{"id":41829,"date":"2022-03-05T02:33:31","date_gmt":"2022-03-05T09:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/americas-chairlift-savant-finishes-22-year-quest-to-ride-every-lift-in-the-u-s\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:03:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:03:50","slug":"americas-chairlift-savant-finishes-22-year-quest-to-ride-every-lift-in-the-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/americas-chairlift-savant-finishes-22-year-quest-to-ride-every-lift-in-the-u-s\/","title":{"rendered":"America\u2019s chairlift savant finishes 22-year quest to ride every lift in the U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Peter
Peter Landsman at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in February. (Chris Figenshau\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

JACKSON, WYO. \u2013 Peter Landsman fell in love with chairlifts when he first started skiing as a toddler in Washington.<\/p>\n

He started documenting chairlifts \u2014 notes on length, age, capacity, with photographs \u2014 when he was 10, adding all the chairs from Crystal Mountain, Summit at Snoqualmie and Stevens Pass into a spreadsheet.<\/p>\n

Late last month, the now-32-year-old lift supervisor at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort flew to upstate New York, rented a car and visited Hickory ski area. Then he went to Saddleback in Maine and rode the ski area\u2019s new T-bar. Landsman now has documented, ridden and photographed 2,381 chairlifts at about 480 resorts in the U.S.<\/p>\n

That is every single chairlift, gondola, tram, platter lift and T-bar in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty-two years. I can\u2019t quite believe I\u2019m finished,\u201d he said, sipping an IPA at a new brewery at the base of Jackson, Wyoming\u2019s Snow King Mountain ski area, a bit weary after a 12-hour shift down the road at Jackson Hole. \u201cI\u2019ve kind of been too busy to really think about it. Working full-time, living in Jackson, running a website and visiting five to 10 ski resorts a week. It\u2019s been a wild journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most jet-setting skiers chase powder. They track storms and hop planes to ski deep snow. Landsman skis but he\u2019s chasing chairs.<\/p>\n

Landsman grew up with a family that loved skiing. He went to college in Maine, visiting ski areas across New England \u2014 where he once visited six ski hills in a day. He\u2019s spent the past decade working four days a week on the lift crew at the family-owned Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. The past few years he\u2019s had to move to planes from cars, flying out of Jackson\u2019s airport almost every week. He pays for it with advertising revenue from his wildly popular website, Liftblog.com, where he not only documents each of the country\u2019s lifts, but offers a steady stream of news tracking the country\u2019s vibrant lift industry.<\/p>\n

Landsman has become an authority on American skiing. Very few can say they have visited every ski area in the country. That gives weight to his observations on the state of the U.S. resort industry. We had questions. He answered them.<\/p>\n

The following has been edited for clarity and length<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Question<\/strong>: Were you always interested in lifts growing up?<\/p>\n

Answer<\/strong>: I would say as soon as I saw a chairlift, I was hooked. I can\u2019t even really remember when I started becoming interested in them, because it\u2019s been forever. When I was really, really little I was more interested in chairlifts than skiing. I started keeping track of all the chairlifts I\u2019ve ridden when I was 10. So this has taken most of my life.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong>: What do you like more, lifts or skiing?<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: I like both. But I would say lifts.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong>: OK, lifts or powder?<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: It\u2019s terrible, but really for what I do, I really don\u2019t want a lot of storms. I have to drive a lot. And I\u2019m trying to take pictures of these lifts. Lifts look a lot better on a bluebird day than on a powder day.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong>: What were the hardest lifts to get to?<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: The Alaska ones. Mount Eyak outside Cordova, which is not an easy place to get in the winter. So I ended up going there in the summer. It took, I think, from here, like, six flights, six airplanes to get there. For one chair. They have one single chairlift.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong>: Did you ever at any point say \u2018What are you doing, Peter? Come on?\u2019<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: Oh, at a lot of points, the flight delays and the forced overnights and lack of sleep \u2026 sometimes, but yeah, I was always pretty committed.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong>: How did you pay for all this travel?<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: It got easier once I started this blog. So now I have a couple of different advertisers. And then also I have lift companies sponsoring my blog. So like Leitner Poma and Doppelmayr. I spend all of the money that I get from my website on travel to get all these places. I\u2019m not doing it for the money. Certainly, if this was a real business, I\u2019m not doing a great job of it. But I\u2019m doing a good job of running an interesting website.<\/p>\n

