Skilifts.org / SORT Forum

vons, on 16 November 2013 - 07:50 AM, said:

Those are some weird looking chairs. If they build a lift like that in CO the lift will be stopped for misloads more than it will run. Interesting though, thanks for sharing the pics.
This post has been edited by boardski: 16 November 2013 - 09:34 PM

boardski, on 16 November 2013 - 09:33 PM, said:

I honestly think they look like two Riblet centerpole double chairs fused together.
This post has been edited by DonaldMReif: 16 November 2013 - 09:42 PM

boardski, on 16 November 2013 - 09:33 PM, said:

Why would there be more mis-loads in CO with this chair design than any other State.....like MT?

Dino

Lift Dinosaur, on 17 November 2013 - 09:01 AM, said:

I've noticed this traveling to other states to ski such as UT, MT, & WY. The lifts slow and stop much less frequently due to misloads. When I mentioned this a year or two ago, others indicated they agreed. My guess it is the tourists traffic from states which skiing is not available so they do not have the opportunity to ride lifts and get out of practice. It will be interesting to see whether or not people have increased difficulty riding those lifts (the new lifts at Bridger) due to the unique chair design and how quickly people adapt to them. Hopefully nobody reaches back and grabs that safety bar and pulls it down mistakingly. That won't go over too well with the fellow passengers.
This post has been edited by boardski: 17 November 2013 - 05:51 PM

A news video from Bridger Bowl on load testing
http://www.nbcmontan...me/-/index.html

Tower install footage:

The building of Peak 6 continues. Breckenridge has released their latest update. The Kensho SuperChair's terminals are built and they look very nice. They remind me of Crested Butte's high speed quads. What sets the Kensho SuperChair apart from Quicksilver and the Independence SuperChair appears to be that tower 1 is a combi tower, and the hold-down tower is not until tower 2. There might even be a hold-down tower for tower 3. That's almost like the Born Free Express lift's design. Except the Born Free Express does tower 1 as a combi and tower 2 as a hold-down because it crosses over a river, and the Kensho SuperChair does it because it crosses a gulch. The haul rope on Zendo has also been installed. The guy doing the narration indicates that the haul rope and chairs should be up on the Kensho SuperChair within two weeks, and to expect a Christmas week opening. See here: http://www.youtube.c...FwQ&safe=active

Thanks to further inquiry by Breckenridge's Facebook page, chair and tower stats for the two new lifts: Zendo has 11 towers and 110 chairs. The Kensho SuperChair has 22 towers and 103 chairs.
This post has been edited by DonaldMReif: 19 November 2013 - 03:55 PM

Allan, on 19 November 2013 - 10:26 AM, said:

I may have missed the answer to this question somewhere but did the lift being installed come used from another ski area?

boardski, on 20 November 2013 - 06:13 AM, said:

If you looked at the position of the number plate on the tower head, the answer is yes. Plus that's a Poma tower from the late 1980s/early 1990s.

boardski, on 20 November 2013 - 06:13 AM, said:

Yup, Alyeska.

The Mountaintop Express lift is complete. Here's an article from the Vail newspaper with photos: http://www.vaildaily...r-vail-mountain. The photos appear to suggest that the Agamatics grip is utilized.
This post has been edited by DonaldMReif: 20 November 2013 - 10:34 AM

DonaldMReif, on 20 November 2013 - 10:17 AM, said:

Nice lift but I think the loading carpet for a detach is a waste, probably more of a marketing tool.

CH3skier, on 20 November 2013 - 05:13 PM, said:

The article says that carpets on high speed lifts in Europe are not uncommon. Of course, there, they have high speed eight packs, which are basically large couches. Vail is probably trying this out to see if it makes any difference in making sure skiers are moved around the mountain as efficiently as possible.

Progress photo as of a couple days ago on the Kensho SuperChair:  Peak 6 avalanche work.jpg (564.75K)
Number of downloads: 78

Load carpets on detachables are sometimes called alignment conveyors (the belt ends at the load area, groups stop at the transition ahead of the chair). A common cause of misloads is groups who fail to line up together. This problem gets worse with sixes and eights.

My old boss posted a good pic of Celebrity ridge lift on Facebook today  celeb.jpg (24.36K)
Number of downloads: 74

Sea to Sky Gondola- looks really steep!

Peter, on 23 November 2013 - 08:05 PM, said:

That's quite the initial climb!

I should be in Vail on Thursday to take pictures and video of the Mountaintop Express lift. Also, looking at the Keystone webcams, it looks like A-51/former Packsaddle II has new towers. I know that the towers were originally built without tower heads, but the webcam shows what clearly look like towers with Doppelmayr tower heads.
This post has been edited by DonaldMReif: 25 November 2013 - 12:00 PM

Peter, on 23 November 2013 - 08:05 PM, said:

Looks like the lower terminal has the tire banks that can raise/lower. That is a helpful feature.