11 replies to this topic

[skiersage]

A while ago someone was wondering who made the Odin double at Norway mountain. Well I took a trip there today and I found out that the two doubles are made by Sneller. They are a bit different than most other chairlifts but are interesting none the less. Now for pics.

The following are of the thor double:

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[Snoqualmie guy]

In picture #3 the chairs were different looking how they bent foward then up. In picture #4 there are no sheaves on the top which I seldom see.

This post has been edited by Snoqualmie guy: 12 August 2007 - 07:24 PM

[Yooper Skier]

Bump. Anybody have info on Sneller? The two doubles at Norway are Sneller's. Per the installation survey, they were built by Rice at a ski area called "Norvul" in 1974. This makes sense as Norway's original name was Vulcan USA and sits between the towns of Norway and Vulcan...thus Norvul. Rice appears in 1973 and the last Sneller was built 1972. Did the company change hands/names before going out of business? I asked my dad when he started skiing Vulcan, and he recalled 1974 when it first opened. More nerdy curiosity than anything I guess.
I'll also try and scare up the photos my mom took from late 70s/early 80s of a chair evac there on Christmas Eve of the Odin Chair. Might have been while the place was called Briar Mountain briefly. Lifty derailed the depress assembly swinging chairs. My dad was an off-duty ski instructor and helped with the evac as management had no plan in place. Sounds like the owners sat in the Chalet and watched

[iceberg210]

Interesting, I know they sold a bunch of surface lifts too.

https://www.snowjour...-ny-free-skiing

At one point there was still a "Sneller" corporation in New York, or at least contact information for it. Does anyone know if they just shut the doors on the company or if someone bought them out or?

[backyard lift]

SAM chairlift install survey shows 6 Sneller lifts-one built in 1968 and 5 built in 1970.

[sheave]

iceberg210, on 03 September 2018 - 08:48 AM, said:

At one point there was still a "Sneller" corporation in New York, or at least contact information for it. Does anyone know if they just shut the doors on the company or if someone bought them out or?

Sneller Ski Lift Co. of Euclid, Ohio was bought in March 1973 by a company named B.A. Rice Industries Inc. of Canandaigua, NY. So everything that is Rice on SAM is that company and not Sneller. They installed their first chairlift as Rice-Sneller Co. for $108,000 at the private ski area Ski Valley Club north of Naples, NY. The ski area went bankrupt in 2000. In 2007, the lift was still there, but it looks like the towers have been removed now. Their 1970 T-bar might have been a Sneller too as it looks like this Sneller: https://liftblog.com...r-brantling-ny/

According to SAM, the company's second chairlift was installed at Snow Valley in Ontario. I contacted the area to find out more, but they haven't replied yet.

Sneller Ski Lift Co. (and Sneller Industries) was founded by William R. Sneller. He passed away in 1986 and has likely built "ski lifts in six states".

This post has been edited by sheave: 21 February 2021 - 12:37 AM

[Lift Dinosaur]

Great information sheave. Thanks!
Dino

[Conrad]

We just added Sneller to the Remontees-Mecaniques database of manufacturers.
https://www.remontee...82-sneller.html
(translate tool in upper right corner)
Everything I researched on Newspapers.com corroborates sheave's comment above. The only thing I have to add is that Rice seems to have gone bankrupt a few years later, as the company's assets were liquidated in 1979.

[Bogong]

Conrad, on 09 June 2022 - 03:19 AM, said:

We just added Sneller to the Remontees-Mecaniques database of manufacturers.
https://www.remontee...82-sneller.html
(translate tool in upper right corner)
Everything I researched on Newspapers.com corroborates sheave's comment above. The only thing I have to add is that Rice seems to have gone bankrupt a few years later, as the company's assets were liquidated in 1979.

Conrad, Remontees-Mecaniques is probably the best website for finding information on unusual lift manufacturers. It helped me with companies like Duport, Schippers and Montaz Mautino that have built lifts in my part of the world. But it leaves out a few North American ski lift makers like Harusch and all the Australian and New Zealand lift makers like Hamilton, McCallum Engineering, Australasian Ropewways and Gam / Ski Tows Pty Ltd. I can provide photos and information if you want to add these companies to your manufacturer database, contact me if you're interested.

This post has been edited by Bogong: 16 June 2022 - 02:37 PM

[Conrad]

Yes, that would be nice to have added. There is a particular person who is the go-to for adding new manufacturers I can put you in touch with. You can also post your information in the Remontees-Mecaniques forum and we can go from there.

[Bogong]

Thanks, I don't speak French and while auto translate allows me to get an idea of what is being said there, I do not feel I am in a position to personally contribute .to a French langauge website.
But if someone sends me a list of what information is required for each manufacturer,I can easily provide those details. I can also provide the locations of ski lifts in Australia made by smaller French companies like Montaz Mautino, Duport and Schippers.

[Conrad]

Yes, I don't French either, but have contributed 200+ lift photo-documentaries because there are people happy to translate good content. It's a pretty diverse community and many people are probably mainly interested in the Alps, but there are also some people that are particularly interested in international lifts (especially some of the moderators). And for simply posting on the forum, computer translators (DeepL, Google Translate) work wonders. My forum signature mentions that I use a translator.