There's a beautiful site above the slopes of Sunday River!

Sunday River has announced that Saturday, December 20th will be the grand opening of the new Chondola and there is quite a bit of buzz surrounding the event. It will also signal the beginning of night skiing at Sunday River – a first. And while the 20th is slated as the grand opening, there is much speculation that the lift could actually begin operations as early as this weekend. With all the chairs and gondola cars strung on the haul rope and the load testing completed today, it’s very possible that the regions newest super-lift will mark the beginning of a new era in New England skiing and riding.

All those ski lifts parts come together to make one big happy lift!

Seeing a ski lift in all its’ millions of pieces before the final touches are done is simply amazing. A few weeks ago I looked in parking lot 5 at Sunday River and there were piles and piles of gondola and chairlift components all neatly wrapped in shrink wrap and ready to be assembled. To most it’s probably nothing more than an eyesore, but to see how all the equipment comes together from chairlift grips to gondola door hardware, is simply amazing.

What type of ski lift will you ride this year?

With all the new types of ski lifts debuting in the world this year, it should come as no surprise that many are truly over-the-top. Perhaps the biggest installation is Whistler/Blackcomb’s Peak-to-Peak Gondola. While it isn’t a vertical lift that people will take to get up the mountain, it will transport skiers and riders from mid-mountain on Whistler to mid-mountain on Blackcomb. The cabins hold 28 passengers each and a couple even have clear floors so the people inside can have a first hand view of the valley, 1300 feet below. Me? I liked the old Sugarloaf gondola with its’ foggy windows and wood flooring.

The Chondola Construction moves ahead!

With a month left in the construction process of Sunday River’s Chondola, things are really starting to come together nicely. I’d say that last week’s rain probably posed a big problem for the whole schedule, but even through the weather, work went on. Looking up the line of the lift, there is a huge spool in the middle of the ski trail that is actually thousands of feet of steel rope that will be spliced together and will make up the haul rope (cable) that the chairs and gondola cabins hang from. The process of stringing the haul rope and splicing it can take weeks and is pretty complicated, but it’s also a really cool part of the process. Another cool part of the recent construction is in the picture above. Notice that they are pouring concrete around the whole structure and the walkways. If you look closely at some of the areas that haven’t had the final layer poured, you can see orange tubing, which is actually heat coiling. This keeps the surface from allowing ice to build up.

Mount Snow readies the terrain park with a fresh coat... And then it rained!

With temperatures dipping into the lower 20s, snowmakers reported for duty at Mount Snow Saturday night, firing up the fan gun snowmaking machines on Launch Pad, a learning hill near the base area. By daybreak on Sunday, about three inches of snow had piled up and the terrain park crew moved in, setting up a small park with half a dozen features. The park opened to the public at 10 a.m. EST.


With temperatures in the 20s again last night the fan guns continued to run. The Launch Pad terrain park will be open to the public today as long as the snow holds. Visitors can secure a free lift ticket from employees stationed at the park. Visit the snow report at mountsnow.com for details and updated information.

The heart of ski lift installation!

There’s a part of installing a ski lift that as always been fascinating to me and many others in she ski world. While we love to see the finishing touches put on the base terminal of a shinny new lift and the stringing of brand-spanking-new chairs is a cool site, it’s the flying in of the lift towers that captivates us. Why? Perhaps it’s because the precision of placing these huge towers in a precise line up a mountain is mind-boggling or maybe it’s because installing towers requires the use of one of the largest commercially used helicopters in the work.

Regardless, when you think of the engineering that must be incorporated, there really is nothing like the construction of a ski lift. The pictures here are of the chondola towers being lowered onto their anchors by a massive Sikorsky helicopter and some of the new 8-person cabins that will be interspersed with 6-person chairs.

Installing a ski lift = really hard work!

While I’ve talked about detachable lifts and the technological advances we’ve seen over the past few decades, one thing remains the same and that is that it’s really hard to install a lift. From surveying the lift line, clearing trees, blasting rock, digging holes for foundations, and then actually installing the lift, the task can be daunting and costs millions of dollars. Regardless, it’s a pretty cool series of events that have to happen in a particular order for everything to work out properly. Check out this video of the Sunday River Chondola installation as they get the line ready for the massive helicopter to come in for some of the more heavy and dangerous work.

Technological advances in ski lifts equal faster and safer rides!

Ski lift technology has evolved by leaps and bounds over the past few decades. While tradition mono-cable gondolas first utilized the technology to detach from the haul-rope (Overhead cable) back in the 1960s, the lifts were still pretty slow in comparison to today’s standards. It wasn’t till the early 1980s that the first Doppelmayr high-speed detachable quad chairlift was installed at Breckenridge, Colorado.

