299 replies to this topic

[DonaldMReif]

WBSKI, on Apr 1 2009, 10:23 PM, said:

Just wondering, how is the timing flats lift going to increase capacity out of Creekside if it doesn't connect with any other lifts, or would this lift be extended in the future?

BTW: This is totally just a guess but I wouldn't be surprised if Silver Star replaced Summit Chair this summer or next since they announce they were planning this on their website a few years back.

Timing Flats would run adjacent with the gondola, but I haven't read anything about this subject, but I assume that it would help a little bit, with more gondola cabins to up capacity.

[Peter]

Nothing to add, but a couple questions.

1. What happened to the Galaxy Express at Heavenly? It was announced for last summer on a video by the COO that is still here: http://www.skiheaven...n/improvements/ It never happened, will it in the future?

2. Is Revelstoke continuing its buildout this summer? I recall the next lift planned is number 18 on the master plan, which goes to the summit.

I will point out that on this day last year my list had 22 entries, this year it is at 17. Not as bad as it could be considering the economic situation.

1 Bridger Bowl, MT Doppelmayr CTEC Triple Deer Park
2 Bridger Bowl, MT Doppelmayr CTEC Triple Bridger
3 Northstar-at-Tahoe Doppelmayr CTEC Pulse Gondola Highlands Express Gondola
4 Northstar-at-Tahoe Doppelmayr CTEC Quad Bear Paw
5 Red River, NM Doppelmayr CTEC Triple Red
6 Steamboat, CO Doppelmayr CTEC Gondola 8 Wildhorse Gondola
7 Sun Valley, ID Doppelmayr CTEC Gondola 8 River Run Gondola
8 Whistler Blackcomb, BC Doppelmayr CTEC High Speed Quad Timing Flats
9 Marmot Basin, AB Leitner-Poma High Speed Quad Tranquilizer Express
10 Nakiska, AB Leitner-Poma High Speed Quad
11 Roosevelt Island, NY Leitner-Poma Tram Roosevelt Island Tram
12 Edelweiss Valley, QC Used Poma Quad
13 Eaglecrest, AK Used Riblet Double Mid Mountain
14 The Summit at Snoqualmie, WA Used Riblet Triple Hyak
15 Bruce Mound, WI Used Superior Tramway Triple
16 Sleeping Giant, WY Used Yan Triple
17 Gore Mountain, NY Triple North Creek Connector

[Kicking Horse]

It will be very interesting to see what happens for the summer of 2010.

[jaytrem]

From a Gore email, no mention of a new lift.....

"2009/2010 will feature snowmaking on our new monster "Sagamore" on Burnt Ridge Mountain, as well as exciting lodge improvements at the North Creek Ski Bowl!"

Might be "ordered" as they've said, but it doesn't sound like they're putting it in this year.

[SkiBachelor]

Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo has started to install a $1.25 million dollar chairlift that will go from the south end of the butterfly house to Pachyderm Hill and land on the far side of the rhino yard.

The lift is being installed by SkyTrans Manufacturing of New Hamsphire.

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798...;u_sid=10605996

Update: Looks like the lift has already been finished from the below article, which includes photos of the new lift.

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=3940...;u_sid=10606003

[AlphaBet]

SkiBachelor, on Apr 9 2009, 01:11 AM, said:

Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo has started to install a $1.25 million dollar chairlift that will go from the south end of the butterfly house to Pachyderm Hill and land on the far side of the rhino yard.

The lift is being installed by SkyTrans Manufacturing of New Hamsphire.

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798...;u_sid=10605996

Update: Looks like the lift has already been finished from the below article, which includes photos of the new lift.

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=3940...;u_sid=10606003

Wow, they got that finished up quick, I don't think the cable was even on it yet when I was at the zoo a month ago.

[Andoman]

AlphaBet, on Apr 9 2009, 09:52 AM, said:

Wow, they got that finished up quick, I don't think the cable was even on it yet when I was at the zoo a month ago.

The brown is a strange choice in color, it almost has the rusty bare old iron look going.

[AlphaBet]

Andoman, on Apr 9 2009, 09:10 AM, said:

The brown is a strange choice in color, it almost has the rusty bare old iron look going.

A lot of the railings and things at that zoo are painted brown. I guess they wanted the lift to match.