\"Peter
Peter Landsman at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in February. (Chris Figenshau\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Peter
Peter Landsman at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in February. (Chris Figenshau\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Q<\/strong>: Yes, you are. Are you surprised by the response to that website? You\u2019ve become one of the more influential watchers of the resort industry.<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: I really like always paying attention to what\u2019s going on. I really do find it genuinely interesting. There\u2019s so much interesting stuff going on right now in the ski industry. The lifts, obviously, what everybody\u2019s doing with technology, but the pass stuff and the consolidation and the crowding and labor issues. All that is just fascinating to me.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong>: You ever marvel at the response and appreciation for what you are doing? You\u2019ve really struck a chord with skiers.<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: I enjoy sharing all this with people. And I really enjoy hearing from people that are interested in what I\u2019m doing. There are a lot of people who don\u2019t work in the ski industry who maybe ski sometimes and maybe aren\u2019t that frequent of a skier, but they are interested in skiing and ski lifts. They send me a lot of emails, saying they enjoyed reading about all these different lifts. I\u2019m always surprised at how many people are reading my blog.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong>: How many?<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: (Pulls out his phone) I can tell you exactly.<\/p>\n

Last month, there were 115,800 unique visitors. There were 559,000 page views. That was a big month. It is pretty seasonal. But if you had told me when I started my website that 115,000 people would read it in a month, I would have not believed you.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong>: As someone who\u2019s been on the ground at all these different resorts \u2014 literally all of them \u2014 I have to think that you have a pretty good perspective on what\u2019s working and what isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: Well, I have a couple of perspectives because half the week I\u2019m here working at Jackson Hole and the other half I\u2019m traveling. I do a lot of our hiring. I do a lot of our interviewing and I deal with housing. I assign people to employee housing, so that\u2019s really interesting. And then the other half of the week I go to other resorts. All kinds of resorts. Big ones owned by Vail Resorts and tiny ones.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong>: Let\u2019s start with Vail Resorts and crowding. Probably the hottest topic in U.S. skiing right now. The country\u2019s largest operator has not had a good season in the public square. But other major operators are seeing similar issues with crowding. And, really, crowding is not a problem at most resorts, right?<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: I think, having been to every ski resort in the country, most ski resorts in the country don\u2019t have that much of an issue with crowding and, to be honest, a lot of them would love to have more people. So it\u2019s a relatively small number of resorts near cities that are having these challenges. There are a lot of creative solutions that have been come up with for peak days and peak periods. They\u2019ve tried reservation systems. They\u2019re using a lot of public transportation to the mountain rather than trying to park everybody at the mountain. I think a lot of resorts have done a really good job of incentivizing people with deals to visit on off-peak times.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong>: Who do you think is doing the best job?<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: Mount Hood Meadows in Oregon has done a really good job with a swing shift where you can come at noon instead of coming at 9 a.m. And you get to pay less and you can stay all the way till 9 p.m. I think the problem that I\u2019ve seen with Vail Resorts is that they\u2019ve tried to take a one-size-fits-all approach where, you know, the Epic Pass is unlimited, everywhere. And even the Epic Local pass has very few restrictions.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong>: That\u2019s a foundational aspect of the Vail Resorts business model. A simple pass with few restrictions.<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: And I think they could put a few more restrictions on some of these resorts, the overcrowded resorts. And everybody would have a lot better experience. Both the employees and customers.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong>: You\u2019ve been to all the Vail Resorts areas and the Alterra Mountain Co. ski areas, as well as the Powdr and Boyne hills. What has Vail Resorts done right?<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: I think they created an amazing reservation system last year. I was shocked at how well it worked and the technology they created. The technology was flawless. And they came up with it in very little time. It worked at all their resorts. And you could just go direct to lift, you didn\u2019t need to stop anywhere. I think that that probably helped them plan a lot better for their staffing and their busiest days. And I think they probably should have kept that in place this year for certain resorts and certain times.<\/p>\n

