- Leitner-Poma expects US lift sales to reach $300 million in 2022.
- The lift-served real estate development called Flat Iron at Big Sky moves forward.
- PyxisAI goes live with its artificial intelligence lift monitoring software on Winter Park’s Prospector Express and Gemini Express.
- The latest from Moosehead Lake, formerly Big Squaw.
- Mt. Hood Meadows provides an update on its six pack ambitions.
- Deer Valley reveals what broke on the Carpenter Express last week.
- Arizona Snowbowl posts an explainer on rime ice and detachable lifts.
- A minor gondola collision makes the news in Whistler.
- The Disney Skyliner’s longest section will close for scheduled maintenance next month.
- Magic Mountain finally gets the Red Chair open; within hours an empty chair hits a tower and falls off.
- 18,000 people sign a petition asking Vail Resorts to improve operations at Stevens Pass.
- The first ski runs at Valemount Glacier will be logged in January.
Valemount Glacier
News Roundup: Name Game
- Ski areas across New Mexico are ordered to close for the rest of the month.
- Saddleback GM Andy Shepard joins the Storm Skiing Podcast to discuss reopening, possible 2021 lift additions and more.
- Mission Ridge aims to open Washington’s first bubble chair by the Christmas holiday.
- Big Tupper is likely to be foreclosed on this spring and a group wants the town to buy it.
- Snow Ridge, NY and Antelope Butte, WY join the Indy Pass, bring it to 59 mountains.
- The proposed community ski hill in Valemount, BC looks to buy a T-Bar.
- Could the pandemic finally bring order to chaotic lift mazes in the Swiss Alps?
- The Hermitage Club relaunches as a member-owned ski area.
- Sun Peaks’ new map shows the route of the new Crystal chair.
- Take a video visit to one of America’s largest lost ski areas.
- The City of Burbank opposes a gondola in Griffith Park near Los Angeles.
- Vail Resorts will report earnings on December 10th, traditionally when the company announces capital improvements for the following year.
- Belleayre renames the Superchief lift Belleayre Express and Whiteface christens its new lift Falcon.
- New Bousquet owners intend to upgrade or replace the Blue chair in the coming years.
- The State of Utah officially adds the La Caille gondola base option to the Little Cottonwood transportation study.
News Roundup: Preparing
- Mont-Sainte-Anne is ordered not to operate its gondola until the lift is deemed safe.
- A New Brunswick resort will pay a fine for a lift employee’s on the job injury.
- All three Disney Skyliner gondolas are set to reopen July 15th.
- Liftopia fights to stay out of bankruptcy as more ski areas say the company owes them money.
- Silver Mountain celebrates the anniversary of a historic agreement to bring the world’s longest gondola to Kellogg, Idaho.
- With its first chairlift complete, Skeetawk sets its sights on a much longer detachable quad.
- Construction of the planned Valemount Glacier resort is delayed.
- Cape Smokey begins building foundations for Atlantic Canada’s only gondola.
- White Pass will switch rotation direction of the Basin quad, requiring a tower to be moved.
- Snowy Range removes the Chute double’s drive terminal in preparation for a Skytrac Monarch upgrade.
- Big Sky Resort launches first in North America self load, self unload bike carriers on Ramcharger 8.
- The Forest Service approves expanding Summit Ski Area’s footprint to connect with Timberline Lodge & Ski Area.
- The California zoo which debuted a detachable gondola three years ago finds itself on the brink of permanent closure.
- As the Forest Service continues its review, the Town of Jackson once again takes up the issue of a Snow King Mountain gondola.
- Mission Ridge will auction off chairs from the former Liberator Express.
- A coalition including Alta, Snowbird, Ski Utah and Powdr launches a website and media campaign advocating for a Little Cottonwood Canyon gondola.
- Last year’s addition of the Peak 1 quad allows Lookout Pass to launch summer operations for the first time.
- Remains of a very old tramway in Utah may be removed.
- Green Mountain Valley School celebrates groundbreaking for a state-of-the-art T-Bar at Sugarbush.
- It took five long weeks to get a European specialist into New Zealand and able to splice the country’s first D-Line lift.
- Hunter Mountain abruptly cancels its summer skyride opening and will share more information in the coming weeks.
News Roundup: Shovel Ready
- Lift construction resumes in New Zealand, where resorts are optimistic they can open next month with social distancing.
