The Greenest of the Ski Lifts by MRAblog.com

Mountain Rider’s Alliance is always looking for new, clean, and innovative ways of powering our uphill transportation. These lifts from all around the world have set the (T) bar high, plowing a path for the future of skiing. Without further ado, they present the Greenest Ski Lifts in the world:

1. Tenna T-Bar, Switzerland

This T-Bar is known as the world’s first to be powered by solar panels, which are placed along the lift. The lift generates over 90,000 kilowatts a year and sends energy back into the grid when it is not being used.

Tenna T-Bar in Switzerland

2. Sonnenlift, SkiWelt, Austria
This solar-powered T-bar lift completed the long-planned ski-lift connection between two of Austria’s biggest ski areas of Kitzbuhel and the SkiWelt. The tow is powered by a photovoltaic system which, even in poor weather, has enough power to keep the lift running smoothly.

Sonnenlift at SkiWelt

3. Ranfoilly Express, Les Gets, France
Les Gets has replaced diesel generators on the Ranfoilly Express with solar panels. The resort also recuperates kinetic energy from the Les Planeys chairlift from the rotation of the return pulleys on the pylons.

Ranfoilly Express in Les Gets

4. Horse-powered lift, Alta Badia, Italy
The lift that links the Lagazuoi piste to the Alta Badia ski area is, quite literally, horse powered. It consists of a long rope that the skiers hold on to and a sledge that is drawn by a “green engine” – a pair of noriker horses. Since the lift is fuelled by hay, it does not burn any fossil fuels. However, the amount of climate-changing methane gas produced has not yet been calculated.

Horse-drawn Ski Lift at Alta Badia

5. Panoramabahn, Kaprun, Austria
All lifts and other operations on the Kitzsteinhorn glacier are powered by renewable energy. In addition, the lift company has put solar panels on lift stations to generate more, and recycles heat from the green-powered lift motors to warm buildings on the mountain.

Pamoramabahn in Kaprun

6. Sunshine Express, Steamboat, Colorado, USA
The sunshine express chairlift uses a combination of solar and wind-renewable energy and is believed to be the only chairlift in North America to be powered using solar energy.

Sunshine Express in Steamboat

7. Piz Nair Cable Car, St. Moritz, Switzerland
St. Moritz pioneered both winter sports and hydroelectricity in the 19th century, and in this one the Piz Nair cable car was rebuilt for the 2003 FIS Alpine Skiing World Championships, fitted with a solar-power system and a wind turbine at the top station.

Piz Nair Cable Car in St. Moritz

If you know of a ski lift that deserves to be on this list, please let us know in the comments section below this post!

Related posts:

1. Mt Abram Ski Area to Produce More Energy Than It Uses
2. 9 Ski Areas Involving Green Technology
3. A Skier’s Letter to President Obama
4. 2013 Green Sports Alliance Summit Recap
5. Ski Areas: What can they do without?

MRA Blog: Introducing the EcoGroomer: Is it the Future in Skiing Groomers?

Check out news on the EcoGroomer at MRA's Blog!

Resorting to Madness: Taking Back Our Mountain Communities Now Streaming for Free Real Time Viewing

The Mountain Rider's Alliance recently posted about Resorting to Madness, Taking Back Our Mountain Communities, which is a source of great inspiration for MRA and anyone concerned with sustainability and the ski/snowboard industry. The documentary, released in 2007, addresses the impacts of the modern ski resort industry on mountain communities and environments. Footage and interviews from dozens of ski areas, experts and concerned community members throughout North America is included. Resorting to Madness reveals the negative side of an otherwise glamorous sport and offers up suggestions to protect and maintain mountain environments and communities.

Along with Hal Clifford’s Downhill Slide, Why the Corporate Ski Industry is Bad for Skiing, Ski Towns and the Environment and Jeremy Evans’ In Search of Powder:A Story of America’s Disappearing Ski Bum, one of MRA’s primary goals is to create solutions for the problems discussed in all three journalistic masterpieces.

Resorting to Madness is being featured on Green Unplugged Film Festival and can be viewed online by clicking here!

New model for ski resort development emerges in Alaska

This article By Tom Winter outlines our partner, Mountain Rider's Alliance's first project...

The mountain is nothing.

