LIFT CONSTRUCTION SURVEY 2025
The angled mid-station of Big Sky Resort’s (Mont.) two-segment 10-place Doppelmayr Explorer Gondola.
installed 29 new conveyor lifts and three tows this year. “Three years ago, 60 per- cent of our conveyors had enclosures. Now it’s back to 40 percent or less.” SMOOTH SAILING One advantage of fewer installations was on-time completion. During Covid, man- ufacturers became swamped, and supply chain woes disrupted schedules. “Since 2022, the guiding light of our company has been to meet or exceed contracted load test dates,” says Manley. “Most load tests have been early this year. The Park City gondola was finished the first week in October and it wasn’t due until the first of November.” Doppelmayr commissioned its first lift of the year at Cataloochee, N.C., in Sep- tember, with more following in October. TARIFF TROUBLE Manufacturers dealt with several rounds of tariffs throughout construction season.
The first hit came in March, when Presi- dent Trump announced a 25 percent tar- iff on Canadian goods, purportedly over fentanyl flowing into the United States. Canada’s tariff rate was later raised to 35 percent, but many goods, including lift components produced at Doppelmayr’s Quebec plant with mostly U.S. steel, were exempt under the existing United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Canada’s retaliatory tariffs forced Star Lifts to reroute parts that would typically ship from Austria to Canada through the United States. “For us, tariffs have been a huge challenge,” says Rowan. “Especially in that March through July timeframe, it was constantly changing.” April tariff hit. President Trump’s April unveiling of so-called retaliatory tariffs on dozens of countries included 20 percent on the European Union, 31 per- cent on Switzerland, and 36 percent on Thailand, all source countries for lift parts bound for the U.S. This shoe dropped just
as manufacturers were fanning out to build, and they had no choice but to pay tariffs on goods already in production or transit. Rowan typically found out what the tariff would be on a particular ship- ment “well after I signed a contract.” Johns expressed similar frustration. “Tariffs created a lot of angst,” he says. “There wasn’t a lot of clear information that came out up front. Tariffs being implemented with very short notice made it hard to react and to plan.” June, July adjustments. By June, the President increased a different set of tar- iffs—Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs—from 25 to 50 percent, effec- tive on a day’s notice and applied based on metal content in each shipment. High-value haul ropes were hit partic- ularly hard. Manley at Leitner-Poma, which manufactures 85 to 90 percent of its lifts domestically, called the haul rope situation “painful.” It wasn’t just haul ropes, either. “The
NEW LIFTS BY REGION
Gondolas/
Region
New VTFH Surface Chairs Trams Funiculars Total
East
16,443
2 — 2 — — 4
8 2
— — 4 — — 4
— — — — — —
10
Midwest Mountain
1,102
2
47,681 7,489 3,598 76,313
13
19
Pacific Canada TOTALS
3 3
3 3
29
37
NEW LIFTS BY MANUFACTURER
Gondolas/
Mfr.
New VTFH Surface Chairs Trams Funiculars Total
Doppelmayr
39,535
2 —
12
3
— — — — —
17 12
Leitner-Poma 27,910
11 — 6
1
MND
689
1 1
— — 4
1
Skytrac TOTALS
8,179
7
76,313
4
29
37
Snowmass, Colo., debuted the new Elk Camp Express, a Leitner-Poma direct-drive six-pack chair.
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