While the purpose of the traditional gondola was to detach from the haul rope for ease of loading and unloading, today’s detachable lifts are meant to come off the line for the haul rope can retain a high rate of speed while the chairs slow down and make it easy for people to load. When a detachable chair’s grip releases from the haul rope, the chair is carried about the terminal on a conveyer, which travels at a speed of less than a quarter of the lifts speed. After the skiers or rider load the chair, the chair continues to move along the conveyer, but gradually speeds up until it reaches the same speed as the haul rope. It is at that point that the chair reattaches to the haul rope and makes its’ way up the line.

The advent of high-speed lifts was not only about getting people up the mountain faster, but more importantly, it has allowed for less congestion in high volume base areas and has allowed for shorter lift lines. Less time in line and less time on the lift means more time on the trail. People don’t go to ski resorts to wait in line or sit on lifts; they go to slide down the mountain on two planks or one and lift technology has made this a better experience for all.

Camden Snow Bowl Finally Seeks Upgrades!

During the November elections, residents of Camden, Maine will get the chance to have their say in a proposal that could breathe new life into the town's ski area. Already a rarity in the industry, the Camden Snow Bowl is town owned and operated and thus rarely sees the funding needed for improvements, yet even as my family and I took breaks from the cold this past winter, it was clear that the beautiful yet cramped A-frame lodge needs expansion. Additionally, planners have decided that along with the expansion of the base lodge, the area is long-overdue for an upgrade to the lift system, which may be the oldest in the state. With a classic Hall double chair as the main lift and two vintage 1960's Hall t-bars, the lifts are showing their age and the highest lift is the main t-bar, which is the only way to access 4 of the 10 trails from the summit. And while a new lift is unnecessary, a good used double or triple chairlift to replace the summit t-bar could keep a lot of families happy and possibly increase revenue.
The main problem to all these ideas is that the Snow Bowl as an annual operating budget of around 300k. The improvements all told would come to about 6 million over 2 years. While this is a drop in the bucket to most ski areas, a town owned ski area can't come up with such funds. So the town is turning to the voters to approve tax appropriations for a quarter of the costs, with the other costs coming from fund raising and private donations. This is an exciting time for Camden. With the town showing that they are willing to raise most of the capital and a town itself having deep pride in this skiing gem, I look forward to a positive news article the day after the vote!

Heavenly Mountain Resort honored for being "car-free!"

I feel fortunate to have travelled to some of the best ski resorts in the world. And while I still love being at home in Maine, I treasure the trip I get to take to places like Europe and out west. A few years ago, Julie and I started to ski at Heavenly Mountain Resort on the border of California and Nevada. We were instantly taken by the awe-inspiring views, the friendly people, and the wonderful skiing. Of course, you only need to look at the title of my blog, The Blue World, to understand how much Heavenly and Lake Tahoe mean to me. And despite all that I love about the South Shore, I never would have put Heavenly in the same category as a European resort. It’s not because of the skiing – the skiing is great and the snow is far better, but American resorts are just totally different from anyone on the other side of the pond. Be it the culture, the jagged peaks, or the architecture, there really isn’t any comparison, they are just different experiences and both are great. So it came as a surprise when I read an article recently that was talking about ski resort where you don’t need a car. It’s commonplace in Europe, but here in the US, no way – until now. Heavenly Mountain Resort was named #7 in the world for being car-free. It’s not something I gave any thought to, but now that I look at the map, the villages, and the public transportation system, I can see that at Heavenly, you really don’t need a car. Just think how much money you could save by not having to rent a car on a ski vacation? You can have that experience in South Lake Tahoe!

Skilifts.org offers the right kind of addiction!

Are you excited for ski season? Is your resort planning or installing a new type of lifting that you've never seen before? Chances are that you can find pretty much any ski lift imaginable on skilifts.org. While they currently only cover resorts in the United States and Canada, you'll be amazed at the amount of pictures, states, and history packed onto this page. I will warm you, though, it is addictive. Once you click on a picture of an old lift and find out it was moved to another resort, you may find yourself searching on and on and on. There's also a forum where you can mingle with fellow lift geeks and industry reps.

Summer's the season for on-mountain improvements

As August is just around the corner, resorts across the country are putting their capital improvement projects into high gear. I spoken a lot about new lifts and in particular, the Sunday River Chondola, but there is a lot more that goes into preparing for a ski season than just installing a new lift. Everything from new coats of paint to base lodge renovations to trail grading and mowing are all part of summer operations and are some of the little things that add up to make the resorts look great come opening day. If you haven’t done so already, take a trip to your favorite resort and take a walk around. You’ll notice a certain buzz in August that means while winter is months away, the resort operators have it in their sights to make the most out of the short summer season.

