59 replies to this topic

[DonaldMReif]

That cam's been disoriented by the snow. It's not looking directly at the superchairs at the moment.

[RibStaThiok]

Just use "RMS" when referring to the super chair. Or as some of the operators came to call it: PMS

This post has been edited by RibStaThiok: 13 May 2014 - 03:36 PM

[SkiDaBird]

I should have assumed you guys would have a shortened version.I use MBX and LC a lot.

[DonaldMReif]

Since I've never worked in a resort's chairlift maintenance department, I always go by referring to lifts by their full name.

Breckenridge is now advertising that you can watch construction of the Colorado SuperChair on the Ski Hill Grill webcam if you go to the www.breckenridge.com home page.

Looking at the camera today, there's a yellow construction vehicle in front of the Colorado SuperChair terminal. I think it might be removing the EpicMix readers today. Undoubtedly they will put the reader in storage and reinstall it as is once the six pack is completed. It is interesting seeing the Rocky Mountain SuperChair fully intact and the Colorado SuperChair being disassembled. You can also watch some construction progress on the "High Alpine Bowls - Horseshoe Bowl" camera because that camera is attached to the north side of the Vista Haus, looking towards Horseshoe Bowl, near where tower 20 of the old Colorado SuperChair was. Based on the shadow cast by the tower today, it looks like the rope has been de-tensioned and it looks like construction vehicles have been up there recently.

I hope that this summer, Breckenridge will do an "Inside the construction of the Colorado SuperChair" video series on YouTube, just like they did an "Inside the creation of Peak 6" series last fall during construction of Zendo and the Kensho SuperChair.

When the snow falls, I wonder if the queues for the two superchairs will be configured differently. I'm guessing that the Colorado SuperChair might go with anticlockwise chair rotation and inline loading, because I know that during events like the Dew Tour and Spring Fever this past season, Breckenridge usually will set up a stage (either for ski equipment demos in the Dew Tour; or concert stage in Spring Fever) in the space between the Colorado SuperChair and Lift 5. This is the space where the Colorado SuperChair's queue usually starts on weekends, and the location of the mini golf course and the maze for the summer fun park. Due to the original lift's terminal location, whenever the stage was set up, the Colorado SuperChair would use its weekday queue line, which began where the queue for the Rocky Mountain SuperChair begins on weekends. A 90 degree load would be infeasible if Breckenridge wants to keep the space between the new Colorado SuperChair and Lift 5 empty for the Dew Tour/Spring Fever stage. The Rocky Mountain SuperChair queue might need to be realigned to accommodate the Colorado SuperChair queue, depending on what happens.

The way I see it, if I'm correct, and this is based on the construction progress I saw with the Mountaintop Express and the Kensho SuperChair last year, the progress of the Colorado SuperChair's construction will be something like this: The towers will be up by mid-August, and the terminals will be completed by the end of September. The haul rope will be up by early October, and the chairs will be installed two weeks prior to opening, so during the week before Halloween at the latest. Of course, the chairs could be installed as late as a little less than a week before opening, since I remember from my December 15th and December 21st visits to Breckenridge that the Kensho SuperChair's chairs were installed between December 18th and December 19th, with just six days to do the standard tests on them (though I'm sure the Colorado SuperChair will undergo the same load tests that use sandbags and/or filled water barrels to simulate actual riders' weight, they'll be simpler because they're using the same chair model as the Kensho SuperChair; down to the shape of the European Multix footrests and they've done it once before).

This post has been edited by DonaldMReif: 14 May 2014 - 07:42 AM

[DonaldMReif]

SkiDaBird, on 13 May 2014 - 02:51 PM, said:

Oh wow. You are probably right about that. I forgot they are right next to each other. From looking at construction at Snowbird over the last 2 years, there is no way that they could run Rocky Mtn.

Additionally, it looks like the Rocky Mountain SuperChair's bottom lift shack is shared with the Colorado SuperChair. They might need to demolish it and replace it, or at the very least replace some electrical infrastructure due to the new lift.

At least with the Rocky Mountain SuperChair's presence, we'll now be able to get a better side-by-side comparison of Leitner-Poma's current tower design (that saw its Breckenridge debut with the Kensho SuperChair and Zendo) with the previous tower lifting frame design that appears on every other Breckenridge high speed quad and six pack save for the Beaver Run SuperChair and Falcon SuperChair.

[RibStaThiok]

Well you are welcome to refer to it as RMS, we all know what it is on here. If you want to that is. Also thanks for the updates.

DonaldMReif'[quote name='DonaldMReif, on 14 May 2014 - 07:42 AM, said:

Since I've never worked in a resort's chairlift maintenance department, I always go by referring to lifts by their full name.

