Mont Grand-Fonds, QC

Compagnie des Montagnes des ski du Québec (CMSQ), owned by e-Liberty, a Swiss online ski pass retailer, purchased Mont Grand-Fonds in September 2023. Soon after, the growing multi-mountain group ordered a detachable six-place Doppelmayr chairlift, a first of its kind in the region. This ski area near Quebec City hosted 60,000 skier visits in 2022-23, but aims to attract more skiers in the future with upgraded facilities and affordable prices.

In the past, Mont Grand-Fonds operated only fixed-grip lifts, a majority of which were surface lifts. The new six-pack, called Lynx Express, runs up a line previously occupied by a 45-year-old Samson T-Bar.

The new owners wanted to bring European lift technology to Canada. The lift’s 69 chairs were imported from Austria and feature wide seats, double dampening, and lockable restraint bars. These chairs are quite heavy, too, and should resist wind better than standard chairs. Because of the width of the chairs, the lift’s towers and terminals are also wider than a standard six-pack.

As soon as the resort closed in April, crews began removing the old lift and clearing trees to widen the corridor for the detachable. Doppelmayr Canada arrived on site to begin digging for foundations. An Airbus Super Puma from Helicarrier Helicopters arrived in late August to set five towers with already completed foundations and pour 63 buckets of concrete for additional footers. Doppelmayr assembled the top return terminal by crane in early September and began the drive terminal in late September.

The 558 hp drive will move chairs at 5 meters per second, decreasing ride time from nine minutes to four. With a capacity of 2,400 pph, guests will enjoy ample time between chairs, which should maintain high loading efficiency. The 1,096-vertical-foot lift is expected to debut on schedule around Dec. 1.

Loon Mountain, NH

Boyne Resorts-owned Loon Mountain embarked on a major snowmaking expansion and modernization this offseason. First up was completing snowmaking in Timbertown, a beginner and low intermediate terrain pod with a quad chair that opened for the 2023-24 season. Snowmaking installation was completed this year, bringing the expansion to 100 percent coverage. Some of this work was initially planned for 2023, but a very wet summer and more bedrock/ledge than anticipated pushed some work to 2024. This included about 8,000 feet of new pipe, a mix of steel for water and HDPE for air where pipe could be buried. While some of the work was completed in-house, Summit Resources was contracted to install and weld pipe for Timbertown phase 2.

A second project was installing a new infiltration gallery, bringing on line about 2,000 gpm of water capacity that hadn’t been functional since Tropical Storm Irene hit in 2011. Caulder Construction did the work. With this addition, Loon’s total pumping capacity will exceed 10,000 gpm this season. 

Finally, Loon installed about 2,000 feet of new pipe to upgrade capacity on existing lines. Between Timbertown and strategic piping and valving upgrades elsewhere, the additional 2,000 gpm can be effectively moved across the mountain. Loon added a total of 105 HKD Impulses and 30 HKD Phazers, all tower mounted, along with 68 HKD Klik hydrants. 

Working across so many parts of the resort proved a challenge but as of press time, the project was expected to conclude on schedule in late October.

Bogus Basin, ID

 Credit: Cassidy Carter

Nonprofit Bogus Basin replaced two aging chairlifts with Skytrac fixed-grip quads this summer. The mountain’s 2015 master plan listed both replacements as detachable quads. Since that time, bids to replace the Coach chair ballooned from around $4 million to north of $6 million. Bogus opted to make Coach a fixed-grip lift and add another Skytrac for roughly the same cost as a single detachable. The second lift replaces Bitterroot, a 1973 Riblet double.

Coach is the area’s traditional bunny slope chairlift. Bogus extended its alignment and added a new trail. The quad chair runs 1,276 feet, about 50 percent longer than the prior 1981 Yan. The Coach’s Corner run, previously a straight, treeless promenade, has been transformed into a much longer, meandering trail. That and a new low intermediate run open up 12+ acres of groomed and gladed terrain.

Workers used torches to cut down both terminals and remove towers on the Coach lift in April. In July, Timberline Helicopters flew concrete for the two lifts’ 20 towers. Timberline returned in late August to set towers, and Coach was spliced in September. The new lift will move 2,200 pph and rise 314 vertical feet at 450 fpm. An in-house crew crafted the new Coach’s Corner run, using four excavators, three dozers, and one rock truck. The crew did two sections of blasting, roughly 200’ x 70’, to smooth the grade. About 125 loads of rock and dirt were removed and reused to create the top landing for the new Bitterroot lift. 

A team from Mackenzie Welding worked to install 1,300 feet of 6-inch steel water pipe for snowmaking for the Coach-area terrain. Bogus installed seven new hydrants in underground vaults, along with 11 new 360-watt lights from Simply LEDs and electrical infrastructure for both systems. 

The new Bitterroot lift serves Bitterroot Basin and will operate seven days a week. The old lift only operated on weekends and holidays. The old lift closed on March 24 and maintenance personnel handled demolition. The new lift was realigned, requiring some tree removal and grading, and a second new trail was built to improve access. Felled timber was donated to the Shoshone-Paiute Tribe for use as firewood. The lift runs more than 2,400 feet and climbs 550 vertical feet with a capacity of 2,200 pph and speed of 450 fpm.

