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Summit Daily editorial


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#1 DonaldMReif

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Posted 23 January 2017 - 08:08 AM

From http://www.summitdai...-a-good-thing/. It's about Vail Resorts' six-pack push.

Quote



Seems like everywhere I look at Breck or Keystone this season there’s a big, bold, bright-as-the-sun billboard for Leitner-Poma, the French-born chairlift manufacturer with national offices just west of us in Grand Junction.


“Coming in 2017! Six-person chairlift! Increases uphill capacity! Reduces wait times!”


Next to these exclamations (pulled from memory, not verbatim) are renderings of gorgeous six-packs set against bluebird skies with very smiley, satisfied and generic-looking skiers on the chairs. If you haven’t seen one of them yet, I’m kind of surprised. They’re legitimate billboards, and they’re popping up like weeds all across the mountain. Someone in the Leitner-Poma sales department ought to be enjoying a fat bonus right now.


Earlier this month, the Summit Daily reprinted a Vail Daily news article about the six-pack renaissance. It’s led by Vail Resorts, which operates 17 of the 74 six-person chairlifts across the world and plans to add three more during the offseason: one at Vail Mountain, one at Breckenridge and one at Keystone. At all three sites, the billboards have the same tone: new, fast, convenient, timelier, better.

[indent]


Again like I-70, with more people comes more traffic, and with more traffic comes the potential for more accidents and injuries and even deaths — particularly when that traffic is concentrated on greens, blues and other major arteries. The Vail remedy for this has been more baffles and more snow safety patrollers, which vaguely smells of a police state on the slopes.



[/indent]
But is it true? Six-packs are said to increase uphill capacity by 30 percent, or roughly 3,600 people per hour, and yes, it’s been proven. When Breck replaced the old Peak 8 high-speed quad with the Colorado SuperChair six-pack in 2014, it really did improve wait times at the resort’s busiest base-area lift.


Pause. The sales pitch is that six-person chairlifts ultimately reduce wait times, which means more skiing and more value for your $169-per-day lift ticket, or $809 Epic Pass (as of Labor Day pricing).


But a chairlift will never make a ski run itself larger, and that’s where I start to question the corporate pitch.


Last season, Vail Resorts reported a 14-percent increase in skier visits, and despite ho-hum snowfall before December this season, traffic on Interstate 70 during the holiday rush hit record highs: 54,000 vehicles through the Eisenhower Tunnel on Sunday, Jan. 3, with the majority of those travelers heading to ski destinations along the interstate corridor.


Like I-70, ski runs can only get so wide. Breckenridge and Keystone are as big as they’ll ever get, and Arapahoe Basin is the only local mountain with approved plans for terrain expansions. Again like I-70, with more people comes more traffic, and with more traffic comes the potential for more accidents and injuries and even deaths — particularly when that traffic is concentrated on greens, blues and other major arteries. The Vail remedy for this has been more baffles and more snow safety patrollers, which vaguely smells of a police state on the slopes.


Pause again. In light of the recent tragedy at Ski Granby Ranch, where a 40-year-old mother died and her two children were injured after an aging lift malfunctioned, I have to swallow my adversity to aggressive change and think this one through.


For Summit locals, bashing Vail Resorts is a favorite pastime. But even as the corporation continues to sanitize, package and sell the skiing experience, they’re taking appropriate steps to protect clients (not to mention avoid major lawsuits). It’s good to see Vail enhancing the infrastructure at their marquee resorts, and when those billboards say we’re getting brand-new, state-of-the art chairlifts, that’s exactly what they mean. These won’t be retrofitted machines — they’ll be the latest and greatest.


So. It’s a double-edged sword to hear about the invasion of the six-packs. I’m not in the business of moaning and groaning and fear mongering, but I like to think I’m in the business of common sense. I’m already mourning for the reasonably sized quads I grew up riding: Montezuma Express at Keystone, Falcon Chair at Breck, Chair 11 (aka Northwoods Express) at Vail.


And to think, just a few short seasons ago locals balked when Vail Mountain replaced the rickety three-person Chair 5 with a quad. Now, no one thinks twice about what used to be. Crotchety locals will keep on balking, and with any luck for the ski corporations, a whole new generation of skiers and snowboarders will crowd the slopes knowing no different.


