- An avalanche crushes a six pack terminal in France.
- Doppelmayr’s latest customer magazine focuses on North America overtaking Europe as the company’s largest market and achieving more than 50 percent market share in our highly competitive region.
- Two bears climb a very tall tower on Steamboat’s new Wild Blue Gondola.
- A prototype MND Orizon detachable is under construction at the factory and expected to be operational in early summer for testing. The first customer installation may be in Uzbekistan.
- Sun Peaks resumes construction on the West Bowl Express after a winter break.
- Homewood seek approval for its Madden Gondola in a modified alignment.
- Huff Hills, North Dakota to close following a lease dispute with the mountain’s landowner.
- Tenney Mountain eyes replacing Hornet with a detachable lift.
- Alterra’s CEO discuses lift construction costs and more in a wide ranging interview.
- Plans show four major lifts at the planned Stagecoach Mountain Ranch near Steamboat.
- Legoland New York’s new gondola appears mostly complete with the first Diamond EVO cabins in North America.
- Quebec Ski Resorts Company says if it acquired the lease to Mont-Sainte-Anne, it would install a 10 passenger Doppelmayr gondola in 2025 and two detachable chairlifts in 2026. Resorts of the Canadian Rockies insists the mountain is not for sale.
- The Park City planning Commission delays a decision again on Deer Valley’s proposed Lift 7, citing wildlife concerns.
- Park City’s upcoming Sunrise Gondola will be constructed by Leitner-Poma with Vail Resorts’ first direct drive.
- An unnamed New Hampshire resort is looking for CTEC quad chairs for an upcoming relocation.
Instagram Tuesday: VR
Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
Lift Upgrades Coming to Bear Valley
California Mountain Resort Company has revealed its first major capital projects at newly-acquired Bear Valley. In an email to passholders, Bear Valley explained the plan includes changes to four different lifts in the main base area, improving the experience for beginner and intermediate skiers. “We’ve got some major lift improvement projects lined up for this summer, and they’re going to completely transform the Bear Valley base area,” the mountain wrote.
First, the Koala double will be removed and replaced with a used fixed grip quad. Koala dates back to 1968 and the new machine is a 1992 Poma fixed grip quad recently removed from Taos, New Mexico. For the second project, the Kuma triple will be shortened from its original length to become a beginner lift with the top station moving downhill. Kuma hasn’t been needed in its current base-to-summit configuration since the parallel Mokelumne Express opened in 2017. As part of the Kuma project, the existing Cub double will be retired. That lift dates back to 1967 and will be made redundant by the shortened Kuma chair. Finally, the Super Cub double will receive new chairs that will be easier for beginners to load. This entire lift shuffle is expected to be completed this summer and will reduce the mountain’s fleet of of aging Riblet lifts from four to two. In addition to base area projects, Bear Valley also expects to complete significant summer grooming and lift repairs in Grizzly Bowl.
News Roundup: Mountain Planet 2024
- MND posts a replay of its Orizon product launch at Mountain Planet.
- Doppelmayr and Poma release their annual yearbooks.
- Poma launches an open air gondola concept where passengers will stand harnessed.
- Doppelmayr wins a $115 million contract to build a 3S and 10 passenger gondola in Chamonix.
- Okanagan Gondola receives final approval for construction near Kelowna, BC.
- The Highlands, Michigan will auction chairs for charity.
- Turkey arrests multiple people over last week’s fatal gondola incident.
- Jackson Hole says goodbye to Sublette.
- Opposition emerges to Deer Valley’s proposed Lift 7.
- Quebec Mountain Resorts Company, owner of Mont Grand-Fonds and Mont Lac-Vert, offers to buy Mont-Sainte-Anne and Stoneham from Resorts of the Canadian Rockies, says it would invest tens of millions in new lifts and snowmaking.
- Vail Resorts reports skier visits were down 7.8 percent this season but revenue was up. Same story for 24-25 season pass sales with units pacing down but revenue up.
- Bluewood, Washington looks to replace Skyline with a detachable quad.
Loon Mountain Announces Pulse Gondola
New Hampshire’s Loon Mountain has made it official: a pulse gondola will join the lift fleet in 2025. The connector lift will cross the Pemigewasset River, linking RiverWalk at Loon Mountain in the town of Lincoln to Escape Route parking lot B, the Timbertown Quad and future South Peak Village. Doppelmayr USA will build the 1,300 foot machine, which will become the first pulse gondola in New England. Pulse gondolas are fixed grip lifts with pods of cabins that slow down for loading and unloading. Loon’s pulse will be configured four groupings of three cabins each. The 12 Omega IV cabin will hold up to eight riders and include floor-to-ceiling windows for views of the White Mountains.
With the South Peak expansion, Loon Mountain has nearly doubled the size of its lift fleet over the past 18 years. “Innovation and access are areas we continue to focus on,” said Brian Norton, Loon’s president and general manager. “This lift has been long dreamt of—dating back to the late ‘80s—and would not be possible without collaboration with RiverWalk and South Peak resorts,” Norton noted.
Construction on the gondola is expected to begin in spring 2025 and the lift will open for the 2025-26 winter season. Hours of operation and whether the gondola will be free or paid will be determined closer to opening.
