13 replies to this topic

[liftmech]

When Breckenridge put in the Colorado SuperChair, they wanted to put the lower terminal where the bottom of 5-chair was. Did they adjust Colorado's profile to allow for this? Of course not- it's Breck! Home of the triangular T-bar and the world's first detachable quad, they had to come up with something suitably strange. Instead of moving the base of Colorado (which, keep in mind, hadn't been built yet) they bent 5-chair in the middle to move the lower terminal away from the Colorado. To do this they set up a series of new towers, three of which form the angle station. There are two depression towers bracketing a support, and the sheaves on the support are angled to turn the path of the rope. It's really a simple setup once you look at it.

Light side of towers 10A, 10B, and 10C.

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[liftmech]

Heavy side. In this photo it's easier to see the bend in the rope, and how the sheaves look out of plumb but are exactly where they need to be.

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[liftmech]

This has nothing to do with the angle towers, but as it's just uphill of them I took a picture for illustration purposes. The unload station for the alpine slide utilises a half-cap which bolts onto the tower for the summer, and is removed in the winter.

Just some more examples of how Breck seems to have way more than its share of strange lift applications, from the aforementioned T-bar to the Snowflake's highly involved 45-degree midstation to the double-loading sixpack. I suppose there's also the SuperConnect, which crosses both Beaver Run and C-chair plus has an angled midstaion, but those are old hat these days :---:

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[Kicking Horse]

i never noticed that....................

[snowboardguy]

That's very interesting. It's amazing how they think of all these ideas for there lifts.

[KZ]

Breck is funny. I guess they just have to have every type of strange turn and whathaveyou.

[snowboardguy]

yea..Why can't the jus thave lifts that go in a staight line from point A to B?

[SkiBachelor]

Well, this method that you see above was a lot cheaper solution than having to rip out all the towers and realign the top station and mid station. By realigning the lower terminal and towers, Breck saved a lot of money and time.

I think one reason why the snowflake lift has the bend in it is because if the lift did go from point A to point B, it would be crossing over a residential area, so this was the only solution. And if the lift did terminate where the bend is, you wouldn't be able to reach the base area where the Colorado Superchair is located. I hope that clears some stuff up. :)

[snowboardguy]

Yea that snowflake lift is pretty insane

[liftmech]

My point about 5-chair, however, is that it's much easier to adjust a profile which up to that point had been only on paper. The base of the lifts wouldn't be much different then they are today, and Rocky (which is on the other side of the Colorado) would have ended up further to the north.
Snowflake does run amongst a great deal of houses; I had forgotten about that. I suppose people didn't want towers in their backyards- NTIMBY instead of simply NIMBY...

[crazyskier91]

I like Breck for its cool lifts among other things, plus a lift that goes just from A to B is boring.

[floridaskier]

Why would they not just move the Colorado base terminal over a few feet? And how much farther over is the 5 chair base from before?

[liftmech]

I don't know why the profile for Colorado wasn't changed. Loking down the line of 5-chair, it appears that if it wasn't bent it would terminate right next to where the Colorado is now- not right on top of it, but close enough that the counterweight would be touching the corner of the terminal.

[floridaskier]

Is it much of a hassle to re-align terminals and towers like that?