• HTI, the parent company of Agudio, Bartholet, Leitner, Poma, LPOA and Skytrac,reports stable revenue of €1.4 billion and record R&D investment of €41 million.
• Leitnerteases “the exclusive launch of a groundbreaking new standard for monocable uni-directional ropeways” at Interalpin.
• Leitner also nears completion of amaterial transport gondola that includes a 1,600 foot underground tunnel.
• The next phase of the Bartholet RopeTaxi on demand gondola network isdelayed to December.
• President Trumptempers announced tariffs on most countries to 10% for 90 days.
• Calls continue for the Government of Quebec to terminate its lease with Resorts of the Canadian Rockies for Mont-Sainte-Anne.
• Freakonomics tackles theeconomics of ski areas with help from Loveland and Mt. Ashland.
• Mt. Hood Meadows toretire the Blue double without replacement, raffle the chairs.
• Alpental plans anall weekend celebration for the retirement of iconicChair 2.
• Doppelmayrbreaks ground on its new Salt Lake City building.
• French authoritiespropose nearly €2 million in fines against MND and its investors for alleged disclosure and insider trading violations.
• You canbuy an Overbrook chair from Ski Butternut
• McCauley is alsoselling chairs.
• CBS dramaFire Country to feature aficticious ski lift disaster tonight.

We now know more about what happened on theComet Express at Heavenly in December whentwo chairs collided, injuring six people. The Forest Service recently completed anIncident Review Report which I obtained via a public records request.

Comet Express is the oldest detachable chairlift at Heavenly and was constructed by Doppelmayr in 1988. At roughly 9:45 am on December 23rd, a DS103 grip failed to close completely but did not trigger any safety switches when leaving the bottom terminal. The chair, number 66, reached tower 2 before sliding backward into the chair behind it, number 67. Three of the four adults on the slipping chair were ejected and fell approximately 24 feet to the snow below. The fourth passenger jumped from the chair. On the chair that was hit, one teenaged male rider fell and another teen remained pinned between the chairs. The lift was eventually run in reverse to unload him. It is unknown if passengers on chair 66 had lowered the restraint bar but the bar was down on chair 67. Remaining passengers on the lift were unloaded safely without the need for a rope evacuation. A total of six people were injured, five of whom were transported to area hospitals. At least one person was airlifted by helicopter to Reno.

Heavenly Mountain Resort promptly contacted the Forest Service as required following a serious lift incident in a National Forest. Representatives from the USFS, Doppelmayr and Vail Resorts collaborated to review the incident over the following days. “[Heavenly Mountain Resort] was able to take corrective steps and develop a DS-103 Grip Quality Assurance plan to correct the causes leading to the grip failure and provide additional standard operating procedures to reduce future incidents on other HMR ropeways with similar euqipment,” the Forest Service wrote. The resort and Forest Service also “discussed the importance of compliance with Service Bulletins issued by Manufacturers and written documents verifying compliance.” Comet Express was cleared to reopen on December 29th and returned to service the following day.

The Forest Service noted “the purpose of an incident review is not to determine fault or liability” and said it does not conduct investigations. Ski areas generally conduct internal investigations of incidents but it is not standard to submit those to the Forest Service. Vail Resorts has not released details of the curcumstances publicly other than confirming an incident occurred. Though Heavenly operates lifts in both California and Nevada, this incident occurred in Nevada where there is no tramway board to conduct a state investigation.

“We recognize the significance of the incident on Comet Express and offer our sympathy and support to everyone involved,” said Shaydar Edelmann, Heavenly Vice President and General Manager in a statement. “While chairlift incidents like this are extremely rare, we are constantly working to ensure the safety of our employees and our guests on all chairlifts at the resort,” he continued. “In this instance, we identified the cause and worked with the U.S. Forest Service and lift manufacturer to resolve the issue and safely reopen Comet chair. I am grateful to those partners who assisted us throughout the incident, and to our team members who responded quickly and professionally. Safety is our top priority, and we are committed to providing an excellent guest experience at Heavenly.”