- The Forest Service commences scoping for Lutsen Mountains’ big expansion, which would include seven new chairlifts.
- You can also submit comments on Keystone’s Bergman Bowl project starting today.
- The State of New York partners with Skytrac and Leitner-Poma for three fixed grip quads – two for Gore and one at Whiteface.
- Vail Resorts provides last season’s Epic Pass holders with 20-80 percent credits and introduces free refund coverage for next winter.
- Silver Mountain joins the Powder Alliance, Schweitzer exits.
- Vail Resorts says goodbye to many Peak Resorts employees as planned before COVID-19.
- The Burnaby Mountain Gondola project could benefit from an infrastructure push in Canada.
- Wolf Creek planned to reopen this weekend but an executive order late last night extended the closure of Colorado ski areas through May 23rd.
- Valemount, BC considers building a community ski hill.
- I’m not an accountant but I think this filing reveals Vail Resorts has agreed with creditors not to make capital improvements of more than $200 million per year or undertake any mergers/acquisitions through January 2022.
- Vail is also borrowing $600 million through the sale of bonds.
News Roundup: Bidding War
- Public comment opens for the proposed East Ridge expansion at Sunlight, which would occupy both public and private land.
- Frank DeBerry, head of Crystal Mountain, provides context on the decision to limit weekend ticket sales.
- Tourist attractions in China shut down due to coronavirus, including the iconic Ngong Ping 360 gondola.
- At Sugarbush, Inverness will run in place of the Green Mountain Express some days as a result of a lightning strike and prolonged diesel operations.
- In New Zealand, volcanic mud flow risk may require towers to be reinforced on the new Whakapapa gondola.
- The City of Oakland says an A’s stadium gondola is far from a done deal.
- Baldy Mountain Resort closes Sugarlump for days following alleged sabotage by a former employee. It reopened yesterday.
- The State of Maine approves financing for the sale of Saddleback.
- A judge okays the sale of Hermitage Club assets, including its six pack. Two more bidders emerge, including a group of former members. If Boyne wins the lift, it would be relocated to a New England mountain.
- Homewood acknowledges multiple mechanical issues will prevent operation of its longest and tallest lift for the remainder of the season.
- Ikon Pass crowding concerns make the New York Times.
- Gondola transit in Pittsburgh?
- Promoters of a Staten Island gondola seek public support.
- In Steamboat, leaders talk about challenges facing the industry.
- A skier dies after colliding with lift-related infrastructure at Snow Summit.
- Valemount Glacier Resort is still a possibility.
- Forbes profiles recent developments in fast-growing Big Sky.
- Win Smith explains why Sugarbush doesn’t need any new lifts, what Les Otten got right and more.
- Towers and terminals are rising in Puerto Vallarta, where a five station gondola will service a new theme park.
News Roundup: Stellar
- Doppelmayr begins hiring maintenance staff for the Hard Rock Stadium gondola in Miami.
- Alterra CEO Rusty Gregory says resorts will need to adapt as Ikon Pass sales increase.
- The gondola wasn’t the only lift snafu in Steamboat this week.
- Treeline Cirque is on the map and now open at Alpine Meadows.
- Revelstoke Mountain Resort christens its fifth lift, Stellar.
- The crazy project to build three 3S gondolas at one Chinese resort is coming along.
- The largest investment ever at Stevens Pass is complete but can’t open without more snow.
- Still no construction but Valemount Glacier Resort isn’t dead yet.
- Magic’s Black Line quad may not be finished until February.
- The favorite proposed project of 32,000 Vancouver residents surveyed? A gondola up Burnaby Mountain.
- An avalanche hits and damages a Yan/Skirail fixed quad in France.
News Roundup: Capital
- There will be no construction at Valemount Glacier this year after all.
- Catamount (the New York/Massachusetts one, not Colorado) seeks new investors or an outright buyer.
- Following another best ever season, Whitefish Mountain Resort eyes improving lift service from the base lodge and in Hellroaring Basin, which might mean replacing lifts 4 and 8.
- Blackcomb’s Catskinner triple will soon be available for sale.
- Ski Areas of New York will again offer a series of lift maintenance training classes across the state.
- French regulators propose $800,000 in fines against MND Group and its CEO for allegedly misleading investors and deleting emails, which the company denies.
- Amid the turmoil, MND subsidiary LST Ropeways inks an order to install its second detachable chairlift worth $5.4 million in Avoriaz, France.
