Attitash will have a busy summer, as they’re replacing the Summit Triple with a Leitner-Poma high-speed quad. With a large construction project like this, some have wondered what Attitash’s summer plans will be.
Yesterday, Attitash’s General Manager Brandon Swartz announced the ski resort will be closed this summer in order to focus on the construction of the Mountaineer Express. They didn’t have summer operations in 2022 and ran limited activities in 2021 and 2020. It sounds like other construction projects will also be on tap for Attitash, although they didn’t specify what they will be. Attitash’s video and written statement are below:
“With the exciting lift installation of the new Mountaineer high-speed quad, we have decided to pause our summer operations this season due to the construction soon-to-be underway and so we can focus our efforts on all of our mountain projects. This is a decision that was made by our team here at Attitash. There are a lot of moving parts (yes, there will even be helicopters) with the removal of the Summit Triple and bringing in the new lift. Safety is always in the forefront of our minds for both our staff and guests, which played a major factor in our approach to summer this year.
We know you have a lot of questions about future summer operations. Our goal is to bring summer activities back in future years, but we don’t have a timeline or details at this time. Our leadership team continues to reimagine what summer will look like in the future for all the activities that we all know and love. Thank you for your patience this summer, and we can’t wait to see you next season.”
I got mixed feelings about this. I’ve been to Attitash during the summer a couple of times, and it was one of the strengths of the ski resort. Some of Attitash’s summer activities included a zipline tour, mountain coaster, alpine slides, water slides, scenic chairlift rides, mountain biking trails, trampolines, and more.
The waterslides were removed last year, but frankly, this never made sense there anyways, as it wasn’t exactly a huge waterpark operation. I’m more concerned that they’re noncommittal about a timeline for summer operations in the future. This seems like it would be a big cash cow for Vail Resorts, and I’m kinda shocked they’re not intent on bringing these attractions back. Other ski resorts in the area are very successful in the summer, like Cranmore and Loon, in spite of being busy with huge construction projects for the past couple of years. If it stays that way, valuable assets, like the mountain coaster, zipline tour, and alpine slides, will continue to rust away.
Update 4/20: We got an update from Abigail Allen, who is the Manager of Resort Communications for Vail’s New Hampshire ski resorts. She explained to us that the Bear Peak parking lot will be a key staging area for the deconstruction of the Summit Triple and the building of the Mountaineer. The new parts for The Mountaineer will be received and stored at Bear Peak and will be brought to and from via a helicopter on multiple dates throughout the summer. A prior version of this article that had a paragraph pondering why Bear Peak was closed this summer has been deleted. They are intent on bringing summer operations back but haven’t figured out what the timeline will be for that yet. According to Abigail, “the leadership team at Attitash continues to reimagine and we will update the community once we know more.”