[snoloco]

I wonder if RMS will be converted to 90 degree loading. This would allow the queue to be set up so the lanes are parallel to the slopes and it would move it away from Colorado. Colorado should probably have in line loading and have the queue set up so that the lanes are perpendicular to the slope and there is no confusion with RMS's queue.

[DonaldMReif]

snoloco, on 14 May 2014 - 03:13 PM, said:

I wonder if RMS will be converted to 90 degree loading. This would allow the queue to be set up so the lanes are parallel to the slopes and it would move it away from Colorado. Colorado should probably have in line loading and have the queue set up so that the lanes are perpendicular to the slope and there is no confusion with RMS's queue.

In theory, yes the Rocky Mountain SuperChair probably could be converted to 90 degree loading. There is after all a 1997 Poma high speed quad with Challenger terminals that has 90 degree loading, and that is the Sunshine Express lift at Steamboat. But I highly doubt that will ever happen, and the Rocky Mountain SuperChair will stay with an inline loading, because converting the lift to a 90 degree load would necessitate the regrading of a good portion of the small amount of in-bounds terrain between the lift terminal and the new condo development going in on the former location of the Berghoff restaurant. I mean, look at these photos and tell me if there's any room:



Here's a better view:

[snoloco]

I have never skied Breckenridge, so I don't know the topography of the land next to each lift. I just opened myself to being thrown under the bus for posting something unrealistic that I speculated on.

[SkiDaBird]

If my estimations about liftlines are correct, there wouldn't be room. They may change how the queue works though to provide more space.

[Backbowlsbilly]

The old RMS line wrapped around the one for Colorado, so if the one for Colorado is altered than the one for Rocky will have to be changed to. I don't see much of a change with the lines themselves, especially if Colorado follows the previous line and uses the same towers, other than less people in those lines. Hopefully.

[DonaldMReif]

Backbowlsbilly, on 15 May 2014 - 03:07 PM, said:

The old RMS line wrapped around the one for Colorado, so if the one for Colorado is altered than the one for Rocky will have to be changed to. I don't see much of a change with the lines themselves, especially if Colorado follows the previous line and uses the same towers, other than less people in those lines. Hopefully.

The location of the Vista Haus kinda makes it hard for them to move the bottom terminal away from the Rocky Mountain SuperChair's terminal. It really depends on whether the Colorado SuperChair is given inline loading or 90 degree loading. If it's 90 degree loading, the Rocky Mountain SuperChair line might be reconfigured. If it's inline loading, the Rocky Mountain SuperChair line will probably not change at all.

Under the previous configuration, on weekends and peak periods the Colorado SuperChair queue started next to that lift's bottom terminal, such that you could ski straight into it from the hill after weaving through the SLOW signs. You then made a tight left hand turn, so that you faced north, then the lines reached a merge point where an attendant was positioned to group people up to ensure that each chair was filled. The Rocky Mountain SuperChair's queue starts next to the first turn in the Colorado SuperChair's queue (in fact, both lifts share a single line reserved for ski school and ski patrol), and runs parallel to it until it passed the "front row" merge point for the Colorado SuperChair queue. Then the Rocky Mountain SuperChair queue makes a 45 degree turn on a slight downgrade, and the lines funnel into a merge point about three or four group lengths before the EpicMix readers and "Wait Here" line, and another slight turn to line up with the loading area.

On weekdays, the Colorado SuperChair queue started where the weekend Rocky Mountain SuperChair queue entrance is, though the point where the lines merged was the same. The weekday Rocky Mountain SuperChair queue is staggered by having the entrance moved north about 100 or so feet, so that it starts more or less next to the ski school building.

[snoloco]

They have cleared all the snow away from the bottom terminal and they might have detensioned the line as one side looks lower than the other.

[DonaldMReif]

I saw that a few days ago in the Vista Haus cam, as it looked like the line was detensioned at tower 20's shadow.

[snoloco]

Line is coming down now.

[snoloco]

The haul rope is now completely off. The com line is still up. This is all seen in the Ski Hill Grill webcam.

This post has been edited by snoloco: 16 May 2014 - 06:32 PM

[2milehi]

Snapped this photo a few hours ago

 get-attachment.jpg (336.45K)
Number of downloads: 88

This post has been edited by 2milehi: 21 May 2014 - 10:42 AM

[DonaldMReif]

Soon, the towers will be coming down. I have a feeling that the Colorado SuperChair's construction pace will be much faster than the pace at which Zendo and the Kensho SuperChair were built (those two didn't open until the end of December, by which point the mountain had been open for about a month and a half), since the Colorado SuperChair has been the Breckenridge opening day terrain lift since 2008.

[boardski]

Are they planning on re-using the tower uprights (tubes)?

[DonaldMReif]

I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case, because the Colorado SuperChair's terminals are going to be in the same locations as the original. Naturally the crossarms will have to be replaced. And even if they don't reuse the tower tubes, they might reuse the concrete tower footings.