37 replies to this topic

[Whistler]

Grouse mountain now only has two chairlifts. Two high speed quads. the new chair replaces three doubles. I am so pissed about this, because now it's going to be really boring to go to Grouse. It sucks because in order to get up to the top of the mountain (the peak) you have to ski down a run to do so, you used to just be able to go right up from the lodge area.

This post has been edited by Whistler: 21 November 2003 - 03:20 PM

[vancouverguy]

Which three Chairlifts? You mean they removed Blueberry, Inferno and the Peak Chair?

[SkiBachelor]

Wow that is stupid. I think they would leave blueberry as a back up lift and run it on busy days.

[vancouverguy]

Heck, the Peak and Blueberry chairs were probably the only two Habegger-built lifts on this continent. This is a historical loss. As well, I have to concur that it is not a smart buisiness move.

[floridaskier]

They took out three lifts and replaced them with 1?

[SkiBachelor]

Yea, thats what it sounds like.

[KZ]

thats a bad decision. Like anything, a lift can break down. This decision may haunt them later on

[Whistler]

BCTV News on Global, Canada Now, and CityPulse at Six all had a story on it. they mostly said that line ups will double and showed some shots of the new chair being installed. It was in the middle of the newscast and they mentioned it for about thirty seconds.

[Whistler]

There is one good side to the story however, I asked if they were giving away any of the old chairs and they said that they weren't sure yet, but there otherwise would be no use for them.

[Whistler]

I think I am going to do a story on this for the school newspaper. It makes mad.

[liftmech]

I had heard that they were going to leace the Peak chair in place and continue to use it during the summer, at least. Apparently that wasn't in the plan. That's really too bad.

[vancouverguy]

All it is is a marketing ploy, install a new lift for no other reason than just to get people to pay higher prices- who cares if it's a bad logistical decision.

[KZ]

its stupid becasue it costs money to remove lifts

[SkiBachelor]

But you still would have to pay insurance on these lifts if you didn't use them. I don't think ticket prices will increase because they won't have to use two lifts so the money that would cost to run those would pay the amount it would cost to run the new lift.

[Kicking Horse]

u only has to pay something if the lifts will be used that season. @ WP the Outrigger does not have any insurance and is not does not have Coloardo Tramway ok to run it this season. Or that is what i heard from my sources

[liftmech]

That is probably correct - if you don't plan to operate a lift, you don't need to have it inspected and don't need insurance. You do, however, need to run a complete load test on it if it's idle for more than two years and you wish to re-certify it.
Care to name your sources, Jeff? I have probably met them or attended class with them...
The new lift has got to be a marketing ploy, plain and simple. Grouse does not have the type of skiing that needs two detachables and nothing else. The runs aren't that long, and it costs more to buy and maintain a detach than to simply keep up the (old) lifts you already have. I don't imagine capacity is an issue, either- when I've skiied Grouse, there were no lines to speak of.

[Allan]

It's the same idea with us, we don't need quads, but it's the issue of people wanting to get up the mountain quicker, not more people up the mountain. So I guess it is a marketing thing! :)

[liftmech]

Great! If only we could run an area without marketing! But I guess word of mouth doesn't sell many lift tickets. I've posted this before, but I'll say it again here: Copper should never have built the Super Bee. They should have replaced the two old doubles, yes, but with two quads in the same alignment. The Bee is far too maintenance-intensive for what it does, but it was a marketing decision.

[SkiBachelor]

You should just lower the lift capacity to like 2400 by removing some of the carriers.

You could always convert it to a HSQ also by buying some new carriers.

[liftmech]

The capacity is already at 2400! That's why we have so many issues. Imagine if it was built to full capacity! I was told this summer that part of our problem was the terminals that we have. We should have bought bigger ones with a vault drive- apparently that would have cut down on many of the structural problems we've seen. This past summer Poma came out and helped us with a bunch of repairs and modifications, so hopefully the Beast will run better this winter. I don't think the quad idea will fly- Copper's invested too much money in the lift to drop from a sixpack to a quad. Not that it would change the capacity... I bet the grips would last longer too, since we wouldn't be able to change them to quad size grips.