199 replies to this topic

[OldSki]

Lavalamp, on 06 March 2010 - 01:45 PM, said:

The gondola for Crystal Mountain is official. They'll start construction April 19 and have it ready for the 2010/2011 season.

Not lift-related, but they are installing a terrain park too.

Looking at a terrain map, it makes me wonder if Crystal will need to remove Miner's Basin to install the gondola? Might as well, they never run the silly thing.

Is the gondola a move to try and finally turn Crystal into more of a year-round resort? They've been doing the dinner thing at the Summit House for a while now; this will mean summer customers don't have to ride a chairlift up and down. No doubt the ride will be a lot speedier on a full-speed gondola vs. two speed-impaired chair lifts.

[Peter]

Wow, that is big news for Crystal!

It's funny, there was an article in the Portland, Maine paper last week about how Boyne said they didn't have enough money for a new gondola at Sugarloaf!
"Unfortunately for Sugarloafers, this is where the news cameras pan to scenes of the worldwide recession. The current economic climate is holding back Boyne Resorts from giving Sugarloaf what the top ski areas in the East already have."
http://www.presshera...garloaf+gondola

There is going to be some major work going on this summer. I suspect the top of Rex is going to have to be relocated. The market and Ski Patrol at the base are going to have to go too. Gondola terminals are really big.

I made a quick paint picture of the gondola line. It will go over the current Miners' Basin bottom terminal, but the doesn't necessarily mean it will be removed.

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[P01itiC4lR3B31]

Lavalamp, on 06 March 2010 - 01:45 PM, said:

The gondola for Crystal Mountain is official. They'll start construction April 19 and have it ready for the 2010/2011 season.

Not lift-related, but they are installing a terrain park too.

The terrain park is going to be off of Mr. Magoo apparently.

[iceberg210]

Crystal with a Gondola eh? I think this is a great move, after skiing Crystal a couple times this year I found the lift layout cumbersome in that to get anywhere it required multiple lifts. It makes perfect sense to throw a lift of some sort up the whole of the mountain from lodge to Summit, and I'm glad that they are doing just that. I remember hearing that in the original MDP it was a tram not a gondola, but if a gondola can handle higher winds in this situation, and if it's not necessary terrain wise to do the tram it's not a bad idea to substitute the gondola. It may well be about the same cost as a tram( I don't know, perhaps, perhaps not) or at least not substantially more, and it also will have a great capacity which will help in getting skiers up the hill, and at the same time not cause as much congestion as a tram as you are unloading with 120 of your closest friends.

Now my only question is will they tear down Miners, as before they seemed to be using it as a back up for if Chinook went down, that way you could still get back into REX even if Chinook was down, and you didn't have to do the Quicksilver, Forest Queen route. This gondola is even better because if REX were ever to go down you could still get to Green Valley and Northway in an easy fashion.

While since the gondola just goes over Miner's as Skier pointed out it doesn't necessarily mean it'll be coming out, but this is Crystal Mountain, the mountain that didn't need to take out Campbell's basin, but they did, so it may well be that they use this as an excuse to rip Miner's out. In that case it will be interesting to see where that lift goes to, as it's a fairly early Riblet, which while still an excellent lift I'm sure, isn't necessarily what people may want to buy.

[Peter]

I found the renderings from when it was planned to be a tram. Also it looks like the cabins are already done over at CWA. (Just kidding, I used photoshop)

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[Peter]

The website has been updated to say it will be an 8 passenger.

[Peter]

Website updated again with this:

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[Peter]

From the Seattle P-I:
http://blog.seattlep...ives/196992.asp
Once we had time to digest the news of the gondola and terrain park additions to Crystal, a lot of questions started bubbling to the surface. I chatted with a representative over email and received some more details. (My questions are in italics and their answers are verbatim.)

How long has this plan been in the works? We submitted our Master Development Plan to the Forest Service back in 1999, along with 6 alternatives. The approval came in 2004.

How long will the ride be from the base to the top? 10 minutes

What is the capacity of each cabin? 8 people, with a total of 18 cabins to start, and the option to add an additional 18 more. Each cabin costs $40,000.

Will the top of REX be relocated at all to make room for the gondola? No, see photo attached.

Will this be a new gondola or was it purchased from another resort? It will be brand new, we're ordering it from Dopplemyr.

How will the gondola towers and associated tree clearing affect Exterminator? There will be very little tree clearing and the towers will not affect the skiing on Exterminator, they will be off to the skiers left of the run.

What is the planned scope of the terrain park? A lot of this is in the works, we have a guy (who's currently the terrain park superviosr at Park City – he will manager our terrain park next winter) working on the layout and features right now. Mostly jib features, boxes, rails and other things to bonk/jib off. Boxes and rails? Yes! Jumps? No big table tops or anything like that, just small jib features. Halfpipe? No

Will the terrain park have a park pass program associated with it like other local resorts? Still TBD

When people see large expenditures like this, many people think that a ticket price increased must be coming with it. Will we be paying more next year? That is not a safe assumption. We're working on ticket and pass rates now, one of the ideas is to leave the ticket rate at $60 and give people the option to pay more (like $5-7) for Gondola privileges. We plan to have rates set by the end of March. And people can expect season pass rates very similar to last year. We're going to offer the Quad pass again, which will be under $600 for unlimited access! You can't beat that!!

Will the gondola be the only lift open for dining during the summer? Yes, starting the summer of 2011.

