264 replies to this topic

[NHskier13]

Might be me, but that looks a little thin for a quad chair (I mean the terminal and the width)
Are those new or from old JGE?

[liftmech]

Definitely quads, although you're right, the line gauge looks a tad narrow. Must be the perspective of the photo.

[woofydoggie]

I think they look normal. Look at the half chair in the upper left corner. Maybe it will look right with some padding?

[floridaskier]

Park City posted a great video of riding up and down the new gondola:

https://www.facebook...untain/?fref=nf

[NHskier13]

From the looks of it, here's what I know about the Quantum Four ;
The lift uses the same old Omega series grips and the same terminals as before, but I think the chair parking may be new. Note the red things on the grips, though. I'm not sure if that's for opening the bubble or for heating, but you probably know. (I'm pretty sure it's for the bubble)
The towers look unchanged
The capacity looks the same (I think Sunburst Six had lower capacity because if it had 700 more pph it would be a bit much for the area it serves.)
The lift has 90 degree load, where skiers go through the parking rail to get to the lift.
From the sound, I think it uses the same motor. I am not sure about anything inside the terminals however.
Videos:
https://www.youtube....h?v=CP5sgld25pk https://www.youtube....h?v=vAY0CZe5YaA

At first, I was thinking an awful lot would have to be replaced to make the Quantum four, but it really looks like the carriers got changed and a few things inside were probably changed to make room. I thought it would be a waste to use the old JGE chairs (I think that was the plan, I'm not sure if that's what they're doing) on the Sunshine Quad, because they had a perfectly functional high speed quad in storage. But now I see that I was misinformed.

This post has been edited by NHskier13: 17 December 2015 - 05:56 PM

[CH3skier]

Was able to ride the new Quick Silver gondola today. Nice addition to link the two mountains, the cabins smell like a new car. I'm sure that won't last long.

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[snoloco]

Not much snow at all.

[vtbubble]

NHskier13, on 17 December 2015 - 05:52 PM, said:

From the looks of it, here's what I know about the Quantum Four ;
The lift uses the same old Omega series grips and the same terminals as before, but I think the chair parking may be new. Note the red things on the grips, though. I'm not sure if that's for opening the bubble or for heating, but you probably know. (I'm pretty sure it's for the bubble)
The towers look unchanged
The capacity looks the same (I think Sunburst Six had lower capacity because if it had 700 more pph it would be a bit much for the area it serves.)
The lift has 90 degree load, where skiers go through the parking rail to get to the lift.
From the sound, I think it uses the same motor. I am not sure about anything inside the terminals however.
Videos:
https://www.youtube....h?v=CP5sgld25pk https://www.youtube....h?v=vAY0CZe5YaA

At first, I was thinking an awful lot would have to be replaced to make the Quantum four, but it really looks like the carriers got changed and a few things inside were probably changed to make room. I thought it would be a waste to use the old JGE chairs (I think that was the plan, I'm not sure if that's what they're doing) on the Sunshine Quad, because they had a perfectly functional high speed quad in storage. But now I see that I was misinformed.

before the bubbles the jge had 92 chairs. now that it has the bubbles the chair count is now 84 I believe. the chair parking is new. although this has been stated above, the terminals had their skins modified with wood to give the lift a new deluxe finish.lastly the sunburst six did not change capacity from the prior lift as the north star had a very high capacity to begin with.

[vtbubble]

NHskier13, on 03 December 2015 - 12:44 PM, said:

Might be me, but that looks a little thin for a quad chair (I mean the terminal and the width)
Are those new or from old JGE?

The safety bars are new, but i cannot say for certain whether the rest of the chair is new https://m.facebook.c...10806602343988/

[vtbubble]

sorry for the multible posts, but the quantum 4 opened today. you may want to note that the bubble opening device is out of the terminal like on gondilas. https://scontent-iad...fg=eyJpIjoidCJ9

[SkiDaBird]

snoloco, on 18 December 2015 - 08:39 PM, said:

Not much snow at all.

