Skilifts.org / SORT Forum

poloxskier, on Feb 1 2006, 12:14 PM, said:

They just put a new rope on it, tire turnarounds went in a few years ago, and I think they've had the electrical systems upgraded as well. Mike (our resident Breck sparky) would know for sure. Once those upgrades have happened, there isn't much else to do the that lift unless the grips wear out. Mine are the same age and are in pretty good shape.

I agree about the whole congestion issue. At least Rocky serves a slightly different part of the mountain, else there would be three quads unloading at the same place.

Thats pretty cool that snow-valley has planned to put in a 6pack! I wonder where the California lift will be at mammoth?

Mammoth Mountain will be replacing chair 9 with a high speed quad. A rumored name is the Goldhill express.

That will be way cool if they build it over there. I havent boarded over there, but I heard its epic on powder days

Liftmech can double-check me on this. I have heard of replacing Highpoint Lift at Copper with a HSQ and possibly A lift with the same. I have also heard of a possible gondola from Union Creek to the top of L.

The gondola replacement of K&L is likely, some day, the line has allready been cut it is a matter of funds. A replacement of H would be logical since it would get the base of H lift out of the gondola's way and would provide an alternate lift for accessing the tarrian park versus using Flyer. An improved H lift would most likely reduse crowding at center village, plus the runs around H are very under utilised and are simular in nature to I pod ( timberline area) they would become quite popular if the lift where a HSQ.

There is talk of adding a detachable or two at Snow Valley, but it won't be the summer of 2006, they are hoping to do a large water project to increase snowmaking capacity. The following summer(2007) a detachable or two are a possibility, especially if winter 06-07 is a good one, if it is like this one...

There is also the possibility of a new 6 Chair at Breck...rumor only.

vons, on Feb 20 2006, 03:23 PM, said:

What he said.
There is no official word on any of this yet, of course. K gondola has been in the works for some time now, as has H quad. There have been rumours from time to time of an A quad, but not for the last year or so.

Mt. Bachelor in Or. will be replacing Pine Martin Express this summer... possibly a six-pack

Rick was telling me about that but he wasn't sure when that would take place. Hopefully you will be able to reuse all the new drive equipment that was installed this past summer and if not, I guess you could probably move it over to the Outback Express.

It would probably be best to upgrade it to a high-speed six-pack because the Bend area is growing really fast these days and Pine Marten usually has super long lines on the weekends.

Looking at a trailmap, do they not run the Red Chair cause if they do, it must be really busy up there!

Red chair only runs on holidays and school breaks. I've been there on super busy days and the lift line for the Pine Marten Express is super long while no one was even riding the Red chair hardly. That's probably why it no longer operated on the weekends. The lift also doesn't access that much terrain which is another reason why people don't ride it.

Both the Red and Rainbow chairs need to be replaced with HSQ's. This would spread the crowds out of the base areas and put skiers on runs which are rarely used anymore. In addition, Red could run and handle the crowds when the winds are too strong for Pine Marten to run at full speed. Of course this would involve PWDER spending money to improve Bachelor, so I am not holding my breath.

BTW the orignal plan was to tear down the West Village lodge and bring the base of the Pine Marten down to the Parking lot eliminating the heated walkway (try taking 2 little kids up that ramp) and constructing a new lodge. Instead the old lodge was renovated and the drive replaced on Pine Marten. I guess it came down to a choice between spending $3 million or $25 million.

garthd, on Feb 21 2006, 01:17 PM, said:

This would happen before colorado gets replaced. I've heard nothing of replacing either rocky or colorado and I think that a capacity upgrade would over-congest the mountain. The gondala...hmmm...will it ever be built? Who knows...when you have so many different groups to get on the same page in order to build such a large progect, things can get very delayed!

doesnt seem like BC is in for any new lifts this year :(.

I thought construction would be ramping up in BC wit the games coming in four years

- Silver Star lift (FG3) @ PCMR is sure thing (towers & cable already installed this fall).

- Town Chair HSQ replacement possible (planning commision approval needed - somewhat contentious discussions still ongoing).

- Snowcat skiing on Pinecone Ridge.

Within 5 years:

- Gondola from First Time Parking lot (to be converted to a Four Season Hotel) to the Summit.

- Pinecone Ridge lift.
This post has been edited by Powdr: 05 March 2006 - 03:32 PM

Powdr, on Mar 5 2006, 06:31 PM, said:

Silver Star lift - any idea if this is going to be open to the public, or just for whatever development it goes to? It's almost finished, just needs chairs. The Pinecone Ridge lift will be fun when that opens.

They've been talking about the Town lift HSQ or gondola for a while, has any progress been made? Somehow I think it'll be a while before they actually agree on it and get it built. This won't happen, but it would be a nice touch if they had lattice towers like the old ones from the mining tram, at least on the part visible from the town.

This is the first I've heard about a gondola from the First Time lot to the summit. That's pretty ambitious (but I'm sure PCMR's not paying a cent for it).

floridaskier, on Mar 5 2006, 06:51 PM, said:

- Silver Star (and 2-3 new runs) will be open to the public. Parking access will not.
- Town lift project is probably still a season or two out, as it is a highly contentious subject (the condo development, not the lift).
- Gondi has been proposed for a while, it's just been backburnered for a few years as Four Season cooled their heels and was seeing how the JHMR development went (it went well and they are now interested again)
- Yes most of these projects have some real estate development associated w/ it and it helps PCMR pay very little if anything at all. Seems that's way stuff is done now at resorts - get the devepers to pay.

Powdr