• An avalanche hits the top ofSwift Current 6 pre-opening, resulting in therope evacuation of seven staff members and damaging several chairs.
• Anempty chair falls from Mt. Bohemia’sRiblet double.
• Diamond Peakprovides a primer on how lifts are de-iced of rime.
• Aguest is injured falling from the new Coach chair at Bogus Basin, Idaho.
• Ditto for a lift at Mt. Holly, Michigan.
• Telluride-area residents seek to have the new gondola election resultsthrown out.
• British Columbiasues the operator of closed Tabor Mountain, seeks a new operator.
• New Hampshire provides aninvestigation update on the Attitash chair detachment,Flying Bearto remain closed.
• Wolf Creekforges on independently – selling reasonable walk up tickets, partnering with only one other mountain and building lifts in house.
• Cannon Mountainrope evacuates thePeabody Express due to a bolt failure.
• Pacific Group Resortstransitions from an operating lease to controlling owner of Powderhorn.
• Leitner-Poma isselected to build a new chairlift at Spirit Mountain, Minnesota.
• Middlebury Snowbowl opensBailey Falls for thefirst time in two years.
• Whistler Blackcombnears reopening theGlacier Express after a two week repair.
• Katharina Schmitz todepart as CEO of Doppelmayr USA, be succeeded by current VP, Operations Keith Johns.

A quad chair detached mid-line on Attitash’sFlying Bear lift this afternoon, injuring one person. Aphoto posted to the Ski the East Facebook page showed the chair and skier fell around tower 6 and he was conscious before being taken down the mountain in a toboggan. A Carroll Countyscanner alerts Facebook page reported the 49 year old male was transported by ambulance with a lower back injury. Attitash’s lift status page showed the lift closed for the day. In a late afternoon statement, Attitash General Manager Brandon Swartz said “We can confirm an incident occurred on our Flying Bear chairlift today, Sunday, February 2, 2025. The safety of our guests is our top priority, and we are investigating the incident.” Attitash acknowledged one patient was transported to Memorial Hospital in Conway.

Flying Bear is a Doppelmayr detachable quad constructed in 1995 and features DT-104 model grips. It runs nearly a mile with 82 chairs and 17 towers. In early December, Vail announced Attitash would share one general manager and an operations manager with Wildcat, a sister resort located 17 miles away which historically had its own GM. Attitash has been looking to hireexperienced lift mechanic(s) since at least early January.

This is the latest mishap in a difficult season for Vail Resorts. On December 23rd, five people were hospitalized whentwo chairs collided at Heavenly. Four days later, the Park City ski patrolwent on strike, causing major disruptions there over the holidays. Patrollers returned to work 12 days later and Vail offered guests 50 percent credits for next season as an apology. More recently, a number of lifts have suffered extended down time at Whistler Blackcomb, Wildcat, Seven Springs, Mount Snow, Keystone and Park City.

North Carolina’s Cataloochee Ski Area will construct a base-to-summit chairlift this summer, replacing theOmigosh double. Doppelmayr USA will manufacture the lift, which will feature a 740 foot vertical rise and Alpenstar drive terminal. As with the current lift, the new Omigosh will include an intermediate station for internediate level skiers to unload part way up the mountain.

Omigosh is the oldest lift at Cataloochee, constructed by Hall in 1968. Though it has been upgraded over the years, it moves limited skiers to the summit. The new quad will boost capacity and improve the guest experience. Construction is set to begin in May and conclude in advance of the 2025-26 season.

As 2024 draws to a close, most of the 57 lifts installed this year are spinning over the holidays, a testament to hard work across the industry. The sheer number of installations fell slightly from last year but remains elevated from pre-pandemic. The business split nearly evenly between fixed and detachable lifts in 2024 with major projects coast to coast in both the United States and Canada.

As always, the Rocky Mountain states led the charge, with 24 ropeways completed across Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Arizona and New Mexico. Deer Valley added a whopping five chairlifts (three of which will open this season) and Powder Mountain added four. The Rockies comprised nearly half the total market, followed by Canada and the Eastern US. New lift construction reached its second highest level in decades across Canada, with projects in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec. The midwestern states lagged, falling to just two new lifts on the heels of a bad snow year in 2023-24. The west coast was down modestly with zero projects in the Lake Tahoe region, three elsewhere in California, just one in Oregon and two in Washington.