Well, it is something — a mass of rock and ice with scattered alder bushes and some evergreens. But the small sub-peak is dwarfed by its Alaskan neighbors. It seems a strange place for a ski area. The closest large population base is Anchorage, nearly two hours away. There’s no private land to develop into a quaint base village or multi-million dollar vacation homes. There’s nothing here but the wind, the wind that blows the snow in swirls and drifts as we climb higher to the top of this place, a place that, with a lot of hard work and some gumption will become an environ mentally sustainable ski area that’s cooperatively owned.

Last September, Boulder Weekly scored an exclusive interview with a visionary who sought to change the way the resort industry worked. Jamie Schectman, founder of the Mountain Rider’s Alliance (MRA), riffed to the Weekly on monster second homes at ski resorts, a lack of concern for the community and on wind power. His was a dream of community-owned ski areas, focused on the riding and skiing experience, with profits put back into that experience. Wind, solar and microhydro power would ensure that these small resorts remained sustainable. Community ownership and involvement would ensure that they remained focused on core values and benefitted the surrounding towns.

Now, less than a year from when we last spoke to Schectman, his dream of creating such a ski area has taken a giant step closer with the announcement of the MRA’s first project, Manitoba Mountain, Alaska. Located at Mile 49 on the Seward Highway, the project is focused on reviving the Historic Manitoba Ski Area and the Glacier Ski Lodge. This small ski area on the Kenai Peninsula operated from 1941 to 1959, and is 90 minutes from Anchorage. With a base elevation of 1,250 feet, and located in the Chugach Mountains, Manitoba receives an estimated 350-550 inches of snow annually.

We’re climbing the mountain in the tracks of Dave Scanlan. A resident of nearby Hope, Scanlan has been named the project manager for the reinvented Manitoba Mountain. It’s hard to see what he’s excited about until we reach the top.

“Here’s where we’ll put the backcountry access gate,” says Scanlan, with a wave of a ski pole.

Suddenly, through a break in the swirling snow, we see why someone would want to put a lift up here. The view opens, and smack dab in front of us are acres and acres and acres of steep powder skiing terrain, the kind of stuff that is usually accessed via helicopters in Alaska. But here, you’ll be able to exit a gate and head out into the wilderness, no heli required. It’s an audacious and bold plan, and one that for those in our group will take shape over the next few days as we hike and ski around Manitoba Mountain under the leadership of Scanlan, and as we spend evenings drinking beers in front of a fire, listening to Schectman describe the project.

There are plenty of reasons to go skiing on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. Developed ski areas are not one of them. The Chugach Mountains offer serious skiers and snowboarders the rare combination of deep and stable snowpack plastered on nearly vertical peaks. It’s all hike-to terrain, and it’s committed. Few venture here in winter. While Manitoba itself won’t offer up this kind of terrain — the mountain as envisioned is primarily beginner and intermediate terrain with a small in-bounds expert sector — the project will offer access. At build-out, the mountain will feature three low-impact surface lifts, one that will top out on the 3,702-foot Mount Manitoba. These lifts will allow locals to teach kids and carve up a couple of groomers. But those who come up from the lower 48 won’t be interested in skiing with the kids or sliding on groomers. No, they’ll want to play with the big boys in the 10,000-plus acres of he-man terrain that will be accessible via the backcountry gate at the top of Manitoba.

“This project is designed to be small on infrastructure and big on mountain,” says Schectman.

“The proposed lifts are designed to give riders supreme access to and from world-class, high-angle backcountry terrain, while at the same time providing an excellent beginner, intermediate and advanced inbounds skiing experience.”

And the project won’t stop there.

Nordic trails, snowshoeing, dogsledding and other trails will be built. In addition, another local group, the Alaska Hut Association, is proposing a high alpine route which will include the ski area.

“We’d like to have three or four huts in the area,” says the association’s Charlie Barnwell, who envisions an Alaskan “Haute Route” experience.

But the real impetus for the project, says Scanlan, is the fact that times are tough on the Kenai Peninsula.

“There are only five full-time jobs available right now in Hope,” says Scanlan. “We have a decent summer business with tourism, but in the winter, it becomes very difficult for families to make it. They’re moving away. Schools are closing, and we need to do something about it.”

That something is building, with the help of the MRA, a community-owned ski area that will not only bring opportunity to locals, but also provide a counterweight to the summer season.

“The MRA believes a ski area should service the immediate and surrounding communities,” says Schectman, who points out that the development model for Manitoba Mountain is radically different from recent high-dollar projects.