BigRock Mountain, ME 

BigRock began fundraising for a new base-to-summit lift in 2021. Located in eastern Maine just two miles from Canada, BigRock sees the first sunrise in the U.S. each morning. As such, the community ski area opted to name its new Doppelmayr quad Sunrise. It effectively replaces a Mueller double, though the old lift will remain in place as a backup option.

The bottom drive, bottom tension terminal is right in front of the main lodge; a new lift line was chosen to extend higher up on the mountain for better terrain access. BigRock selected two local contractors, MCR Electric and McQuade Groundworks (both run by BigRock skiers), to handle site work and excavation. BigRock general manager Aaron Damon notes they were able to avoid blasting with some “expert rock drilling.” Bedrock was drilled, then excavated to make way for tower foundations. 

Doppelmayr mobilized in early June, assembling tower crossarms and creating forms for each tower footing. Once concrete was poured in late July, they utilized a crane, material movers, and a dozer to set all 13 towers. Damon called that work a “feat of engineering and collaboration that is truly humbling.” In late August, the Doppelmayr crew ran a small feeder line around the towers and top bullwheel. The motor room and bottom bullwheel arrived and were set in late September. As of press time, haul rope splicing was scheduled for early October.

The 3,450-foot-long Sunrise Quad serves BigRock’s entire 930-foot vertical in a ride time of just eight minutes. The lift’s 81 chairs are designed to carry a modest 1,200 pph, which is more than ample for the area’s typical guest volume. And though the lift project was huge for a small ski area like BigRock, the mountain also invested in six new TechnoAlpin TR10 fan guns and pump upgrades this offseason, quadrupling its snowmaking capacity.

Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, WY 

The iconic Sublette chairlift on the upper reaches of Rendezvous Mountain was retired this summer to make way for a new Leitner-Poma detachable quad. JHMR worked with Leitner-Poma of America (LPOA) to design and align the new lift to minimize closures on a part of the mountain that can see triple-digit wind speeds.

Mountain crews began removing the old Sublette lift the day the resort closed in April. LPOA subcontracted much of the electrical work to Lucey Electric and construction/installation to Alpine Cable & Construction, who arrived May 1. 

Workers could only access the top and bottom terminal locations and one other spot along the steep, rocky lift line (average grade 43.5 percent) by road. Both Timberline Helicopters and Mountain West Helicopters made frequent visits throughout the summer, hauling supplies, setting forms, and delivering concrete. Three different tower locations required blasting; one tower foundation was re-used from the previous lift, and another was drilled and anchored on top of an old foundation.

In July, Kevin Soller of All Mountain Construction brought a Menzi Muck walking excavator to dig, then backfill many of the tower locations, some of which sat above 100-foot cliffs. Tower 8, in particular, sat between two rock bands above a 733-foot unsupported span. Soller had to tiptoe his excavator sideways both into and out of the site to avoid sheer rock faces. 

On Sept. 25, Timberline Helicopters flew 14 towers split among 49 trips due to the high elevation and large tower sizes. The next day, Timberline pulled pilot lines and communication lines from the top of the lift down, a task normally done by foot or vehicle.

The new Sublette switches both drive direction (from counterclockwise to clockwise) and drive location (from bottom to top) compared to the old lift. JHMR installed 500 feet of new electric line and a new switch gear to service the top station. To reduce wind exposure, the top terminal came down in grade roughly 30 feet from the old lift, accomplished through 18,000 cubic yards of earth moving by JHMR’s in-house equipment operators. Coupled with 72 of LPOA’s most premium (and heavy) European chairs, the lower profile will hopefully mean fewer wind holds as skiers ascend 1,595 vertical feet in four minutes. To further minimize wind holds and reduce the likelihood of a rope evacuation above cliffs, the resort chose a ring and pinion drive setup, necessitating a wider-than-normal for a detachable quad 5.6-meter line gauge. As of late September, the project was on track for a Nov. 6 load test.

Hunter Mountain, NY

Hunter Mountain undertook the largest capital project within the Vail Resorts network this year, replacing two key chairlifts and automating much of its snowmaking system.  

Leitner-Poma of America (LPOA) began removing the Broadway Limited quad shortly after the season ended to make way for a new six-pack called Broadway Express. The 2,966-foot-long lift will increase capacity on this part of the mountain by 70 percent. Broadway Express now runs up the Gun Hill Road trail rather than Kennedy Drive, freeing the latter of mid-trail lift towers. Gun Hill Road was widened and graded in sections to accommodate the lift corridor. 

With relatively easy access from the main base area and a lower angle lift line, the main challenge with this project was the amount of utility relocation required. Drainage also proved a challenge at times during wet periods. Lift terminal elements arrived in July and were installed by crane. As of September, the six-pack was on track for an Oct. 11 load test.

Rather than disposing of the old Broadway lift, Hunter used the old lift’s equipment to replace the E Lift, an old Hall double. Towers were flown off Broadway and reconfigured in the parking lot into 10 towers for the yet-to-be-named E quad replacement. 

This 400-vertical-foot, bottom drive/bottom tension quad also runs in a new alignment that removes lift towers from the Central Park and Central Park North trails.

Simultaneously with the lift projects, an in-house crew worked on a major snowmaking overhaul, relocating pipe on Rip Van Winkle, adding 70 automated hydrants to existing HKD guns on another trail, and adding 69 fully automated guns with new hydrants on two trails. On steeper trail sections, Hunter utilized a helicopter to place tower-mounted guns onto pedestals. The resort also purchased new HKD sled guns, which will be manually moved from trail to trail.