Four detachable gondolas opened in 2024 – at Legoland New York, Big Sky, Montana; Wasatch Peaks, Utah and Grouse Mountain, British Columbia. That’s about normal for the post-covid era with three of those built by Leitner-Poma. Four bubble chairlifts also opened, all of which were six or eight packs. The number of detachable chairlifts declined from 29 to 22 and fixed grip chairlifts declined from 25 to 21. Little Chapman Hill in Durango, Colorado, added acool platter lift, the only major surface lift this year. We’ll probably need to wait another decade for a new aerial tram following last year’s debut of theLone Peak Tram.

This year was the second best for expansion lifts since the 2008 financial crisis, signaling resorts are looking to grow operations rather than simply replacing old lifts. Part of that is of course the Deer Valley East Village megaproject, encompassing five projects this year and many more to come.

Doppelmayr installed slightly more lifts than competitors Leitner-Poma and Skytrac but the Austrians’ number of projects declined the most from 2023. Partek, MND and SkyTrans fabricated no aerial lifts, leaving customers with a true duopoly in 2024.

Doppelmayr dominated the fixed grip market with 57 percent share while detachables were split exactly evenly between the two builders. Doppelmayr supplied fewer D-Line detaches this year, installing two big ones at Big Sky Resort and one each at Mammoth Mountain and Deer Valley. Signs point to more D-Lines in 2025.

Leitner-Poma built the only new lift of the year not at a ski resort – theMinifigure Skyflyer at Legoland New York, which opened in June. The short 10 passenger gondola features individually themed cabins and carries riders between the park entrance and the base of a hill.

One segment that grew strongly was used lifts, which tripled from three installations in 2023 to nine in ’24. As the cost of new lifts continues to rise, more operators are looking to high quality used equipment. In some cases the original manufacturer refurbishes and reinstalls, such as at Pleasant Mountain, Maine and Hunter Mountain, New York, while other ski areas chose to install used lifts themselves or hire a contractor.

Leitner-Poma designed everything from the second largest lift by vertical transport feet per hour (Grouse Mountain gondola) to the smallest at Legoland. Doppelmayr also completed a broad range of projects from the world’s longest eight seat chairlift at Big Sky all the way down to the short Aurora quad at Deer Valley. Skytrac continued serving the middle of the market with fixed grip chairlifts ranging in size from the largest at Powder Mountain’s Raintree expansion to the smallest at Mt. Ashland, Oregon.

Alterra bought the most new lifts this year – eight – followed by Boyne Resorts with six. Vail Resorts pulled back from 18 new lifts in 2022 to five in 2023 and just three in 2024, one of which was a relocation and another of which was manufactured in 2022 but not installed until ’24. The fourth largest operator of North American ski areas, Powdr, purchased just two lifts this year. Really the largest customer for lifts was independent ski areas, which collectively added dozens of lifts.

As we wave goodbye to 2024, we also say goodbye to 50 lifts that were retired. The average age of a lift removed from service in 2024 was 41 years old. The industry retired 11 Poma lifts, nine Riblets and seven Halls over the past year.

Announced installations for 2025 are pacing about 15 percent below the same time last year. That could be a sign of actual pullback or resorts are waiting longer to make announcements. Of course Deer Valley is an exception, where an additional eight-ish lifts are planned for 2025 with more to follow. Some ’25 installs are already under construction, including Big Sky’s Explorer Gondola and Alpental’s Chair 2. One strong area for 2025 is non-ski lifts, with projects announced in Colorado, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia that have nothing to do with sliding downhill.

2024 marked a milestone for me, as I finished visiting every public ski area in the United States and Canada. The 752nd and final spot was Moose Mountain, Yukon, which took thousands of miles and multiple days to reach in June. Many industry friends surprised me at the Salt Lake City airport on my way home and we celebrated in the terminal. I’ll continue documenting lifts in 2025, writing about project announcements and industry news. Thanks as always for reading Lift Blog and Happy New Year!