This post has been edited by AlphaBet: 09 April 2009 - 09:20 AM

[Peter]

Sun Valley Co. set to begin work on gondola
Preparations could begin as early as Monday

By JON DUVAL
Express Staff Writer

Sun Valley Co. is just waiting on the weather before beginning work on its new gondola.

Jack Sibbach, spokesman for the resort, said that if all goes according to plan Bald Mountain's first gondola should be whisking skiers from the base of River Run to the top of Roundhouse slope by the start of the 2009-2010 winter season.

The eight-passenger gondola, manufactured by Austria-based Doppelmayr, will travel up the left side of the Lower River Run slope and then over Exhibition. The existing Exhibition chairlift will be removed.

Bald Mountain closes for the ski season on Sunday. Sibbach said the gondola work could start as early as Monday with plows clearing snow around the backside of the River Run Lodge to help dry out the ground where the footings of the towers will go.

"There are some things we can do now to get going," Sibbach said. "We want to pour the foundations as soon as possible."

The gondola, part of the resort's master plan for the mountain, was originally slated to be in operation for this ski season. However, the plans were delayed due to the resort's other large-scale projects, including the new Sun Valley Pavilion, Sun Valley Club and White Clouds Golf Course, all of which were completed last fall.
Click here to come visit us

The gondola will also be used to provide round-trip transportation for restaurant guests during the day and night in both winter and summer. It will carry passengers nearly 2,000 feet up Bald Mountain in less than eight minutes.

The lift line for the gondola was cut last summer, with help from several Sun Valley Ski Patrol members, and was opened during the winter to skiers as the Sleeping Bear run, running between the Roundhouse Slope and lower Olympic cat track.

Sibbach said the summertime operation of the River Run and Lookout Express chairlifts would occasionally be interrupted due to work requiring helicopter flights in close proximity to the lifts.

Sibbach said the resort doesn't use the Challenger chairlift in Warm Springs during the summer, as it doesn't garner nearly as much use because of its location.

The River Run hiking and mountain biking trail will also likely be closed for portions of the summer season, Sibbach noted.

[cfrankrun58]

Are they going to remove the river run quad chair along with the exhibition chair?

cfrankrun58

[Peter]

cfrankrun58, on Apr 10 2009, 01:25 PM, said:

Are they going to remove the river run quad chair along with the exhibition chair?

cfrankrun58

No, just Exhibition.

[cfrankrun58]

Skier, on Apr 10 2009, 01:30 PM, said:

No, just Exhibition.

thanks I was just worndering.

cfrankrun58

[SkiBachelor]

However, the Christmas Express will be removed when the second stage of the gondola is built.

[DonaldMReif]

SkiBachelor, on Apr 10 2009, 07:50 PM, said:

However, the Christmas Express will be removed when the second stage of the gondola is built.

Something like this? (new red line marks gondola, note you might have to look very closely)

[WBSKI]

I am pretty sure Revelstoke won't be building any more lifts for a few years at least. When I talked to a employee on the lift up there, he said they are just going to build real estate now. The thing is, there is way more ski terrain per hotel bed than almost anywhere else right now.

[Outback]

No lifts at Bridger this summer.

[jaytrem]

New Quad at Gunstock...

http://gunstock.com/...n/improvements/

[Peter]

Also a "new" used triple at Berkshire East replacing the Diamondhead Express double.

An updated list with a few additions and a few subtractions.
1 Gunstock, NH Doppelmayr CTEC Quad
2 Northstar-at-Tahoe, CA Doppelmayr CTEC Pulse Gondola Highlands Express Gondola
3 Northstar-at-Tahoe, CA Doppelmayr CTEC Quad Bear Paw
4 Red River, NM Doppelmayr CTEC Triple Red
5 Steamboat, CO Doppelmayr CTEC Gondola 8 Wildhorse Gondola
6 Sun Valley, ID Doppelmayr CTEC Gondola 8 River Run Gondola
7 Whistler Blackcomb, BC Doppelmayr CTEC High Speed Quad Timing Flats
8 Marmot Basin, AB Leitner-Poma High Speed Quad Tranquilizer Express
9 Nakiska, AB Leitner-Poma High Speed Quad
10 Roosevelt Island, NY Leitner-Poma Tram Roosevelt Island Tram
11 Berkshire East, MA Used Triple Diamondhead Express
12 Edelweiss Valley, QC Used Poma Quad
13 Eaglecrest, AK Used Riblet Double Mid Mountain
14 The Summit at Snoqualmie, WA Used Riblet Triple Hyak
15 Bruce Mound, WI Used Superior Tramway Triple
16 Sleeping Giant, WY Used Yan Triple

An updated Google Map: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&...amp;t=h&z=4

[Peter]

Steamboat's Gondola sounds like it is a go...