\"Peter
Peter Landsman at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in February. (Chris Figenshau\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Q<\/strong>: Do you think we will see reservations return?<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: Maybe. That\u2019s one of a bunch of different ways to manage demand. They can raise the price of the Epic Pass. I hope that they keep the price or keep the price relatively similar. I would like to see them keep the price, but maybe have more restrictions on the cheaper passes. And maybe a reservation system for peak times.<\/p>\n

But the biggest thing I think they need to figure out is how to get the lifts open; every single lift on busy days. I mean, they have a resort, Park City, where nine lifts still have not run this entire season. It\u2019s unbelievable that at (Vail Resorts-owned) Attitash in New Hampshire, they have two lifts that have not opened; major chairlifts that have not opened this entire season. And they\u2019re talking about all these new chairlifts next season, which is awesome. I think chairlifts are a great way to move people but they have to staff the mountains in order to run the lifts.<\/p>\n

I have respect for Vail Resorts. They have done amazing things. They\u2019re incredibly good at safety protocols and technology. They\u2019ve just definitely had some challenges this year.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong>: What\u2019s a piece of advice you\u2019d give Vail Resorts?<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: What I\u2019ve learned working in the ski industry, particularly at the lower levels, is that people come to work at a ski resort because they want to have fun. And the best thing that you can offer employees in the ski industry is a ski break and powder and a good time. And, you know, the minute you start taking away breaks, you take away the fun. It doesn\u2019t matter what you\u2019re paying, nobody\u2019s going to work for you, if you\u2019re not creating that fun experience that people are seeking in a ski job. The way to staff your ski resort is to make it an attractive place to work. There are a lot of things that go into that \u2014 pay, housing \u2014 but it\u2019s so important to keep it fun.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong>: So what is one of the more remarkable resorts you have visited?<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: There\u2019s one ski area in Tennessee that stands out quite a bit: Ober Gatlinburg. It\u2019s a ski resort and amusement park. It\u2019s family owned and there are water slides and a grizzly bear exhibit and alpine slides and all sorts of different activities for all sorts of different kinds of people. And one of those is skiing. It\u2019s one of the only ones I\u2019ve been where you\u2019re skiing, but then right next door there\u2019s an ice skating rink and bumper boats and all sorts of other activities going on. All for a clientele in the South that isn\u2019t necessarily only about skiing, you know.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong>: So you\u2019ve been to some of the largest ski areas in North America and some of the smallest. Major resorts and rural community hills. What are the biggest similarities you see in those diverse places?<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: It\u2019s amazing how many different business models there are for skiing. There\u2019s the town ski area and there\u2019s the nonprofit ski area. There are ski areas in the United States run by the military for military families. There are destination resorts, there are schools that run ski areas for their racers. But they all have lifts, and they all have snow and they all have people doing the same basic sport.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong>: So what kind of responses do you get when you tell people you travel the country to ride chairlifts?<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: People think it\u2019s kind of crazy when they hear that I fly from Jackson Hole to Minnesota to go skiing for three days. But for me there\u2019s nothing I\u2019d rather do than go explore new ski areas. And I\u2019m a little sad now that I\u2019m running out of places to go that are completely new to me because I\u2019ve been to all of them.<\/p>\n

