- Mission Ridge proposes constructing a fifth chairlift in Bowl Four.
- Powder King, BC goes up for sale with an asking price of $8.25 million.
- Poley Mountain rope evacuates its triple chair.
- Sommet Olympia’s new lift coming next winter to be named Apollo.
- Steamboat’s forthcoming high speed quad will be called Mahogany Ridge.
- Leaders of Deer Valley, Park City and Ski Utah will host a community forum on Monday.
- Searchmont completes its fleet renewal with all lifts open for the first time in three years.
- The groundbreaking Matterhorn Alpine Crossing 3S linking Switzerland and Italy will open July 1st.
Zermatt
News Roundup: Key Weekend
- Looking back as Blackcomb turns 40.
- As Chair 1 reopens, 49 Degrees North provides a thorough update regarding what happened last weekend and the steps it’s taking to avoid future issues.
- Liftopia’s assets are acquired by a European firm.
- Arizona Snowbowl quietly opens the Arizona Gondola.
- More on the Eiger Express: Not only does it feature the first automated cargo loading on a passenger ropeway, but also a VIP cabin with boarding from a dedicated lounge (cost: $13,500 per year.)
- This interview with Hermitage Club manager Bill Benneyan includes tons of historical facts about Haystack and also Mountain Creek. The Club opens tomorrow for the first time in two and a half years.
- Mission Ridge works hard to complete the lift it brought over from Europe but cannot estimate a completion date.
- Residents seek to stop construction of Wasatch Peaks Ranch, a 3,000 acre private ski resort near Snowbasin.
- Leitner-Poma of America introduces Freedom Control, a wireless remote control for lifts.
- Public comments are being solicited for Big White’s new master plan, which includes a staggering amount of new terrain.
- Ski Magazine ranks top lift systems in the East.
- California effectively shuts down lodging in some ski regions.
- The new Broadway quad will carry its first passengers this weekend at Sun Valley.
- Zermatt and Doppelmayr prepare to launch the first unstaffed lift in Switzerland, a 10 passenger gondola.
- French ski resorts sue the government over closures.
- Holiday Valley pursues a tax break for its $4 million Yodeler Express project.
- A lawsuit seeking class action status alleges lift operators and other employees at Vail Resorts were not paid for use of personal equipment and time spent getting to and from work stations.
- Timberline Mountain relaunches tomorrow with both new chairlifts in operation.
- British Columbia’s Zincton Mountain Village releases new maps of its proposed layout.
- Les Otten courts environmental, social and governance investors as he tries to revive the northernmost ski area in New Hampshire.
- When asked about acquisitions on last night’s earnings call, Rob Katz said Vail is focused on positioning the company to be able to make the most of whatever opportunities may come over the next 12 months.
- Vail is forced to cancel some guest reservations and black out employee skiing in Colorado this weekend due to limited snow and terrain.
News Roundup: First to Go
- 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.
News Roundup: Next Generation
- The above $52 million masterpiece and highest-ever 3S opens for business in the shadow of the Matterhorn.
- The Leitner-Poma Group’s sixth tricable gondola is set to carry commuters between three stations in Toulouse, France from 2020 and will cost $94.5 million to build.
- Alterra closes on its purchase of Crystal Mountain.
- A lift operator and his employer, Killingon/Pico, are sued following a loading mishap.
- An eighth urban gondola line opens in La Paz and carries 72,740 riders on its first day.
- CWA teases Omega V, the next evolution of the world’s best selling gondola cabin. While we wait to see what it looks like, check out hundreds of CWA designs from the past 75 years.
- The Palm Springs Tram gets a new 13,500′ x 45 mm upper haul rope from Fatzer. Thanks Kirk D. for the photos.
- Horseshoe Resort’s retired 1989 Doppelmayr detachable quad hits the used market.
- Whistler Blackcomb’s 2018-19 trail map shows what $52 million worth of new lifts looks like.
- Read up on Sun Peaks’ new Orient quad here.
- Lone Mountain Land Company eyes two more lifts on the Spanish Peaks side of Big Sky Resort and nine in Moonlight Basin.
- Revelstoke’s newspaper looks into rumors of a gondola project on Mt. Begbie.
- The City of Los Angeles will study two Hollywood gondola ideas.
- Another Disney Skyliner station is nearly finished with tons of windows.
- Windham names its new lift Westside Six. I stopped by last week to check out the progress.
News Roundup: Recycling
- The Wallowa Lake Tramway makes the New York Times Daily 360 Postcard.
- Doppelmayr’s new headquarters building is super cool.
- You can follow along as Garaventa enters the home stretch building the record-breaking Eibsee Cable Car 2.0 in Germany.
- There’s also a construction blog for Leitner’s 3S project in Zermatt.
- Steamboat finally opened its gondola Monday, lamenting “we made a mistake by trying to set an opening date” and thanking guests for weeks of patience.
- Sunshine Village reopened the same day following fire scare.
- Bidding opens for construction of a four-stage, 10-passenger urban gondola in Santiago, Chile – a contract estimated to be worth $78 million. When complete, Latin America will sport urban gondolas in Mexico City, Mexico (Leitner); Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (Poma); Medellín, Colombia (Poma); Caracas, Venezuela (Doppelmayr); Lima, Peru (Poma); Quito, Ecuador (Poma); La Paz, Bolivia (Doppelmayr); Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Doppelmayr and Poma) and Santiago, Chile (TBD.) Impressive.
- The Roosevelt Island Tramway is going to one-car service for an extended platform replacement project.
- This week’s Disney Skyliner construction update comes from the Kingdom Insider.
- Beaver Creek recycles Drink of Water, reuses from Montezuma.
- The Leitner-Poma Group’s striking new Symphony 10 gondola cabin has been spotted in the wild. More photos are here (sign up required.)
- A-Basin posts cool photos from a bullwheel bearing replacement project.
- Troy Caldwell still wants to build a private ski area between Squaw and Alpine but as of this spring, he has a long way to go.
Instagram Tuesday: Spring
Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPgIWH1Anvg/?taken-by=georgia_knott
Instagram Tuesday: Abroad
Every Tuesday, we pick our favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
Lift Blog 
