60 replies to this topic

[skidude2]

SilverLode 6-pack at Park City Mountain Resort. Not uncommon to wait 30+ minutes. A shame because there is good terrain there.

[boardski]

skidude2, on 25 August 2013 - 03:09 PM, said:

SilverLode 6-pack at Park City Mountain Resort. Not uncommon to wait 30+ minutes. A shame because there is good terrain there.

30+ min is unacceptable for any lift given the prices that are charged for skiing/ riding. Does the remainder of the mountain get that crowded or just that lift?

[floridaskier]

Silverlode is the main bottleneck during the middle of the day. King Con and Bonanza can work up a pretty big line too, but I always avoid Silverlode except for the early morning.

Upgrading Motherlode to a detach would go a long way to helping that, it would take a lot of the beginner crowds away. There was talk of that a couple years ago, but nothing lately. They did Ski Team/Crescent instead, which was a great upgrade for skiing the front side, but didn't do much to spread out the crowds. It actually funneled people away from Payday and Bonanza and toward Silverlode

[egieszl]

boardski, on 18 May 2013 - 07:44 PM, said:

The cat walk is very flat though. It is more fun to continue down Robinsons or Moment of Truth but then, one must go all the way down to the base instead of catching Grand Prix poma like the old days.

That catwalk is very short and not that flat. It's really a non-issue. I ski the same runs and have no issue with speed on the catwalk. Also, a longer Cloud Nine would make all of the intermediate runs it serves undesirable since you'd have to ski the mid-mountain green runs to reach the lower terminal. While a few expert skiers like yourself might like that many more would be inconvenienced.

[boardski]

I would love it if they left Cloud 9 as is (although at the very least, more chairs on the line would be nice) and reinstalled the Grand Prix platter in the same line as in the past. There is talk about Golden Horn being reinstalled next Summer so, who knows. In line with the same topic but different ski area, Loveland released their master plan which calls for replacing lift 2 (which has received dishonorable mention a couple times on this topic, and rightfully so) with two end-to-end lifts. As long as the lifts were located so the upper segment can be accessed from north chutes and bottom of chair 9 and top of chair 4, that will be a very nice improvement, although it is unknown how far off that is. Hopefully it is one of the first priorities though. This year they are expanding the Basin lodge, at least that shows they are seriouos about some of those improvement plans.

This post has been edited by boardski: 26 August 2013 - 07:02 PM

[skidude2]

floridaskier, on 25 August 2013 - 07:42 PM, said:

Silverlode is the main bottleneck during the middle of the day. King Con and Bonanza can work up a pretty big line too, but I always avoid Silverlode except for the early morning.

Upgrading Motherlode to a detach would go a long way to helping that, it would take a lot of the beginner crowds away. There was talk of that a couple years ago, but nothing lately. They did Ski Team/Crescent instead, which was a great upgrade for skiing the front side, but didn't do much to spread out the crowds. It actually funneled people away from Payday and Bonanza and toward Silverlode

Very true. No one wants to ride Motherlode because of the 11 minute ride. Some good terrain there though. Especially in the trees.

[Conrad]

The old Summit Triple at Shawnee Peak. Took forever to get to the top and not the most comfortable either.

[snoloco]

Vernon Triple at Mountain Creek. An old slow Borvig Triple with no padding and a 12 minute ride. I'd much rather wait for the Cabriolet, a Doppelmayr 8 person stand up gondola, at least it's over quick. The triple at Hidden Valley NJ is even worse. It goes even slower than the Mountain Creek lift and has minimal padding and no foot-rest. The Northwoods Gondola at Gore has a Six Flags style line during the holidays while the rest of the mountain is empty many times.

This post has been edited by snoloco: 06 January 2014 - 01:23 PM

[DonaldMReif]

The Mountaintop Express at Vail before they upgraded it to a high speed six pack. I remember times when I could see lines exceeding the 10 minute mark at the old lift while you could practically almost ski up to the Wildwood Express lift and get on that without trouble. For the Mountaintop Express, that would have to do with the bit that almost all skier traffic utilizes it to transition from the west and central Front Side to the east Front Side, Northeast Bowl, the Back Bowls and Blue Sky Basin.

[boardski]

DonaldMReif, on 20 November 2013 - 07:49 AM, said:

The Mountaintop Express at Vail before they upgraded it to a high speed six pack. I remember times when I could see lines exceeding the 10 minute mark at the old lift while you could practically almost ski up to the Wildwood Express lift and get on that without trouble. For the Mountaintop Express, that would have to do with the bit that almost all skier traffic utilizes it to transition from the west and central Front Side to the east Front Side, Northeast Bowl, the Back Bowls and Blue Sky Basin.

That chair has been a cluster as long as I can remember. With #5 high speed now, it is better to ride #3 and ski down to #5 or go down to #11. I don't really think the two extra seats on each chair is going to make that much difference and I think the loading carpet may hinder more than help. They will need to make sure people form groups of 6, many don't like taking singles up and edge them out (at other ski areas). Copper does a good job on the Super B when it is busy, Mary Jane on their 6 packs, not so much. It should be interesting. A crowded Saturday in December or January will tell the tale. Long story short, I agree, #4 chair at Vail is on my list too and I normally avoid it like the plague when I ski/ride there.