Are there any plans to bring back scenic lift rides or lift-served mountain biking in the summer? Scenic rides & Sunset dinners at the Summit House (Washington's highest restaurant) are for sure. Mountain biking TBD. We're also looking into installing a zip line for summer 2011.





Thanks to Crystal Mountain for taking the time to give us a little more insight into this exciting new project.

18 cabins, that seems like very few. Come to think of it, could this be a pulse gondola? That would be a shame.

[iceberg210]

18 cabins? Wow that does seem very low, perhaps they are trying to keep the capacity down to make sure that there isn't too much crowding on the Summit, but even then I wouldn't think there'd be much of a problem with that.

Also got to love getting a bunch of questions answered like that.

The only one I've got still is whether they'll remove Miner's, but it does kind of seem that since we haven't heard anything I'd guess it's staying, but you never know.

[SkiBachelor]

Miner's will most likely stay in place as it's used during race days, along with accessing the trails off of Chinook if it goes down.

[Bill]

I think it will stay especially if they charge extra for access to the Gondola.

[Peter]

It hasn't run once this year except for patrol one day when Chinook wouldn't start on a control morning. It will probably stay though, if anything because they've got enough going on this summer and it doesn't need to be removed.d

12 towers also seems live a very small number. Chinook has 16 and Rex has 18 and both are about half as long as the gondola. They must be very tall and far apart.

[Peter]

I asked and received a reply that it will be a detachable, not a pulse.


Crystal Mountain plans gondola to summit
http://seattletimes....gondola10m.html
Crystal Mountain ski resort plans to start construction in mid-April on an 18-car gondola that it hopes will be ready to ferry skiers from the mountain's base to its 6,872-foot summit by the start of next winter's ski season.

By Craig Welch

Seattle Times environment reporter

Crystal Mountain ski resort plans to start construction in mid-April on an 18-car gondola that it hopes will be ready to ferry skiers from the mountain's base to its 6,872-foot summit by the start of next winter's ski season.

Formal approval of $6.5 million construction project is expected in days, said Sean Wetterberg, the winter-sports specialist who oversees development at Crystal for the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.

The gondola doesn't require complicated review by the Forest Service because it's merely replacing initial plans to add a larger and more expensive two-car tram system. The gondola will simply let Crystal implement the project sooner, Wetterberg said.

Coming two years after construction of the Northway chairlift, the gondola with its eight-person cars is the latest effort by Crystal's owner, Boyne USA, to transform the mountain into a year-round destination resort. A new terrain park is also in the works along with long-term plans for more chair lifts and a new base-area hotel.

"Right now, we're still primarily a winter area," said Crystal spokeswoman Tiana Enger. "Most of our business happens during winter months. This is a way to broaden that and open it up for more summer use."

Enger said the gondola would cost less than half as much as a tram and with 18 cars would carry 450 people an hour up the mountain. The resort would be able to add up to 18 additional cars.

Wetterberg and Enger said the covered cars will allow nonskiing tourists to visit the summit even in winter, and will increase access for hiking and sightseeing in summer. Crystal may expand the capacity and hours of its 97-seat mountaintop Summit House Bistro, and will consider trying to open the top of the mountain to skiing earlier in the season.

Given the down economy and the difficulty some contractors have faced obtaining construction loans, it's not yet clear how the resort would pay for the gondola. John Kircher, Crystal's general manager and a member of the family that founded Boyne, has been talking with banks in recent weeks, but Enger said Crystal also has cash on hand it can access if financing gets complicated.

The resort also is still debating how the gondola will affect ticket prices. Executives may keep daily ticket prices around the current $60 and charge an additional $5 to $7 for daily gondola access. Individual scenic rides in summer are likely to run $15 to $20.

"We don't have a rate structure set yet," Enger said. "But it's not going to be a significant increase — if there is one at all."

[liftmech]

Pa told me he'll be cutting this liftline as well, and as far as he knows chair 1 will remain in place. It will be interesting to see how (or if) it changes the way the north side of the hill is skied. It'll definitely make laps off Exterminator and Bull Run easier.

I think it's kind of funny that Ms Enger claims there's no summer business there. When she was still in junior high we ran three lifts and had fairly consistent visit numbers, both senic lift rides and mountain biking. Boyne axed all that the summer they took over-- we had already planned that summer's operation so we kept the lifts open but the Summit House did not operate. It's no wonder they have no business at this point, since they drove it away themselves.

[Bill]

Well put John.

[Peter]

They released season pass prices and it's $89 extra for the gondola. Presumably day tickets will have an add-on gondola option as well. The whole thing seems strange, this thing will have a smaller capacity than the single chair at Mad River Glen. Even with the design capacity, it will move fewer people than a double does.

[Bill]

Don't get me started on this... LOL!

[skiersage]

Skier, on 19 March 2010 - 04:47 AM, said:

They released season pass prices and it's $89 extra for the gondola. Presumably day tickets will have an add-on gondola option as well. The whole thing seems strange, this thing will have a smaller capacity than the single chair at Mad River Glen. Even with the design capacity, it will move fewer people than a double does.

Welcome to being owned by Boyne. No one ever said that they were known for making the most logical management decisions.

Does anyone else but me think that this will be a pulse lift? If it does indeed have 18 carriers then could be set up where there are six clusters of three cabins. It makes more sense than a detach with just 18 carriers.

[Peter]

I asked on their blog and was told it's not a pulse.

[skier2]

Skier, on 19 March 2010 - 03:38 PM, said:

I asked on their blog and was told it's not a pulse.

Are we sure its not 18 towers? Maybe 81 cabins? This is probably just a mistake.