Skilifts.org / SORT Forum

That sounds cool. Granite Chief has a bunch of hidden areas, as well as red dog.

In response to a question KZ had posted on Jan 19 – Squaw Tram counterweight and tension system.

Track Ropes are tensioned at the bottom. Two rather large chunks of concrete next to the stairs apply the tension – About 128,000 lbs each. Track ropes have no separate carriage, they do slide in large grease filled shoes (track shoe) about 20' long. The same style of track shoe (just inverted) are on each tower and allow the rope to slip as the car changes positions. Before the misfortune of the accident there were no cable catchers for the track ropes on Garaventa Trams.
Haul rope is tensioned by a counterweight at top. Look west just as you get off.
Emergency evacuation haul rope is tensioned at the bottom. Carriage and counterweight are at the same level as the large track rope deviation sheaves. Due to its relatively light load it has a small carriage with a winch providing tension. The evacuation car is also stored at this level.

cool. I will have to look for this stuff next time i go. I didnt know those big weights were for the tracks ropes, that makes a lot more sense. That tram is quite impressive.

Here are a few shots of the Olympic House (original lodge) over the years starting in the early 50s just after it was finished.

Here is a shot of the lodge when it caught on fire. Not sure on the year but i am guessing the early 60s or so.

Next is the lodge in 1975 scanned out of my very recent 1976 world book set.

And lastly the present day. This lodge and the building around it are almost all squaw has left of its presonality that is quickly dissapearing.

Here is Le Chamois, a bar and grill with a real resort feel. They make a good burger and the bar above has numerous pictures of squaw including the jig-back, kt-22 double and even has one of the riblet kt chairs.

Ok at squaw i came across some more "ruins." The latest seems to be the lower terminal foundation for an old Shirley Lake lift. The strange thing is how it is all arranged. Going up the hill first is what appears to be a tower foundation, something that looked like a counterweight, lattice tower foundations then finally 1 more foundation with what looks like was 2 angled towers of some sort that have since been cut off. Ryan, can you explain any of this? I was thinking maybe the relocated maybe the original Squaw One chair since it looks like lattice foundations and i think the original lift was built in the later 70s but i really dont know for sure. If you can shed any light on it that would be super.

This first shot show the entire scene.

Next is the foundation for the tower

The cut off part, lattice foundation and what might have been a counterweight.

THe 2 cut off parts with the old lift line straight ahead.

One last shot of the lattice foundations and the weight. You can see this line is shifted about 200 feet north of the current lift.

I know i didnt get the best picture showing the setup, so here is a drawing, just that tower foundation is further up from the counterweight.

It appears that the lattice foundations are the remains of the tension terminal, with the angled tubes supporting the counterweight/back end of the carriage rails and the lattice part supporting the front end of the carriage rails. During the tear-down process the counterweight must have been placed in its current location to facilitate removal of the terminal. Loading must have taken place at or near the first tower.

Squaw really needs to clean up...

Sometimes you have to think environmentally before you answer that question. You must realise that sometimes to "clean up" the remains is ecologically more damaging than just cutting off and leaving the remains.

Splitter for avalanches on Squaw 1 pics
Shirley Lake pics are from 2 different eras of lifts; Minor-Denver that was replaced by a YAN around 1974.

Ryan B

That would explain it then. Brad has a picture of this station design on his site (coloradoskihistory.com) in the lift Eldora picture section.

Thanks Ryan.

Ryan, do you know when the original Minor-Denver was built back there?