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The towers are already in place. Perhaps they open it this season.



Just found this in a press release:
"New for 2005: Friendly Giant High Speed Quad replaced by 6 passenger Gondola – in operation Mid December."
This post has been edited by LiftFreak: 07 November 2004 - 02:38 PM

I wonder what type of terminal is going to be used?

I doubt they will build an enclosed terminal for it but if the lift gets new grips then a new terminal will probably be used

Probably just some sort of cover over an exposed terminal. Maybe it would be termprary or maybe they will just wait till next season and build some new building.

I kind of think that it would be a new terminal and girps. If that was the case, this gondola could be operational before the winter holiday maybe. Since the old gondola terminal was built inside a building and some of it still remains since it was part of the struture, it would cost too much to redesign and older terminal. When Sun Valley retrofitted its yan's, it only costed $5 million. So it shouldn't cost that much for new terminals and stuff.

That depends on what kind of shape the old terminal equipment and grips are. Going off my experince working on the Flyer (a year newer than this lift but with much higher hours) the mid-80s TB equipment holds up pretty well. If Squaw hadn't robbed too many parts off the lift, it could be in fine shape.

They probably weren't working on the stuff for a while, just letting it gather dust, that might make them worse

The only problem i forsee is that fact that the TB grips are not compatible with the new terminals so either a new terminal with the old equipment would need to be designed or a new terminal and new grips used.

Well all the machinery was taken out of Gold Coast so chances are they are going to try and build a new terminal using both old and new parts. I'm guessing the old grips will be used to save costs and all that. Remember the lift only cost $500,000 so spending another $500,000 to build some nice terminals and all still isn't bad. 1 million for a new gondola and terminals is quite the deal if you ask me. Sure beats paying 5 or 6 for a new one.

Yeah, Lake Louise made a very smart decision when purchasing this lift.

Yea, and with some simple upgrades like replacing the chair driven contour and just new sensors and electronics it will be just about as good as a brand new lift. I'm am still suprised how long it took for squaw to sell it.

I imagine areas with no experience working on the TB grips and terminals were leery of buying it, simply because it's old. As far as Tyler's observation that not working on the grips might make them worse- if I were LL's maintenance department, I'd rebuild every one of those grips even if they had been in operation up to last season. There aren't too many parts that wear out on the TBs; mostly you need to disassemble them and clean them up nice before you lube them up, and they should be good to go.
The TB grips are more or less compatible with the Omega terminals except for the compression rail. The Omega rail is much shorter (the grip opens and closes back up in a short time) plus it's 'warped' to allow full compression roller contact. The TB rail is much longer and is all in the same plane. The support or principal rollers are slightly different widths, and the lateral rollers are identical.

i heard that the old quad chair "friendly giant" at louise was condemned and this is what forced there hand to buy the gondola can anyone confirm this???


glad to hear that some consider this a good move,, lake louise is not considered to have made many,,

o the old gondola base is well below the base of the current hill ... this lift has not been used in a long time,, and i dont think they would use any parts of it for anything,,
i heard they were flying inthe new towers with a chopper about a week or two ago...

another rumor: they are getting rid of eagle double chair once the gondola is finished...

the guys at the lake should be ok with working on this old lift,, almost everything there is old

jimmyzee53, on Nov 26 2004, 08:17 PM, said:

TONS OF INFO ON THESE THREADS AND THERE MAY BE OTHERS. CHECK THE ARCHIVES.

http://www.skilifts....?showtopic=1599
http://www.skilifts....?showtopic=1349

If you want to direct your vitriol at anyone in particular about the condition of Lake Louise (and the closure of Fortress Mountain, in case you didn't know), your best bet would be in the direction of Charlie Locke - chairman, grand poobah and great exhalted leader of Resorts of the Canadian Rockies - also known as RCR or Really Crappily (run) Resorts. Oops, you can't! The company was forced into bankruptcy a few years back and one of the conditions of its emergence was Charlie's forced departure. Canada's Explore Magazine ran an interview/feature article back in March 2004 called 'Twilight of the Hardass', which garnered equal parts approval and disapproval from the readership, so it's worth checking out if you can find it.
From this humble snowrider's perspective, it's going to take more than a Gondola to bring LL's yearly visitor numbers back up to where they once were (Sunshine has kicked their ass regularly in total visitors for the past 4-5 seasons). It's a shame because I really used to love skiing there. Now, it's mostly the place I pass by when I'm on my way to Kicking Horse for the day.

In regards to the terminals the main structure componants left at squaw will be fabricated to spec and the resort will reuse the rest. To skin the lift i suppose that LL will just get a steel truss building and enclose the entire terminal,it is far easier and cheeper than fitting new terminals or fabricating a skin for the old.

The World Cup downhill was there on the weekend, as many of you may know. The terminal structure is up though i don't know if the tire banks and bullwheel have been installed yet. The snow has been cleared around the terminal but there doesn't seem to be any foundation work yet if infact there is going to be a terminal building.

My bet is it's probably going to be an exposed terminal, just like the top and bottom terminals at Sunshine.

No, it would be easier to just do a building around it instead of buying custom terminal skin

steel truss buildings don't need a full foundation just footing for each truss since these can get in the way while building the lift they will be more than likly poured after the majority of the terminal is built.

Search the local forum

http://www.biglines.com/phpbb/viewtopic.ph...=louise+gondola

http://www.biglines.com/phpbb/viewtopic.ph...=louise+gondola

Team Pigeon, on Dec 15 2004, 08:38 PM, said:

Gotta remember guys that Poma was shoe-horned into an existing building designed around the Yandola. The Poma gondola at Squaw was unique...one of a kind...not typical dimensions. Yes, yes Poma parts, but not in a normal configeration. Lots of one of a kind stuff. Good luck to Highlander on that install.
Hopefully LL bought new terminals.
Feliz Navidad!