Skilifts.org / SORT Forum

Yeah, it is hard enough having a midstation at all, although the snowflake runs fairly smoothly.

B-lift's gates have switches in the lower lift shack which allow the operator to keep them open all the time, close them completely (say, at 4 o' clock) or have them open and close with the zone proxy switch as normal. I don't know if that is standard Poma practise but I imagine it would be.

So if there was no traffic then they would keep open the gates or close them if they were taking off or putting on carriers at the beginning or end of the season. I would guess that you can do this with other Poma and L-P lifts. Do fixed grip lifts or Dopp/Ctec lifts have loading gates? I have never seen some on either sort.

highspeedquad, on Feb 12 2005, 04:03 PM, said:

Take a look at breckenridge's 7 chair (fixed grip riblet). They have gates and a load carpet that they are trying.

Did they install that this year?
I'll go by tomorrow and get some pics.

So there are some on this year? I will have to see them, because I try and avoid that chair, and all fixed grips for that matter. What design are they, like the HSQ's and HSS's, or more like the 5 chair in the summer, because I just remembered that in the summer at Breck they have the alpine slide of a midway unload at about tower 11 and they have load gates at the bottom, just a flimsy plastic stick.

They did use those plastic loading gates for at least one winter but they never worked right during the winter. I don't know if they stll use them in the summer or not.

I think that they only use them in the summer for the Alpine Slide.

Breckenridge is trying out a new load carpet design on 7 chair (different from the one years ago at beaver run) that has load gates and a carpet that moves. Those of you that are familiar with breckenridge's lifts know that 7 chair serves only beginner runs and is often used by ski school. The carpet/gates was installed last fall (2004) and so far seems to work well. One feature that the carpet has is the ability to raise for small kids. When two kids are loading, the carpet can raise about 5" automatically.

As far as the gate used in the summer for the alpine slide at breck, it is a crap design that was meant to be used for only one season. Well, it's still in use. They are looking into using a servo motor with a better looking wand in the future. As far as I know, it was never used in the winter.
This post has been edited by Mike: 12 February 2005 - 10:12 PM

This is the plaza chair at bigwhite. It's a beginner lift primarily and therefore the gates help make sure that the children get loaded safely onto the chairs. This is the only doppelmayr fixed grip i have ever seen with gates. When i was watching this lift was deovoid of traffic and the lift operator had turned of the gates.

The Easy Rider Quad at Cypress Mountain (Doppelmayr FG) has loading gates as well.

Mike, on Feb 13 2005, 12:09 AM, said:

Early one fall when I was there they were using it but I think they removed it for the rest of the winter a few weeks later because just like you said its crap. Do you have any pictures or know who made the carpet for chair 7? Is the design of the carpet similar to the style used in europe where when the gate opens it automaticaly moves the skier forward?
This post has been edited by poloxskier: 13 February 2005 - 12:55 AM

When the Midway Shuttle ad C-9 had a carpets, they also had the load gates. Rex had (and may still have) load gates.

poloxskier, on Feb 13 2005, 01:48 AM, said:

I have no pictures but I believe the system is made by a newer company called chairkid (not sunkid). The design from what I've heard is similiar to europe carpets. It has load gates and moves the skier along at a speed slower than the lift speed...The chair comes around and meets the person at the load area. The system actualy works well with beginer skiers since they don't have to "shuffle" to get to the load area...

That definately sounds interesting. I'll have to check that out. I usualy don't usualy ride chair 7 but I see the top 3/4 at the end of the day. It doesn't see to stop as much as it did in the past so hopefuly it has helped things run smoother.

I am positive that they don't use the 5 chair loading gates in the winter. So are they thinking about keeping the carpet and gates for 7 chair? I definitely need to get some pics.

I assume that the Doppelmayr gates are the ones that hang down from the lift, like the ones in edmontonguy's pic and the pic in the glossary. I have never seen those on lifts I have been on. They only load gates I have seen in person are the Poma's sticking out of the ground and the flimsy plastic stick for Breck's summer alpine slide.

They don't anymore. They tried the summer ones but it didnt work out well. Kinda like the carpet for Beaver Run and the self scan machines at the peak 9 base.

Are you saying that Dopp has different loading gates now? If so, does anyone have pics?

The only ones I have seen on Dopps were hanging down from an overhead bar but those were in Europe so I dont know if they are the same as over here.

all the doppelmayr lifts with loading gates i've ridden have the overhead style. These tend to get a little more noisy with age.