- As Crested Butte departs the Powder Alliance, Marmot Basin, Castle Mountain, Sugar Bowl and Loveland join up.
- Red Mountain is searching for a used Doppelmayr T-Bar.
- Loveland confirms Leitner-Poma will build its much anticipated first high-speed quad.
- The Trump Administration’s proposed tariffs target goods from China including “teleferics, chair lifts, ski draglines; and traction mechanisms for funiculars.” Outside contacted both Doppelmayr and Leitner-Poma for comment with interesting results.
- More contractors and employees say the Hermitage Club didn’t fully pay them and the Town of Wilmington may hold a tax sale in June.
- A man claims he was left to spend a cold night on one of Gore Mountain’s chairlifts and wasn’t found until the next morning, April Fool’s Day.
- A bullwheel bearing issue on Nob Hill at Sugar Bowl throws a major wrench in the end of the season.
- Bretton Woods’ new gondola is on track to break ground in June or July, which would make 11 new gondolas for 2018 in North America – the most ever.
- Approaching two years post-Olympics, both urban gondolas in Rio remain abandoned.
- Bloomberg is out with a not-so-complimentary article about the Whistler Blackcomb-Vail transition.
- Doppelmayr wins contracts to build nine Beijing 2022 Olympic lifts including five gondolas and two bubble six place chairs.
- A gondola once the symbol of an Olympics destroyed by war returns to Sarajevo thanks to Leitner Ropeways and a $3.5 million donation from an American.
- The Oakland Athletics consider building a gondola to their new stadium.
- Nine different mountains in Sweden will spin T-Bars for mountain bikers this summer.
- If approved, Vail’s new Golden Peak lift will likely be a T-Bar.
- Owl’s Head retires its Green lift and will give the chairs away to season pass buyers.
- I started this blog three years ago this week as an off season project. It now sees 215,000 page views each month from 40,000+ unique visitors. Thanks to everyone who has helped to make Lift Blog a success!
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: New York
- Colorado posts its second best season with nearly 12 million skier days. Vermont was up 21 percent year-over-year and New Hampshire went +30 percent.
- Valemount opening pushes back to 2019-2020.
- Rumors swirl of possible lift surveys at Saddleback.
- Doppelmayr Cable Car and Transport for London extend operations & maintenance contract for the Emirates Air Line for another five years.
- The government of Venezuela owes Garaventa $14.5 million!
- Belleayre’s Catskill Thunder Gondola will be a Doppelmayr opening this December.
- Partek’s only 2017 project is underway at Mt. Peter.
- Peak Resorts plans to spend $9 million to expand Hunter Mountain and add a new high-speed chairlift in 2018.
- Arapahoe Basin and Sugarloaf prove even relatively small lift projects make for interesting off-season reading.
- Vermont’s defunct Maple Valley is for sale along with three Hall lifts for $950,000.
- Val Gardena, Italy is the launch customer for Sigma’s innovative Symphony 10 gondola cabin and the new Leitner station.
- Could North Korea’s ski resort with counterfeit and relocated Doppelmayr lifts host Olympic skiing?
- Doppelmayr removes Wildcat at Snowbasin to make way for Utah’s first six-pack outside of Park City. Thanks @ozskier for the photos!
News Roundup: Opponents
- Jay Peak and Garaventa begin major tram overhaul.
- More positive press for Powder Seeker at Big Sky.
- There’s a new gondola idea for Mt. Benson in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, BC.
- Sky Lift update points to late-April reopening.
- Austin Wire won’t move forward.
- Stratton might replace the Snow Bowl quad.
- Critics file complaint against Belleayre expansion and gondola.
- Ski Blandford faces worsening financial situation with three aging Hall doubles.
- Squirrel kills power to three lifts at Eaglecrest.
- Unofficial Networks profiles outrageous gondolas.
- British Columbia approves Valemount Glacier with opening targeted for Christmas 2018.
- Town of Breckenridge study concludes gondola could cost $800-1000 an hour to operate with stations costing $2 million to build.
- Cabin to tour Staten Island in hopes of drumming up support for gondola.
- Bridger Bowl celebrates the end of an era with a center pole chair photo contest.
- Mt. Spokane expansion and new chairlift approved yet again.
- LST Ropeways’ first detachable opens in La Plagne.
- Fourteen years since construction started, Magic Mountain may finally finish Green lift.
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