264 replies to this topic

[Midwestrider]

 MNSkier, on 11 October 2015 - 06:48 PM, said:

Not sure where else to put this so I thought I would tie it into the new gondola going in at Lutsen.

1) Have not seen this personally but I have been told by two different parties that both the Bull Chair (FGD Yan on Moose Mountain) & the Eagle Chair (FGD Muller on Eagle Mountain) have been removed. For sure the chairs and haul ropes are gone, also sounds like most if not all of the towers and terminals are down too. I don't really think the loss of the eagle chair is significant as I have only seen it run a handful of times in the past 10 years. The Bull Chair is a different story thou, while the Caribou Express gets most of the traffic, the Bull chair still had a purpose for the runs on the east side of the mountain.

2) The are doing some major excavating at the base of KooKoo and Hari Kari. Apparently as of a few weeks ago they had moved a significant amount of dirt which had left a "cliff" on the return trail from the north face runs (Georges, Cliffs, Caroline's challenge, etc) where it merges with KooKoo. Apparently some of the dirt movement is to re-sculpt the bunny hill (FlapJack) because the new gondola is eating into its usable area. However from what I hear about the amount of dirt they are moving around it also sounds like they might be trying to flatten out the area between KooKoo, HariKari and the chalet so it is less of a gully and easier to navigate... But that is purely speculation on my part.

3) To help with the removal of the Bull chair they are apparently doing some cutting and re-grading on some of the runs that were served by the Bull Chair. Sounds like this is happening towards the bottom to help the flow of traffic back to the Caribou Express.

4) Apparently they are cutting several new trails off of the Timberwolf chair. Sounds like some of those runs may be between WhiteWolf and the Caribou run and others will be to the west and loop back to the Timberwolf chair....

Interesting, Granite Peak has also removed the Prancer Double chair this summer with no replacement. It was also an old secondary/overflow lift. But was also the back up for the main Comet Express which accesses over half of the Mountain.

[skier2]

 Midwestrider, on 18 October 2015 - 07:13 PM, said:

Interesting, Granite Peak has also removed the Prancer Double chair this summer with no replacement. It was also an old secondary/overflow lift. But was also the back up for the main Comet Express which accesses over half of the Mountain.

With the removals of Prancer at Granite Peak and Bull and Eagle at Lutsen, I think Charlie Skinner is taking a proactive approach to the future, choosing to push traffic to the new lifts and reinvesting in new infrastructure as able instead of following the old Midwestern paradigm of spending more on maintenance of old lifts or deferring maintenance and leaving lifts idle. Like I said previously, it will be interesting to see what he future holds for Lutsen and Granite, as I believe both resorts are now in a financial situation that will afford them them luxury of purchasing new lifts, rather than refurbished ones, for the majority of their expansions projects.

[2milehi]

 vons, on 14 October 2015 - 09:40 PM, said:

Not what I am saying, I am saying change for change sake is not a good design mantra and that evolutionary vs revolutionary designs tend to be more successful. Poma has evolved the Alpha terminal in its 30year existence and the design has proven adaptable to the task why go to the expense of starting over if it works

The ideal setup for a lift is top drive and bottom tension. An Alpha lift can't do that, you are stuck with a design limitation from Poma.

I've seen an '85 Alpha and a '97 Alpha up close and I haven't seen any design change. I can't talk to the latest Alpha terminals. I agree that equipment in the terminal can get updated (brakes, motors, etc), but the basic structure hasn't. And that is because no thought has been given to improving the fixed grip lift from Poma.

The detachables from Poma have had a lot of big improvements over the decades.

This post has been edited by 2milehi: 19 October 2015 - 06:17 PM

[snoloco]

I guess it could be a good idea to design a separate drive/tension design to use on top drive lifts and retain the alpha setup for bottom drive lifts.

[vons]

The did build some fixed Alpha drives with a monopod tension terminal for the return but I have only seen pics from France with this setup.

[liftmech]

 2milehi, on 10 October 2015 - 07:26 AM, said:

^^^ No grip bay?

I think they still do all theirs in the summer with a dedicated crew. Still sucks to do all that rebuilding outside, though.

