67 replies to this topic

[Warren733]

SLI Lifts are my second Favorite type of lifts, after Riblet. They are Nicer looking than Modern Doppelmayr CTEC's and Lentier Pomas.

[Carl]

I'm not positive on this, but Kelly Canyon, ID may have an SLI.....

Carl

[Bill]

Antelope Butte in Wyoming has one. Got it from Crystal Mountain, WA.

[Andoman]

Did SLI ever make anything bigger than a double?

[SkiBachelor]

SLI built a quad at Homewood, California in 1972.

http://skilifts.org/...972.htm#pacific

[northeastskier]

Telluride has 2:

-Coonskin- Lift 7 and -Oak Street-lift 8

[skiersage]

northeastskier, on Jun 22 2008, 09:07 PM, said:

Telluride has 2:

-Coonskin- Lift 7 and -Oak Street-lift 8

Did you even read the whole topic? Because I did and I think that it was already clear that Telluride has two SLI lifts.

[cjb]

Mount Waterman in so-cal has at least one lift with SLI grips and carriers, I am not sure what the rest of the lift is. Pretty much a smorgasboard of riblet, sli, and some LE stuff I think.

[jeffe]

I stand to be corrected but, my belief of the situation was that Riblet took over SLI after it went bankrupt, and continued parts service. One of the key issues was that they were using gearboxes that were underrated, and had some failures. My dad was a sales rep for them and it's been about 20 years since I last heard the story.

[northeastskier]

SkiBachelor, on Jun 22 2008, 03:29 PM, said:

SLI built a quad at Homewood, California in 1972.

http://skilifts.org/...972.htm#pacific

Any pictures?

[iceberg210]

jeffe, on Jun 23 2008, 10:28 AM, said:

I stand to be corrected but, my belief of the situation was that Riblet took over SLI after it went bankrupt, and continued parts service. One of the key issues was that they were using gearboxes that were underrated, and had some failures. My dad was a sales rep for them and it's been about 20 years since I last heard the story.

That's so cool that you're dad worked for SLI. Does that mean that Riblet picked up the designs too? I wonder who owns the designs now since Riblet closed its doors. Did Superior or Tramway Support pick them up I wonder? Or are they hidden somewhere deep in an old Riblet desk, or hanging on Douglas Sowder's wall.

I always thought they were great lifts and one of the best looking chairs around, it would be interesting to hear where the designs are and where the owners of SLI chairs get their parts today. They may just have to make their own, its not like there are alot of them out there now.

[FSJ]

iceberg210, on Jul 26 2008, 03:21 PM, said:

That's so cool that you're dad worked for SLI. Does that mean that Riblet picked up the designs too? I wonder who owns the designs now since Riblet closed its doors. Did Superior or Tramway Support pick them up I wonder? Or are they hidden somewhere deep in an old Riblet desk, or hanging on Douglas Sowder's wall.

I always thought they were great lifts and one of the best looking chairs around, it would be interesting to hear where the designs are and where the owners of SLI chairs get their parts today. They may just have to make their own, its not like there are alot of them out there now.

Last known location of SLI drawings were in the basement of the main office at Riblet. That was 5 years ago. I'd assume they are still there.

[k2skier]

Bill, on Apr 24 2004, 11:45 PM, said:

That would explain why Riblet knew everything about the old C-5 at Crystal, I wrote them asking about that lift in 8th grade and the lady who wrote back knew everything about it and why it was built the way it was, etc.

Is C-5 the High Campbell lift?

[Peter]

No, High Campbell is C-6. It is Hall and Riblet, not SLI. C-5 must have been the only SLI lift at Crystal, Campbell Basin.

This post has been edited by Skier: 30 July 2008 - 05:47 PM

[Snoqualmie guy]

C-5 went from the bottom to were the mid mountain lodge is now right?

[liftmech]

Correct. You can still see the old drive foundation, off to the side just below where you can cut off from Skid Road over to chair 8. We used to store maze ropes and standards in there, maybe they still do. When Rex and Midway were built, they shortened the lift to run from the uphill side of Rex's lower terminal up K2 Face, leaving the top where it originally was. The lift was fully removed in 1997 when chair 9 was upgraded. I believe the new restaurant sits approximately where the toe of the ramp was (it was one of those old 30' tall wooden ones).

It's too bad the thing is gone; aside from being one-of-a-kind a Crystal, it was a quick way to switch sides if you wanted to go from the Rex pod to the Campbell pod. Now you're forced to tuck the Skid Road catwalk to chair 9.

[Peter]

liftmech, on Jul 31 2008, 07:46 PM, said:

Correct. You can still see the old drive foundation, off to the side just below where you can cut off from Skid Road over to chair 8. We used to store maze ropes and standards in there, maybe they still do. When Rex and Midway were built, they shortened the lift to run from the uphill side of Rex's lower terminal up K2 Face, leaving the top where it originally was. The lift was fully removed in 1997 when chair 9 was upgraded. I believe the new restaurant sits approximately where the toe of the ramp was (it was one of those old 30' tall wooden ones).

It's too bad the thing is gone; aside from being one-of-a-kind a Crystal, it was a quick way to switch sides if you wanted to go from the Rex pod to the Campbell pod. Now you're forced to tuck the Skid Road catwalk to chair 9.

The old drive foundation has recently been demolished. The area around it was reseeded and it is now impossible to tell anything was there.

[iceberg210]

FSJ, on Jul 28 2008, 09:48 AM, said:

Last known location of SLI drawings were in the basement of the main office at Riblet. That was 5 years ago. I'd assume they are still there.

My only question is that since Riblet closed its doors in 2003 are they still even occupying that same building that those drawings were in the basement of. And if not where did they go from there? I may have to do some detective work and call around on this one.

[bobby a]

iceberg210, on Aug 1 2008, 08:17 PM, said:

My only question is that since Riblet closed its doors in 2003 are they still even occupying that same building that those drawings were in the basement of. And if not where did they go from there? I may have to do some detective work and call around on this one.

We still have 3 SLI's here at 49 degrees north, including the longest still in exsistance, we have had no problems with the schiender grips, although chair 1 has been retrofitted with riblet clips. And yes Riblet still occupies the same building in spokane, they go under the name tram support inc. and still sell riblet parts, and much more, even some SLI parts.