[DonaldMReif]

boardski, on 20 November 2013 - 05:43 PM, said:

That chair has been a cluster as long as I can remember. With #5 high speed now, it is better to ride #3 and ski down to #5 or go down to #11. I don't really think the two extra seats on each chair is going to make that much difference and I think the loading carpet may hinder more than help. They will need to make sure people form groups of 6, many don't like taking singles up and edge them out (at other ski areas). Copper does a good job on the Super B when it is busy, Mary Jane on their 6 packs, not so much. It should be interesting. A crowded Saturday in December or January will tell the tale. Long story short, I agree, #4 chair at Vail is on my list too and I normally avoid it like the plague when I ski/ride there.

Well I usually only ever went on the quad once or twice a day whenever I went. Taking the Wildwood Express and skiing down Sun Down Bowl to the High Noon Express is out of the question a no-no for me because I just have difficulties on steep mogul terrain. And I didn't mention this in the previous post, but the reason people flock to the Mountaintop Express rather than take the cattrack to the Northwoods Express is for a number of reasons, the most important of which is that you're taking a cattrack! They don't want to pole or skate long distances.

This post has been edited by DonaldMReif: 20 November 2013 - 09:23 PM

[RibStaThiok]

SidBurn, on 23 March 2013 - 04:13 PM, said:

St. Johns at Keystone - the ride had to be at least half an hour. No matter how long the line was at Montezuma, it was better than riding this old hunk of junk.
Lionshead Gondola at Vail - as an April '96 visiter I was one of the last people in the world to ride it. It was slow and uncomfortable, although I thought the old-school catapult ribbon launcher thingy it used to launch cabins from the terminal to the lift line was pretty cool.
Checkerboard at Keystone - I learned on this lift, and I hated the near-vertical unloading ramp
Lariat Rope Tow at WP - it's good that they finally put surface lift access from the bottom of the hill to Sunspot, but a freaking ROPE TOW?! What is this, 1930? Surely WP could shell out the extra cash for a poma lift or at least a rope tow with those plastic carrot thingies. On the plus side, my arms are stronger and my hands more calloused from riding that thing.

The Old St. Johns at Keystone was over 6500 ft long and a double. I believe they ran her at 400 FPM instead of the 500 FPM if I remember right so it would seem like a long ride up and you would be right. But I always enjoyed it none the less, one of the few old Poma's that I really liked.

Checkerboard at Keystone? Is that the old Checkerboard beginner lift, a YAN? She wasn't too bad.

[RibStaThiok]

DonaldMReif, on 23 March 2013 - 09:02 PM, said:

"carrot thingies". Yes, well technically they are called disks on platter lifts, or handles on the ropetows.

And in terms of "all-time least favorite lifts":

I like all of the Breckenridge chairlifts and I think the ones that exist are good as they are in their current configurations, with the exception of Lift A. It's a good thing Lift A only runs sporadically, because when it does run, that ride is extremely long - almost a 1/4 hour ride, 15 minutes. On a day with no lines, that would be the amount of time it takes to ride the Mercury SuperChair and ski down one run to it. Lift C is also a very long lift ride, and I've sometimes used it to transition from Peak 8 to Peak 9, at 12 minutes. Thankfully it's got more vertical than Lift A does.

Teocalli at Crested Butte - it's a centerpole Riblet, and I had a misload on it. That was six years ago, and I've never been on it since. When I went to Crested Butte last year in February and did the trails under Teocalli, I went to the East River Express lift instead.

You just don't do well with Riblets :) I loved riding A and yes it was LONNG but I grew up learning to ski on Doubles and Tripples, and no high speed quads at the time so it was no biggie to me.

[RibStaThiok]

skierdude9450, on 26 March 2013 - 11:43 AM, said:

For me I would have to say Chair 2 at Loveland. It's so long and always brutally windy near the top, not to mention that with the three stations you're guaranteed at least a couple stops during the ride. Also the old H lift at Copper. Thank goodness they finally replaced it. It always took so long to go nowhere.

They got rid of High Point at Copper? Sadness :( I haven't skiied there in 2 or 3 years. She was a good ol YAN

[DonaldMReif]

RibStaThiok, on 22 November 2013 - 10:46 PM, said:

They got rid of High Point at Copper? Sadness :( I haven't skiied there in 2 or 3 years. She was a good ol YAN

Yeah, they replaced the original HIgh Point with a Doppelmayr high speed quad called Union Creek. The new lift has a ride time about half that of the original lift. Here's a video of High Point by someone else (https://www.youtube....h?v=Y5sy2pViNaw) and here is a video of Union Creek that I made (https://www.youtube....h?v=RVOrozIeesA).

This post has been edited by DonaldMReif: 23 November 2013 - 06:22 AM

[RibStaThiok]

She's a beauty. Thanks for posting the video. I can't wait to get my foot healthy again and be able to go back up there again someday!

[liftmech]

Old H is still a good old Yan-- except it's now the Angel Peak lift at Mission Ridge WA. We (the maintenance crew) had no issue with it, but it was time for a new one from operations and public perspective.

[iceberg210]

liftmech, on 30 November 2013 - 07:18 AM, said:

Old H is still a good old Yan-- except it's now the Angel Peak lift at Mission Ridge WA. We (the maintenance crew) had no issue with it, but it was time for a new one from operations and public perspective.

Actually it's at 49 Degrees North, first Yan ever put in in Washington

[liftmech]

That's what I meant

[Backbowlsbilly]

My least favorite lift has to be the Twilight Double at Durango Mountain Resort. It's a cool old Riblet lift but its tediously slow and is usually the only lift that they have running on opening weekend. Another one would be 6 Chair in Breck, it typically has a really big line.