The end for surface lifts draws closer

With the removing of the Kennebego T-bar (The only lift on the map to the summit) at Saddleback, Maine and the subsequent installation of a fixed grip quad, not only is a piece of history leaving, but a part of the mountain that was once accessible in heavy winds will now sit idle many days next winter. Sure, I know the value of putting in a chairlift for the mountain. It makes the summit much more accessible to the intermediate terrain up top, but in my opinion, the t-bar served many purposes like crowd control and keeping people off some expert terrain that can be as hairy as anywhere in the east. Second to all of that is that Saddleback had always prided itself on the fact that they had t-bars and slower lifts as they have always been a throw back to what skiing was. Now, as they expand and try to cater to higher income guests, they are going away from that philosophy, but also perhaps hurting their amount of skier days. The issue itself is industry-wide. Not many resorts still consider surface lifts as viable as many skiers and riders are afraid to ride them, but in my opinion they are not only fun, but also highly functional lifts that last a long time and can operate when other lifts sit idle. So the next time you look up at a part of any mountain that is closed because of wind while you cruise the beginner and intermediate terrain waiting for lift holds to open up, remember back to when t-bars and Pomas were the order of the day for expert terrain and remember how great it was to still get fresh tracks after a storm or even be able to access the same terrain. We live in different times now.

Chondola base structure is taking shape

For those unable to get up to Sunday River to see the construction first hand, I've obviously been doing my own supplement to the Chondalog right here. Now don't get me wrong, I encourage you to visit Sunday River's site as it's full of fabulous information about the lift and the technology, but that being said, writing about it here keeps me excited for the winter and the opening of this monumental lift at the River. From today's update, here is a video of Rohn Stilson talking about the pouring of the base and summit structures and their importance.

Doppelmayr vs. Poma

Perhaps not as particular as people are about brands of skis, I have found that skiers and riders are very opinionated when it comes to lift brands. While there were dozens of lift manufacturers up till the mid-80's or so, that number has dropped off to a handful. Most of those dozens either folded or merged with today's leaders; Doppelmayr and Poma, and yes, they have other names and if really depends or where you are and what you buy. I'm trying to be simple about it and refer to them by one name. Regardless, these two companies do pretty much every high-speed installation in North America now and also much of the refitting of older lifts. As for my favorite or the two, I am a Doppelmary fan through and through. Yes, I love the concept of the double-loading system that Poma came up with, but I find their lifts to be slower on the line. All that being said, this is specifically related to high-speed lifts and fixed grips is another story altogether.

Summit Terminal Work Continues at Sunday River

For those of you following the ongoing saga that is the installation of the Sunday River Chondola, or as I like to call it, The Viking Express, the resort has taken some major steps in preparing for the Doppelmayr parts to arrive next month. Check out the Chondola Page at Sunday River for tons of info and the latest pics, which show a lot of blasting needed for the top terminal. Perhaps I'm even steal a picture from the site and post it on here as long as AK and co dont' sue me!

Helping trace skiings visions

While we can easily take a journey into skiing’s history and see where rope tows used to incline and old Hall or Heron chairlifts used to swing, we don’t often look at what could have been. If we research through sites like NELSAP we find scores of little and medium sized hills that couldn’t make it for one reason or several others, but what about proposed ski areas and resorts. Earlier in this blog I talked about Lake Catamount near Steamboat Springs and to date that it one of the more famous of these failed or stalled proposals. And while lifts were never erected and base lodges never built, the history behind these proposals is really interesting and many have sketches. An easy way to learn some of this for your self is to head of to Colorado Ski History and look in their dedicated section. Maybe there’s some real estate you’d be interested in.

Saddleback goes ahead with summit quad

It seems that while I was trying to write some accurate information about this summers new lift installations, I forgot one that is hugely important to New England and Maine skiing. While the lift installation falls into the same category as Killington in that the new lift is replacing an old, it's a little more of an upgrade for the good folks at Saddleback, Maine. For the first time ever, the summit will be accessible by a chairlift as the Kennebego T-bar is being replaced with a fixed grip quad. While the t-bar was great in allowing access to the mountain's expert terrain on many cold and windy days, the steep liftline also served as a natural deterrent to folks who should avoid the upper mountain terrain. The lift is part of the resort's 10-year master plan.

A slow year for eastern installs

As summers go, it's a slow year for lift installations in the eastern United States. While there are many trail and snowmaking projects going on all over the region this year, only two brand new lifts are being installed in New England and no major trail network expansions. Whereas I don't think this means a decline in the industry, (the numbers were up across the board last season) the strong focus on snowmaking upgrades as opposed to terrain and lift expansion is certainly less exciting. New England is seeing two new lifts this summer. Killington is replacing a fixed grip quad with a new Doppelmayr HSQ and as we know, Sunday River is hard at work on the Chondola, which will be the only newly routed lift in the region this year.

Sunday River's Chondola Site Gets Major Upgrade

Constant and consistent improvement is a top priority at both Boyne USA and Sunday River Resort. A cool reminder of this is with the resort’s very new website dedicated to the building of the Sunday River Chondola. Formally, this site was a blog only and was called the Chondalog, but under the guidance of Alex Kaufman it has been transformed into a much more diverse and extensive website, which has multiple pages to include videos, blog updates, technical data and drawing, as well as a photo gallery. You can get to this site by accessing through the Sunday River website or visit chondola.com for more info.