That's a South(ish) facing ridge and it's been a rough start to the year. The monster storm helped but less at PC than the Cottonwoods.

[floridaskier]

That picture would look a lot different today - they've had several feet in the past few days. Haven't seen it this snowy up here in a couple years. I'll try to get some more pictures of the new lifts this week, hopefully they open up King Con and Motherlode soon. They're now saying King Con on the 25th and Motherlode the next day.

[CH3skier]

Looks like Solitude finished Summit and ready to open it tomorrow.

https://www.facebook...153812295604539

[floridaskier]

Motherlode at PCMR should be opening today, according to Facebook. They've gotten about 4 feet of snow so far this week.

Yesterday the Quicksilver gondola was on wind hold all day - two separate mountains again

[floridaskier]

Have been up at the new Park City the past couple days, and I'll post a few pictures when I have a better connection. Some observations:

- They've had teething trouble with the new lifts - Motherlode closed down a few hours early on its first day (which was delayed a few days), and King Con was closed for a few hours yesterday morning due to lift problems. King Con opened later than usual too - plenty of snow down there and it only opened on the 26th for the first time, midday.
- Motherlode seems like the most rushed of the three - they didn't put up the underside terminal soffit at the bottom yet, and there aren't any tower signs up. There's also a broken window in the top terminal covered with plywood. The top terminal underside is new corrugated metal.
- Motherlode has 16 towers, of which all but one have reused towerheads and sheaves from the old King Con (which has 15 towers). The only new one is a second depression tower with 4 on each side (they reused the old first depression tower with 8 on each side - how was this cheaper than one new 12-rocker tower?). Only new things are the tower tubes and that second tower. Impressive that they were able to match them up so well (similar flat profiles on both) -- every sheave and catwalk is from the original lift, though there was probably some mixing and matching.
- The old King Con had a height-adjustable bottom terminal - new Motherlode doesn't. Motherlode has 110 chairs (with new Doppelmayr number stickers) - the old King Con had 116. Motherlode has in-line loading, though it would set up really well for 90 degree loading. Any reason they wouldn't have done it on a 22-year-old lift?
- The new King Con is really smooth with the Agamatic grips. Has the loading carpet and gates with footrests, back pads, new maps on the safety bars. Every tower tube was reused except for the first one, and most of them have short skinny extensions on top of the beefy original tubes.
- Gondola has European towers on the PCMR side and Doppeltec towers on the Canyons side. Maybe the reason for this is the big span over Thaynes Canyon. Hard to tell but it looks like there's a wider line gauge on the PCMR side too - anyone know if that's true? There's also no obvious evacuation method over the gorge. Stickers in each cabin tell you to call a phone number for evac instructions. 27 towers that count up from the Canyons side, where the drive is (though the PCMR numbers face the downhill side).
- They opened the gondola midstation for the first time yesterday - great views into PCMR from the new Highway run, but that leaves you at the bottom of a new rope tow back to the Canyons end of the gondola.
- Gondola is also silky smooth, especially compared to the very loud Canyons gondola (1997 Poma with a 2010 midstation). I think the gorge span is bigger on the new one too.
- Full open-air cabin parking rail on the PCMR side, maintenance bay at The Canyons side.

Update on repainting at the combined resort:
- PCMR side: all the detachables are repainted in the red-gray scheme with white titles and no "Express" label (though the trail map adds the word "Express" on the PCMR side). Top of Three Kings (a Uni-G style fixed grip) is painted too. The repainted ones don't really match the new Uni-G red on the gondola and King Con, but close enough (only place you see both is Silverlode next to the gondola).
- Canyons side: only two lifts were touched - Peak 5 and 9990 are in the new colors, though without the lift names painted up yet
- PCMR side still has Thaynes top, Jupiter base, Three Kings base in all white with old font. Pioneer and Town lift are all black with the old font too.
- Vail painted over the old graffiti-style snowboard team murals on every tower of Three Kings (which serves a terrain park) in plain gray.
- Safety bars were added this year to all the PCMR fixed grips that didn't have them - Thaynes, Jupiter, Eagle, Eaglet, Silver Star, and Town (which once had them and they were removed). Pioneer already had bars. Probably Vail's corporate insurance policy.
- Trail signs were left as-is on both sides (and new Quicksilver gondola signs were added to match each side's trail signs). Lots of Canyons logos on the Canyons side still - doesn't look like there was any attempt to change these.