But a ski area isn’t an interstate highway, and resorts only have a finite amount of space. It makes me wonder: What’s the next solution for overcrowding on the slopes? Maybe it’s the same solution for I-70 congestion, or the estimated 9.7 billion humans expected to populate earth in 2050 — we just don’t know.

YouTube channel for chairlift POV videos and other random stuff:
https://www.youtube....TimeQueenOfRome

#2 teachme

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Posted 20 June 2017 - 09:18 AM

Perhaps one or two points to think about, but what a poorly written lack of focus piece of journalistic garbage!

#3 Lift Dinosaur

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Posted 20 June 2017 - 01:35 PM

"...Seems like everywhere I look at Breck or Keystone this season there’s a big, bold, bright-as-the-sun billboard for Leitner-Poma, the French-born chairlift manufacturer with national offices just west of us in Grand Junction.

“Coming in 2017! Six-person chairlift! Increases uphill capacity! Reduces wait times!”
Attached File  IMG_0142.JPG (969.53K)
Number of downloads: 75

Next to these exclamations (pulled from memory, not verbatim) are renderings of gorgeous six-packs set against bluebird skies with very smiley, satisfied and generic-looking skiers on the chairs. If you haven’t seen one of them yet, I’m kind of surprised. They’re legitimate billboards, and they’re popping up like weeds all across the mountain. Someone in the Leitner-Poma sales department ought to be enjoying a fat bonus right now..."

As usual, an editorial from The Vail Daily shared by the Summit Daily shows that there is no need to do any research before hitting the keyboard.
No where on any of the three signs does it say "Leitner-Poma". "Don't issue the bonus check just yet".
They are not really billboards, more like banners.
The chair shown in the 'banners' is actually a Doppelmayr, not an LP. This would lead me to believe the banners were made by Vail Resorts, not LP

Dino

This post has been edited by Lift Dinosaur: 20 June 2017 - 01:39 PM

"Things turn out best for the people that make the best of the way things turn out." A.L.

#4 Andy1962

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Posted 20 June 2017 - 02:39 PM

As someone not directly employed in skihill operations (the fix it or running it part )., I object to the editiorial idiot who blames the Ski Granby accident on aging, malfunctioning equipment. It was a lot of things, some of which may not yet be fully understood by everyone, but the Ski Granby incident was NOT aging equipment failure. Way to many implied statements in that lie.

#5 DonaldMReif

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Posted 10 July 2017 - 05:17 PM

 Lift Dinosaur, on 20 June 2017 - 01:35 PM, said:

"...Seems like everywhere I look at Breck or Keystone this season there’s a big, bold, bright-as-the-sun billboard for Leitner-Poma, the French-born chairlift manufacturer with national offices just west of us in Grand Junction.

“Coming in 2017! Six-person chairlift! Increases uphill capacity! Reduces wait times!”
IMG_0142.JPG
Next to these exclamations (pulled from memory, not verbatim) are renderings of gorgeous six-packs set against bluebird skies with very smiley, satisfied and generic-looking skiers on the chairs. If you haven’t seen one of them yet, I’m kind of surprised. They’re legitimate billboards, and they’re popping up like weeds all across the mountain. Someone in the Leitner-Poma sales department ought to be enjoying a fat bonus right now..."

As usual, an editorial from The Vail Daily shared by the Summit Daily shows that there is no need to do any research before hitting the keyboard.
No where on any of the three signs does it say "Leitner-Poma". "Don't issue the bonus check just yet".
They are not really billboards, more like banners.
The chair shown in the 'banners' is actually a Doppelmayr, not an LP. This would lead me to believe the banners were made by Vail Resorts, not LP

Dino


Actually that chair in that banner at the Montezuma Express IS a Leitner-Poma chair. Seems to be a stock photo of the Ruby Express lift.
YouTube channel for chairlift POV videos and other random stuff:
https://www.youtube....TimeQueenOfRome

#6 2milehi

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Posted 10 July 2017 - 08:19 PM

Good eye Donald.
Anything is possible when you don't understand what you are talking about.

#7 Lift Dinosaur

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Posted 11 July 2017 - 05:20 AM

 2milehi, on 10 July 2017 - 08:19 PM, said:

Good eye Donald.

Yep. My bad.
Dino��
"Things turn out best for the people that make the best of the way things turn out." A.L.





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