Will Manitoba become a reality?

A recent community meeting held in Girdwood and chaired by Scanlan showed that some, at least, are ready to roll up their sleeves and help start installing the lifts tomorrow. But a lengthy permitting process remains, and those involved with the project have yet to decide on how to structure the cooperative ownership model for Manitoba.

Regardless, the next time you’re stuck in I-70 traffic heading to your ski area of choice, think how you might build your own ski area, and how you’d operate it. Would it be to sell as many tickets and season passes as possible? Would you develop million-dollar skiin ski-out condos? Would it be to create opportunities for locals? Or would it be a private powder stash for you and your friends? Over the next few years, the skiers on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula will try to answer that question for themselves.

Mountain Rider’s Alliance to present Manitoba Mountain Ski Area Restoration Project

Mountain Rider’s Alliance (MRA) Project Manager, Dave Scanlan, will be outlining a proposal for the Manitoba Mountain Ski Area Restoration Project at the Girdwood Library on Thursday, February 24th at 6 p.m. Following the presentation, a question and answer session will be held and community feedback will be encouraged.

Manitoba Mountain is located at Mile 49 on the Seward Highway at the site of the Historic Manitoba Ski Area and the Glacier Ski Lodge that operated from 1941 to 1959. The earliest recorded history of skiing on the Kenai Peninsula was in 1790. Anchorage is located 90 minutes away and there is a population base of 325,000 within a three-hour drive. At a base elevation of 1,250 feet, this region of the Chugach Mountains receives an estimated 350-550 inches of snow annually.

Manitoba Ski Area is a MRA pilot project designed to be small on infrastructure and big on mountain. The proposed lifts are surface tows designed to give riders supreme access to and from world class high angle backcountry terrain, while at the same time providing excellent beginner, intermediate, and advanced inbounds skiing experience.

Additional plans include creating and maintaining Nordic, snow shoe, snow machine, and dogsled trail systems through the historic mining sites of the Summit Lake Recreation Corridor, helping to support the year round operation of Summit Lake Lodge.

“One of the Manitoba Mountain Ski Area Restoration Project's primary goals is to bring economic stability to the communities of Hope, Sunrise, Moose Pass, and Cooper Landing by creating a centrally located destination to create local jobs and foster additional private sector economic activity by redeveloping the downhill, and Nordic ski opportunities in the Summit Lake Recreation Corridor,” states Project Manager Dave Scanlan.

Both wind and hydro energy creation opportunities exist in the area. The State of Alaska has set an ambitious goal to supply 50% of the state's energy from renewables by 2025. This goal has been laid out in the new House Bill 306, passed in June 2010.

MRA is an emerging group of like-minded global ski and outdoor enthusiasts dedicated to sustainable, low impact ski centers with an emphasis on the community, environment and skiing. More information about the MRA is available at http://mountainridersalliance.com/. MRA will be offering reasonably priced investment shares to both the local and global ski communities to help fund the revival of Manitoba Mountain.

“We have entered the preliminary stages of the permitting process and while we expect this to be a lengthy multi-year process, we are fully committed. We will be hosting many public outreach meetings to solicit the public's comments and ideas to assist us in sculpting the best possible facility with community involvement,” said Scanlan.

Mountain Rider’s Alliance has forged partnerships with many respected organizations that share the same values. Some of these partners include Protect Our Winters, Winter Wildlands Alliance, Sustentator, High Fives and Ski Duck.

Mountain Rider's Alliance - Creating Sustainable Mountain Playgrounds

The Mountain Rider's Alliance is a group of like-minded people dedicated to making a positive change in the ski/snowboard area industry, as well as supporting the environment, surrounding communities, and what's best for the ski community. MRA believes riding is more than a sport, but rather a way of life.

The mission of Mountain Rider's Alliance is to develop values-based, environmentally-friendly, rider-owned-and-operated mountain playgrounds that encourage minimal carbon footprint business practices as well as alternative energy creation, while making a positive impact in the local community.

Mountain Rider's Alliance is currently evaluating ski-energy center projects in Alaska, British Columbia, Montana, Washington, and Wyoming.

MRA expects to announce the location of the first mountain playground after certain business development benchmarks on location are met.

To stay abreast of MRA's progress visit them on Facebook and at www.mountainridersalliance.com!