches closer to opening.
- The Roosevelt Island Tramway turned 40 yesterday.
- The Hermitage Club at Haystack Mountain is up to 875 members and $114 million in assets. American Skiing Company sold the property in 2005 for a mere $5 million.
- Wynn Resorts’ $4.1 billion casino in Macau will have a Doppelmayr gondola that runs in a rectangle.