Skilifts.org / SORT Forum

Hello all!

I've been lurking lots on this forum and enjoying all off the interesting stuff all of you have been posting... But, I need to speak out!

Big news... RCR will be removing Friendly Giant probably this year to replace it by Squaw's old gondola... Plans are on the tables at Parks Canada for construction this year. They have already had a public meeting in Lake Louise on the matter and things seem to be moving ahead.

Chairs on Friendly Giant have all been removed (anyways, the lift was decomissoned last year...) and this might be the last time to take a look at one of Yan's last standing original detachable chair...

There was an article in the Banff's Crag and Canyon that should be available online later today or tomorrow...

I'll keep you lift freaks posted!

UPDATE... here is the URL to the Crag... http://www.banffcragandcanyon.com

Jayeff...
This post has been edited by jayman: 28 July 2004 - 09:38 AM

Oh man, this really sucks. I now wish I went up to Banff this summer and got some pictures of this lift. However, it's already too late to get stgarted on the new gondola and plus, I have seen the plans for the new gondola and it looks like it will be running the old Von Roll line gondola, with a new base village area, so it makes no sense on why Lake Louise would want to remove the Friendly Giant lift. Anway, thanks for the info Jayman. Does anyone live close to Banff and will be willing to get some pictures of this lift before it is actually removed for good? I have some that Eric took, but I would like to get some techincal ones for the site.

They could always reinstall it somewhere else on the hill. Lake Louise bought DV's old Yan HSQ (I think) so maybe they could reinstall that one too

Re-bonjour...

I might take a quick go at it this weekend if I'm not too busy. I live in Banff and this wouldn't be too bad Saturday AM...

Plans are set for the new 'Skyline; gondola to start from the existing base up to Eagle Ridge roughly double the distance of the Friendly Giant. They would also decommssion the old Mueller Eagle Chair...

Jayeff...

I dunno, I think that the lift will be scraped. I think the reason why Lake Louise bought the DV's old YAN HSQ was for parts for both its two YAN HSQs. But if that wasn't the case, Lake Louise would have 3 YAN HSQs then, and I can't see them installing that many more HSQs there, espically an old Type 7.

I knew it! I knew they had Squaw's old gondola cabins, I started a topic on this a few weeks ago. :D

It will be really interesting to see how squaw goes about removing the top terminal of that gondola. It is the top floor of the 3 story Gold Coast lodge, and it will probably be a lot of work to get that out.

Makes you wonder how they got it up there in the first place.

Does LL have the other parts of the Squaw gondola or just the cabins?

Well, they can't have the top terminal, as that still remains at Squaw. I wonder what Squaw will do with the additional space at Gold Coast. Another restaurant, perhaps? I found it pretty neat, to walk under that relic after taking up the funitel, though it seemed like wasted space in the complex.

Caski, when were you up at squaw last? I believe that LL has had some of the cabins for awhile as more were missing this past season.

Apparently, Friendly Giant was 'condemned' by the provincial body that governs such aparatus. What does that say about maintenance at RCR, which already let Fortress Mountain decline to such an extent over the past decade that you can't pay people to ski there anymore (they closed it after this season)? Gee, and due to this 'emergency' they'll conveniently decomission the Eagle Chair as well? Charlie Locke is gone from RCR (thank God!) but the smell of fish still remains....
This post has been edited by altaskier: 28 July 2004 - 03:25 PM

KZ, on Jul 28 2004, 01:47 PM, said:

I was last at Squaw in late March. I did note that what little of the storage area I could easily see through the curtains seemed a bit empty.

It was pretty empty in april. They may have just let the friendly giant go to waste as it seemed like it wasnt really needed with another hsq going to the same spot.

Just a question. What kind of Gondola is Lake Louise buying from Squaw?

A 1985 Poma six passenger gondola. It looks kind of like the Silver Queen at Aspen, but it have CWA cabins instead of the POMA ones.

In response to Altaskier:

The reason that Fortress has gone downhill so much is mainly that it can't compete with the likes of sunshine and the mass of superfast lifts it has. Banff has 5 resorts within a one hour drive and really the only reson that marmot and castle mountain are still profitable it they are very accesible to the communities they serve.

Lake louise has quite a mix of lifts. Friendly giant might have been replaced sooner though due to a stroke of luck the kift happened to be built just right as to allow YAN's designs to work properly.

What do you mean by that? Is the line not very steep, or did they just get lucky by not having a lift that worked like Quicksilver? :)

Quicksilver was a Type 11 grip, and all other Yan detachables were the Type 7. I don't know how much difference there was between the two aside from the 11 being (supposedly) designed for heavier loads, but there was definitely more issues with the 11. For all we know, not having worked with either of those grips, ski areas removed the Type 7 as well just to avoid a future mishap. You don't have an accident like Quicksilver and not change the way you look at things.
So Squaw is finally selling its Poma gondola. Vons and I were discussing this winter how Copper might buy it being as it would be cheaper than a new one...

Yea, $500,000 instead of at least 5 million. You do have to pay to install it, but that will be less then 4 million. It would probably be a nightmare to get it up and running though as it hasnt run for 6 years, so im sure it would need a bunch of work.

but to make the squaw gondi worth while it would require alot of electrical upgrades, I remember seeing the drive controls and their cabnets in a past post they looked unsalvigable. And being an 85 model it will mostlikly need the same kinds of upgrades that john's 86 model det.quad has had.