125 replies to this topic

[poloxskier]

It would be nice to see breck offer some night time on mountain dining but I really liked the expansion plans that were drawn up by the Japanese company that owned Breck after Aspen. The monorail to the sumit of peak 8 and the resturant built in to the summit and the expansion to peak 5, 6, and 7 including High Alpine skiing on all peaks. Ill try to find the drawing that they released to the Summit Daily News and post them here.

BTW my first chair lift ride was the 1959 Riblet Double at the Broadmoor and my first surface lift was the handle tow at the Broadmoor.

[crazyskier91]

What do you mean? If you put in a 15-man gondi that would have a huge uphill capacity.

[highspeedquad]

I agree, it is too short to be turned into a gondola. However, it does need the uphill capacity, so I guess they could make it into a chondi.

[SkiBachelor]

Gondola's actually have a lower hourly capacity than a HSQ if the cabins are 8 person. The max hourly capacity I have seen for a gondola is 2800, while I've seen HSQ with an hourly capacity of 3000.

Breck should just buy some more carriers for the Quicksilver if the lines are always bad.

[poloxskier]

The only time it's busy is for about 4 hours a day during the weekends and holidays. The problem with more carriers is that the run capacity was maxed out with the original quicksilver. Now its even worse since the re-alignment there are fewer runs accessable and it is a nightmare trying to get down those 2 runs during busy days.

[Duck]

Atomic Express @ Horseshoe. Like most here, I knew all about how it worked before I rode it, and specifically pushed myself too hard learning how to snowboard so I could ride it sooner. :)

Part of the most fun was discovering cadencing. After watching and thinking about things for a while I decided chair spacing was a requirement and thought it probably occured in the curve somewhere via a separate drive... I was pretty happy to find out online afterword that's pretty much exactly what happens!

-Iain

[calgaryguy]

The Mile one express quad at Panorama, BC :D

[floridaskier]

The old Carpenter lift at DV, the Yan HSQ, aka 'The Big Lift.' I don't remember what I thought about it at the time

[Zage]

My first ride on a hsq was the Timber Bowl at Fernie. A 1998 Leitner.

[Cameron]

I grew up skiing at an awesome little resort called Mt. Buller, in Australia. They installed two Doppelmayr HSQs called "Blue Bullet 1" and "Blue Bullet 2", which share a common terminal (the top terminal of Blue Bullet 1 was also the bottom of Blue Bullet 2). Sort of like the mid-station on the Whistler Gondola, but the lifts are not linked in any way (as far as I can tell).

It opened for the 1984 ski season (which is June-September), so I guess it was pretty early in the detachable game. I do know that it has grips that don't look like any other Doppelmayr grips I've seen (Buller has a newer HSQ, and I've seen several others in Vail).

I remember just being in total awe of the Blue Bullets at Buller when I was a kid .. the terminals had wheels, ropes, rods and belts seemingly going in every direction.

Buller has (well had) some interesting lifts. There were two (parallel) detachable poma (platter) surface lifts, which both had what I'd guess to be a 30 or 40 degree turn half way up. I wish I had pictures of that.. Sadly they have been removed. They also had a double sided poma (you load at both ends, and get off in the middle), part of that poma actually remains (probably more sentimental value than anything!).

Buller also has a Doppelmayr high-speed-quad as an access lift from one of the car-parks. This lift has an interesting mid-loading station, where the carriers do not detach. The sheave train is attached to the tower in such a way that it can be raised/lowered. When the mid-loading station isn't used, the sheaves (and thus the haul-rope) is raised in the air and the lift runs at full speed. In order to use the mid-loading station they lower the sheaves (which lowers the rope and carriers), and slow the entire lift down. I've only watched the transition once, and it takes several minutes (with the chair stopped) for it to whole thing to take place. If they use the mid-load station, it's usually for most of the mid-day .. then they revert to high-speed running late in the day (to get the skiers off the mountain).

Cameron.

ps: Great site, by the way. I'm a pinball geek, coaster geek, and now a ski-lift geek too!

[Edit to fix typo]

This post has been edited by Cameron: 03 February 2005 - 03:32 PM

[CAski]

Big Bear Express @ Bear Mountain, CA.

[poloxskier]

Hopefuly you can see the grip well in these pics.
Is this the style that they had on their quads?

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This post has been edited by poloxskier: 03 February 2005 - 04:15 PM

[Cameron]

Poloxskier, yes that does look like it .. although it is hard to tell from the photo.

I will be back in Melbourne in early April for two weeks, and I'll see if I can get up there to take some photos. Although it will still be over 6 weeks to the start of the ski-season, so I don't know if the carriers will be on the line yet.

[poloxskier]

That was the first detachable grip available on dopp detachable quads in North America. That picture is actualy the first High Speed Quad in the world which was originaly at breckenridge and has been relocated.

This post has been edited by poloxskier: 04 February 2005 - 04:50 PM

[SkiBachelor]

I think you mean World. :)

[poloxskier]

Yeah sorry ill fix that.

[poloxskier]

Does anyone know if there are any high speed quads in North America that are tensioned by counterweight?

[crazyskier91]

I think the original quicksilver might have had a counterweight, Cameron (Not SkiBachelor) if you go could you get close up pictures of the grips?

[poloxskier]

I'm 95% sure that the oringal was. I ment counterweght tensioned HSQs that are still in use.

[Dr Frankenstein]

Atomic Express, Mont St-Sauveur