Skilifts.org / SORT Forum

Hey everyone! So I thought of an interesting idea: let's start a topic for old (historic, if you will) pictures of the ski industry. There's a few pictures of things in particular I'm looking for, but I would love to see any of your old photos. I always love the history behind a picture.

I am looking for photos of the original Poma lift at Breckenridge that was built in '67. I don't care what era the photos were taken, as that lift was long-lived. Show me what you've got! Thanks guys.

Lift Kid, on 27 March 2011 - 06:54 PM, said:

This is a great idea! I do have a few older pictures that I will scan in and post here when I get time. I have at least two pictures of lifts in a 1977-1978 Arizona Snowbowl brochure, and I might be able to find some that my parents took 20ish years ago in Utah.

The 1st detachable chairlift.Vonroll VR101.1945  c005_gumen_1948_n_w.jpg (92.36K)
Number of downloads: 145

The first Doppelmayr double chairlift in the world, the Bourke St chairlift operated from 1964 to 1983 at Mt Buller, Victoria, Australia. A local magazine recently interviewed the manager of the Buller lift company at the time and the granddaughter of Dopp's founder. They both told the same story, namely that 50 years ago, the old man didn't like chairlifts and saw no reason why his T-bar company should diversify into building them. But the younger generation knew that other companies were building chairlifts, making decent profits from them and that chairlifts were clearly the future of ski lifts. So they built a chairlift for Mt Buller quietly figuring that as Australia is about as far from Austria as you can get, the elderly founder of the company would let them get away with it. This turned out to be true, but the success of this chairlift convinced Doppelmayr senior to relent and allow his company to build chairlifts for European and North American ski resorts.

So you could argue that if this chairlift hadn't been built by Doppelmayr, they would not be the dominant force they are today. Another curiosity is that it had the same cable for 40 years. Despite regular testing, the cable never needed replacing. The lift was replaced by one of the earliest Doppelmayer detachable quads in 1984.




The lift was such a success that another one to the same design was soon built a bit further up the hill. Doppelmayr wouldn't believe this degree of icing was a common occurrence, so they sent one of their Austrian engineers out to Australia to investigate. This picture featured on a Doppelmayr promotional calendar a few years later.


This post has been edited by Bogong: 21 April 2011 - 09:19 PM

The last Ringer built. Terry Peak, SD in '53. Designed as a Tourist Attraction. After a while someone decided it
might also attract the local skiers whom were riding rope tows on the north side of the mountain.

A Miner/Denver double replaced it in '67, IIRC.

Carl

boardski, on 01 June 2011 - 06:06 AM, said:

The lift on the left was the replacement for the bottom single chair. The hi-speed chair and single ran parallel until about 1964, when the single was replaced. In the first of the three pictures, the base of the hi-speed chair is the center one. The poma is on the left and the 60s "Poma" chairlift is on the right. The building on the left was torn down. The lattice structue in the middle was for the counterweight. The motor-bullwheel assembly was on rails on top of 2 track assemblies that were on top of tubular structures (see second picture). You can barely make out a small builing to the right of the bullwhell on the right chair. It had the lift shack on the left and a hot dog stand on the right for those in the line. The right picture is the track assembly (one of two). Bonus last picture - modern lift controls.

sbwhidbey, on 01 June 2011 - 07:47 PM, said:

Ooops, left out this one. Shows the 3 lifts near the top. Exhibition ran the middle line.

sbwhidbey, on 01 June 2011 - 07:50 PM, said:

Thanks for the additional pictures. Were they tearing the lifts down or installing one or more of them or just doing major maintenance in those pictures?

boardski, on 02 June 2011 - 04:45 PM, said:

The pictures wer taken the year Keystone bought A-Basin, They tore down all of the lifts but the old lenawee (it was only 2-3 years old). They gutted the base lodge and tore down one building (the one with the roof torn off in one of the photos).

I'm interested if anyone has found photos of Breckenridge's old Lift 4, the predecessor to the Peak 8 SuperConnect.