[DonaldMReif]

The Avanti Express lift's shacks have been complete, and the chairs are going on line. The parking rail at the top is still a work in progress.

 October 30th Avanti Express construction.jpg (327.97K)
Number of downloads: 154

[RibStaThiok]

 DonaldMReif, on 28 October 2015 - 01:34 PM, said:

The Avanti Express lift's shacks have been complete, and the chairs are going on line. The parking rail at the top is still a work in progress.

October 30th Avanti Express construction.jpg

Excellent! how soon until load testing?

[JSteigs]

 DonaldMReif, on 28 October 2015 - 01:34 PM, said:

The Avanti Express lift's shacks have been complete, and the chairs are going on line. The parking rail at the top is still a work in progress.

October 30th Avanti Express construction.jpg

Does it have terminal parking or is that the normal way Doppelmeyer loads chairs?

[DonaldMReif]

I think that's how the chairs are loaded.

By the way, I got the photo by asking on Vail's Facebook page. Through further asking on that page, I got the chair statistics for the Avanti Express lift: 26 towers and 139 chairs. That is, the lift has one more tower but 28 fewer chairs than were on the original lift.

[Backbowlsbilly]

Top terminal going up at Purgatory for "The Legends Express."
https://instagram.co...aken-by=skipurg

[DonaldMReif]

The Gwynn's High Alpine page on Facebook has some new photos of the High Alpine lift.

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Here are the chairs:
 12186795_10153705049769770_2733688313833268741_o.jpg (803.11K)
Number of downloads: 143

Based on the photo, High Alpine isn't using the Omega carrier. Rather, it's using a quad version of the LPA6-OC chairs that are used by Breckenridge's newer high speed six packs. I believe these new chairs for High Alpine are designated as LPA4-OC models and are a bubbleless version of what is used on Okemo's new Quantum Four lift. I mean, compare those chairs waiting to be installed on High Alpine with this chair on the Colorado SuperChair:

This post has been edited by DonaldMReif: 08 November 2015 - 01:44 PM

[Yooper Skier]

Took a cruise over to Vermont today and stopped by Sugarbush. Chairs are going on Valley House

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[MNSkier]

Some more photos from Lutsen's Facebook page.

Some of these photos are several week old. Apparently the haulrope is up and I am assuming spliced by now....

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[Lift Dinosaur]

Yep. They spliced the haul rope recently........  Lutsen Splice.jpg (148.49K)
Number of downloads: 131  Lutsen Splice 2.jpg (152.93K)
Number of downloads: 134

Dino

[skier2]

 Lift Dinosaur, on 09 November 2015 - 07:47 AM, said:

Yep. They spliced the haul rope recently........ Lutsen Splice.jpg Lutsen Splice 2.jpg

Dino

YIKES! Mud season lasts a long time in the great white north.

Here's a question for you Doppelmayr gondola experts: will both top and bottom terminals for this lift get concrete poured for the platform, or is there some other type of platform for the top? The gondola floor is at the same level as the platform for loading, correct? I wonder how far along they are with that since they originally anticipated having the lift running by November 15th.

[JohnRW]

Not as sexy as a new lift, but we're ripping out all the electrical on our t-bar at Arctic Valley, and replacing the motor. Only thing we won't get to this year is the comm line, which we'll drive up on the groomer this spring and install next summer.
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[DonaldMReif]

This is the latest picture of the Avanti Express lift. All 139 chairs are on.

 10-31-15.png (891.68K)
Number of downloads: 63

[Peter]

I hiked around and took some pictures at Park City and Solitude this weekend. Not much snow of the natural variety yet.

[JSteigs]

 skier2, on 09 November 2015 - 08:50 AM, said:

YIKES! Mud season lasts a long time in the great white north.

Here's a question for you Doppelmayr gondola experts: will both top and bottom terminals for this lift get concrete poured for the platform, or is there some other type of platform for the top? The gondola floor is at the same level as the platform for loading, correct? I wonder how far along they are with that since they originally anticipated having the lift running by November 15th.

I was there for the splice on Caribou a few years back, and it looked just about as muddy.