Survival mode for Intrawest

By Bob Berwyn
summit daily news

SUMMIT COUNTY — When Bill Jensen left Vail Resorts for Vancouver last spring to take the helm as chief executive officer for rival Intrawest, the ski industry was flying high on its way to a record year of skier visits.

Since then, the U.S. economy dived, and the fortunes of the Canadian resort and real estate company took a turn for the worse.

Jensen, in town for meetings at Intrawest’s Copper Mountain Resort, said future financing for the highly leveraged company could require selling some assets.

Before taking over at Intrawest, Jensen served a successful stint with Vail Resorts, first in Breckenridge, then in Vail as head of that mountain and later all the company’s Colorado resorts. He also headed up the National Ski Areas Association as chair for a few years in the mid- and late-1990s.

Intrawest is now owned by New York-based Fortress Investment Group, a public hedge fund and private equity firm that’s taken a drubbing in the past year. The company came close to a last-minute deadline before reaching a one-year deal to refinance a $1.7 billion in debt last October. (According to Bloomberg News, the company took another hit earlier this month, when it claimed it lost $125 million to alleged Ponzie schemer Marc Dreier.)

Despite a relatively strong winter performance by the company’s ski resorts, Intrawest has been in survival mode this season, Jensen said.

“The reality is, in this global economic challenge, that we have to take every step to survive. We’re looking at all the options to reduce our debt,” Jensen said, asked to address rumors that Copper Mountain is for sale.

“Copper is not one we want to sell,” Jensen continued. “There are some assets that are core to our business ... But we’re exploring all the options.”

Another path could be to finance some of the company’s various businesses independently, Jensen said. For example, Intrawest’s Quebec assets could be financed separately in Quebec, he explained.

Jensen said that Copper and Winter Park — which Intrawest operates for the City of Denver — both performed well given current economic conditions, as did several of Intrawest’s Eastern resorts.

In western Canada, poor snow made it more challenging for Whistler-Blackcomb, he said.

The season was strong until President’s Day, Jensen added, when destination visits dropped off dramatically.

Real estate hit hard
But real estate and development, which has been a huge part of the company’s business, is bogged down, with a tremendous amount of investment in non-resort properties, Jensen said.

Intrawest, for example, owns undeveloped land at Copper that was highly valued just 12 months ago. But the extremely tight credit market has hit those holding hard.

“The parcels we have have a relatively low value. It’s hard to get value for it,” Jensen said, explaining how the company’s cash is tied up in land. In the current market, it’s hard to monetize those assets, he said, and Intrawest will scramble. But he added that the company will continue to meet its obligations, financial and otherwise.

That includes an agreement with Summit County to end the practice of parking along Copper Road by the start of next season. Jensen said Intrawest will move ahead with some planned improvements at the Corn Lot, east of Highway 91, to reach that goal.

And before moving ahead with any of the real estate plans approved by the county last summer, Copper will study its employee housing obligations.

“That would be our first brick-and-mortar project,” Jensen said.

As well, Intrawest plans to move ahead with a $7 million gondola at Steamboat to move skiers from the lower parking lots to the base of the mountain.

And while Intrawest cut staffing this winter, the biggest reductions have come at the corporate level, Jensen said. There haven’t been cuts in grooming, ski school or in safety programs, he said, careful to explain that the budget-saving measures have not affected the guest experience.

“We’ve put the numbers on the wall for our employees,” Jensen said, explaining that the company has tried to make it clear to workers that it is doing what it can to ride out the economic storm.

Bob Berwyn can be reached at (970) 331-5996, or at bberwyn@summitdaily.com.

[NoPainNoJane]

Is Jackson going to leave the double in Rendevous Bowl this summer or is it going to be removed? If removed, any plans to install it somewhere else on the mountain?