Alift incident occurred on theComet Express at Heavenly this morning, injuring five people. Two quad chairs could be seen stacked together near the base of the lift with several guests on the ground below being assisted by ski patrol and one guest pinned between the chairs. “Chair slid backwards with people on it into the chair behind it,” wrote a witness on Reddit. “The people in the front chair fell off,” the person said. The lift was closed for the day and remains closed. “Heavenly Mountain Resort can confirm an incident occurred on its Comet Express chairlift today, Monday, December 23, 2024,” the resort said in a statement. “The safety of our guests is our top priority and the resort is investigating the incident.” A flight tracking website showed amedevac helicopter landed in one of Heavenly’s parking lots before continuing to a Reno hospital.

Comet Express was built by Doppelmayr and opened in 1988. It is the oldest detachable lift at Heavenly and features DS series grips.

• The nonprofit that operates Big Moose Mountain, Maineseeks to buy the resort.
• Local Boulder investors areinterested in purchasing Eldora.
• TheSeattle Times looks at why Riblets areslowly being retired across the Pacific Northwest.
• A remarkable$145 million 3S gondola opens in France.
• One of La Grave’s most popular lifts will beclosed for a month or longer after an inspection finds an in-season rope change is needed.
• Theworld’s steepest aerial tram launches in Switzerland.
• Achild is injured falling from a lift at Mt. Ski Gull, Minnesota.
• Multiple people fall from theBeaver Run SuperChair at Breckenridge.
• The newBlack Bear 6 isrope evacuated at Camelback, Pennsylvania.
• Doppelmayr USAappoints former DPS Skis President and CEO Alex Adema as Vice President of Sales, promotes Shawn Marquardt to Senior Director of Sales.
• Leitner-Poma and Skytrac celebrateon time completion of 22 projects before the Christmas holiday.
• Gondolas arestaging a comeback at theme parks, zoos and fairs.
• TheSky Cab gondola at Snowmass could bereplaced and repurposed to run from the town center to base village.
• Brush cutting in the area of a possible future Lower Faces lift at Jackson Holeriles conservation groups.
• Skytrac is the low bidder to replace Gore Mountain’sTopridge triple and move the old lift to Mt. Van Hoevenberg.
• Thanks to reader Tyler for these pictures of the five new chairlifts in Deer Valley’s East Village.

• Snoqualmie’sAlpental andSummit West maps show new chairlifts in new alignments.
• Bear Valley’s24-25 map shows the new Koala quad andKuma shortened to become Cub.
• The new Pipestone Express hitsLake Louise’s map.
• Lost Valleyshows off its first new lift since 1971.
• New legislation in Alberta I mentioned last week couldrevive Fortress Mountain.
• Doppelmayr publishes a freshmagazine issue.
• A nearby town isinterested purchasing Eldora from Powdr.
• Alterraofficially owns Arapahoe Basin.
• Snowhaven, Idahomay not open this season.
• Local leadersaren’t thrilled about the Forest Service’s proposal to only allow ticketed guests on the future Taos gondola.
• Human error is eyed in a French aerial tram crash that injured eight workers.
• Ahearing is scheduled for next month re: Homewood’s revised master plan.

Several Doppelmayr construction employees escaped injury in Big Sky today when a crossarmfell from a helicopter and crashed to the ground. The Boeing CH-47 Chinook and its crew, working to assemble towers forMadison 8, were also unharmed. “During construction of the Madison 8 chairlift, a cross arm assembly fell during installation due to a rigging failure,” said a Big Sky Resort spokesperson in a statement. “Fortunately, there were no injuries, and the flight teams were able to resume operations shortly after the incident.” The helicopter is owned and operated by PJ Helicopters of California.

It was not immediately clear whether the mishap would delay opening of Madison 8, set to become the longest eight seat chairlift in the world this winter. Doppelmayr typically manufactures crossarms for its largest D-Line chairlifts in Austria and ships them to the United States via ocean container. “The resort is working with our partners at Doppelmayr to mitigate any construction delays, and both organizations are optimistic that the impacts are minimal,” said Big Sky’s statement.

Rigging failures and helicopter incidents, though rare, have happened before during lift installations. In 2022, a helicopter pilot setting a lift at Cypress Mountain, British Columbia,jettisoned a tower in thick fog. The same year,crane rigging failed during installation of one of Snowbird’s new tram cars, destroying it. In both cases, Doppelmayr manufactured new equipment to replace what was dropped.