Shedhorn at Big Sky Evacuated Following Chair Collision
Big Sky Resort conducted a rope evacuation today after two chairs collided on the Shedhorn high speed quad. A witness wrote on Reddit that one loaded chair slid back into another loaded chair just uphill of the bottom station. Big Sky declined to specify the nature of the mechanical problem but said in a statement, “This morning, Shedhorn lift experienced a mechanical issue at approximately 11:40am. Lift maintenance, along with ski patrol, responded immediately and determined that a rope evacuation would be the quickest resolution to clear guests from the chairlift.”
Today was a powder day in Big Sky with 14 inches of new snow and it took until just after 2:00 pm to clear all riders from the lift. Some guests resorted to hiking out of the Shedhorn area due to its remote location. Because of the patrol resources needed for the lift evacuation, the Lone Peak Tram was also closed for a time.
Shedhorn is a 1991 Doppelmayr detachable quad with DS104 grips. The lift opened in its current location in 2018 as a relocation from the Andesite side of the resort. In its statement, Big Sky thanked lift staff and patrollers for their efforts today and noted “Lift maintenance is working to resolve the mechanical issue and intends to reopen the Shedhorn lift as soon as possible.”
Instagram Tuesday: Fatzer
Every Tuesday, I feature my favorite Instagram photos from around the lift world.
MND Introduces Orizon Detachable Line
After years of dabbling in the detachable space, MND today unveiled its full range of next generation detachable lifts at Mountain Planet in Grenoble. The French firm known for its avalanche control and snowmaking products has invested more than €20 million developing the Orizon line, which includes both detachable chairlifts and gondolas. Orizon will offer all the premium features customers may want in a detachable lift including direct drives, bubbles, and modern gondola cabins seating 10, 16 or 20 passengers. More than 60 people worked on the development of Orizon and approximately 100 more will join MND in the coming year to support the new product line.
“With this innovating range of detachable, single-cable gondola lifts and chairlifts, MND is consolidating its position as a global player and aims to win new market share in a fast-growing sector,” the company noted in a press release. “The Orizon range equipment caters to the most demanding configurations: steep gradients, long distances, large vehicles and high flow rates.”
This is not the first time MND has dipped its toes in the detachable space dominated by Austria’s Doppelmayr and Italy’s HTI Group, owner of Leitner and Poma. In 2017, MND completed its first detachable lift at La Plagne, France. The Envers chairlift suffered problems from day one and was never duplicated but gave the company valuable experience to learn from. Later, MND pivoted to partner with Bartholet of Switzerland for detachable technology, building lifts around the world including at Waterville Valley, New Hampshire. That partnership proved successful but ended last year when HTI acquired a majority stake in Bartholet. With MND coming back to the market with its own product, three large European conglomerates will offer detachable lifts on a global scale.
MND’s chairs, gondolas and stations were crafted in partnership with the Stellantis Design Group. Americans know Stellantis for its car brands – Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram – but the company’s design arm also partners to develop products for other applications. The MND Orizon range is decidedly modern and designed to fit in both alpine and urban spaces. Orizon lifts will be geared toward demanding applications, capable of seven meters per second and up to 8,000 passengers per hour per direction. Two grips, P10 and P20, can accommodate up to 66 millimeter haul ropes.
The Orizon line will be produced in a new €10 million plant in Sainte-Hélène-du-Lac, France. MND did not reveal when or where the first Orizon lift may launch.
Gondola Tower Collapse Kills One in Turkey
A tripod style tower collapsed on a Turkish gondola lift yesterday evening, leading to a delicate overnight rescue operation. The scenic lift was fully loaded with approximately 180 passengers, eight of whom fell to the ground when their cabin was hit by the falling tower around 6:00 pm. A 54 year old Turkish man was killed and seven others were injured. Helicopters and hundreds of first responders worked all night to evacuate remaining stranded passengers. The Antalya municipality which owns the lift said it may take 24 hours for the last riders to be rescued from the steep, rocky lift line.
Opened in 2017, the Tünektepe Teleferik carries up to 1,200 riders per hour on 1,967 vertical foot scenic ride. The detachable gondola was likely built by STM, a Turkish manufacturer using Carvatech cabins. The lift’s 36 cabins travel at 5 meters per second to reach a mountaintop restaurant.
Update 4/13: Nearly 24 hours after the incident, the line was cleared of all passengers. Turkey’s Minister of Justice said 17 people were injured, some a result of the evacuation rather than the initial crash. Preliminary indications are the “incident occurred due to the insufficiency/corrosion of fasteners at the connection points of the cable car’s poles and damaged pulley systems on the poles.” The operator of the cable car apparently did not have an adequate evacuation/emergency action plan in place. A criminal investigation has been opened and a detention order issued for 13 employees.
News Roundup: New Double Chair
- The private equity firm working to build a gondola in Idaho Springs, Colorado will reopen the Estes Park Tramway.
- A surveyor is spotted for that Idaho Springs gondola.
- Utah environmental groups seek to consolidate three lawsuits against the Little Cottonwood Gondola.
- Extell says three new lifts will open at Deer Valley next winter.
- Chicopee, Ontario looks toward lift upgrades.
- Hogadon, Wyoming closes the season early due to lift issues.
- Grizzly at Bear Valley, California suffers multiple breakdowns and closes for the season early.
- Long waits have Snowmass leaders asking for a Sky Cab “Skittles” pulse gondola replacement.
- ORDA commits $1.1 million for new grips on Gore Mountain’s Northwoods Gondola and $5 million to replace Little Whiteface with a new double chair in 2025.
- Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, South Carolina plans a detachable gondola across the Saluda River.
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