Other observations:
- Rode up with a patroller who said they were very under-staffed this year (due to two bad snow years in a row). They have lots of snow but there are a few lifts that are closed and shouldn't be: Eagle (which would take crowds away from the PCMR base area), Flat Iron (which would allow access from Dreamscape/Dreamcatcher directly to the new gondola, now you have to ride Iron Mountain), and Super Condor (often forgotten but would open ~500 acres of terrain)
- The new Miners Camp lodge is beautiful and probably 5 times the size of the old Snow Hut. Massive improvement.
- The frequently-modified Short Cut/Lookout lift at The Canyons now has lifting frames on every tower - they look like Doppelmayr mods, after some towers had CTEC lifting frames installed a few years ago. This lift is on its third set of chairs in 17 years. Sun Peak at Canyons still has spray-paint-stenciled chair numbers.
- Only one name looks like it was changed at the combined resort - Sunrise off of McConkey's is now callled "Sundog", vs. the Sunrise chair and run at the Canyons base. There is a Flat Iron lift on the Canyons side, and also a Flat Iron cattrack over by Bonanza on the PCMR side that should be changed too.
- The new gondola dumps you in a bad spot on the Canyons side until they upgradae Dreamcatcher. Long haul down to Iron Mountain or Timberline, which just dumps you into the Tombstone line. 20 minutes of traversing and lift riding once you arrive on the Canyons side from the gondola. Hopefully next year they'll start doing some work on the south side of the Canyons (previously the end of the earth, now the middle of the combined resort).
- The gondola is a bit of an Achilles heel - it's been closed for wind one of its 9 days of operation so far. There's a new express bus line between the base areas.

Long essay but it's really great to see what they've done over there. Hopefully there's more in store for next year.

[RibStaThiok]

Thanks for the info! Looks like Vail rushed things a bit too much.

[floridaskier]

More on that, got to talking with the DV lifty at the bottom of Mayflower (always empty down there) and he said he heard PCMR was 160 lifties short. Not sure where that number comes from or how they could have been of by that much, but it did feel like they were scrambling the last few days. There wasn't anyone directing traffic at Silverlode and Bonanza on the busiest few days of the season, and they had to stop the gondola a few times because there weren't enough people to load skis on and off before the cabins left. It's 12/31 and Eagle still isn't open, with no indication that they're planning to open it anytime soon (no snow built up for ramps at either end).

[DonaldMReif]

I found a YouTube video showing the changes that were done to shorten Loveland Basin's Chair 2:

https://www.youtube....h?v=WN8seIcpwjk

From the looks of it, the lift line is unchanged up until the tower where the lift crosses Chair 6. Tower 13's crossarms have been replaced and lowered. A new tower 14 has been placed about halfway between the spot of the mid-unload and the reload stations, and the return station is now at the former reload station's location.

This post has been edited by DonaldMReif: 12 January 2016 - 03:05 PM

[RibStaThiok]

I like that Tower-13 setup. Pretty nifty. Was it just me or did that lift seem to be going well under 500 FPM?

[Backbowlsbilly]

Better late than never I guess but here is a video of Purgatory's new Chair 8 for those of you who haven't ridden it yet, The Legends Express. It is a dramatic improvement in ride time over the old triple and the terminals look very sharp.

https://www.youtube....h?v=Dl4sK_Y9gJo