\"On
On a clear, cold day early morning skiers ride the Red Lady chairlift at Crested Butte Mountain Resort in Crested Butte, Colorado. (Dean Krakel\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Q<\/strong>: What\u2019s your favorite place for chairlift ogling?<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: Anywhere that I\u2019ve been? Probably Whistler Blackcomb. It\u2019s just so big and they get a lot of snow. The lifts are amazing. They\u2019ve got the Peak to Peak. They have the amazing village. Amazing skiing. They have it all.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong>: What trends are you seeing in the lift world? Obviously we are moving toward higher capacity and this coming season will set a record for ski areas investing in chairlifts. Where do you think it\u2019s going to go in the next decade?<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: Lifts are being up-gauged, I would call it. Triples are becoming quads. Quads are becoming sixes. I think we will see two and three old, low-capacity fixed grips being replaced with one higher capacity lift. When you\u2019re in an era of staffing challenges, it makes a lot more sense to have one lift to maintain and staff rather than two or three next to each other. I would say gondolas are kind of having a boom right now. Bubbles and heated seats are becoming more popular. It took us a while over here. Europe\u2019s had them for a long time.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong>: Do you ever wonder what old-school resort builders were thinking when they installed lifts?<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: I think a lot of things back then were done without a lot of planning. They didn\u2019t really put a lot of research into where they were putting lifts. There were not all these consulting firms doing studies about where to put chairlifts back in the 60s. People were just kind of eyeballing it. Sometimes it works, but there are a lot of places where the new lift doesn\u2019t go where the old lift was. Now they look at loading and unloading, the wind factor and moving people around a larger area. And there\u2019s often a better way. Lifts last a long time. Over 40, 50 years you can find a lot of areas to improve.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong>: I\u2019ve ridden every lift in Colorado. Which ones stand out to you? What about the state impresses you?<\/p>\n

\"An
An uphill skier arrives top of the Ajax Express Chairlift on Aspen Mountain, Dec. 21. The detachable quad chairlift was designed, built and installed by Leitner Poma in 2003. (Hugh Carey\/The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A<\/strong>: I love the sunshine there. I love the scenery. There are amazing groomed runs all over Colorado. I love the lifts in Colorado. Colorado is really the epicenter of the nation\u2019s ski lifts. One of the two major lift manufacturers is in Colorado for a reason. On any given year, when I publish my map of the new lifts and I\u2019ve got stuff scattered throughout the country, there\u2019s always so much going on in Colorado, all right next to each other. So you can\u2019t even see the state on the map because there\u2019s all these points with all these new lifts. Colorado is a very reliable state for infrastructure for skiing.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong>: Daren Cole at Leitner Poma says the U.S. is overdue for an urban boom in aerial transportation. Tramways to ballparks. Trams in cities. Even a tram heading up Little Cottonwood Canyon in Salt Lake City. You see that trend coming?<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: So the rest of the world is already doing it. Europe is doing it. South America is kind of the leader. Mexico is doing it. The technology is there, it makes a ton of sense. It\u2019s good for the environment, it\u2019s efficient. People who don\u2019t ski don\u2019t realize how great of people-movers these lifts are. Maybe they see these pictures of these long lift lines or whatever on Instagram, but they don\u2019t see how quickly a chairlift or a gondola can move huge numbers of people. Whenever I see those pictures of long lifts on social media I want to see a time lapse of an hour showing that crowd being sucked up the mountain. It\u2019s really incredible. I think the United States is unique in the world. It hasn\u2019t caught on here for whatever reason. I don\u2019t know exactly why. I think government here tends to be very wary of spending money on things that are unproven. If you\u2019re a transportation director, you can add a lane or a road, the way it\u2019s been done a million times. Or you can propose a gondola and get a bunch of criticism from people who don\u2019t understand it. But the world is showing us it works. I think it\u2019s only a matter of time before somebody does it here and then the rest of the cities will say \u2018Why didn\u2019t we think of this 20 years ago?\u2019<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong>: So what are you going to do now that you\u2019ve visited every lift in the country?<\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: Well, the good thing is there are a ton of exciting new projects and projects in the pipeline. Vail Resorts had their massive lift upgrade announcement, which is the biggest lift order in a long time, probably ever, dollar-wise, at least in the United States. So I\u2019m going to be busy running around seeing all the new stuff.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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