22 replies to this topic

[coskibum]

Segundo:







does anyone know for sure where the towers on this lift came from? cameron was saying on the coloradoskihistory forum that they might be american steel and wire towers?

Primo

[Kicking Horse]

Brad, The Segundo lift came from Aspen Mountain. (this is what i was told by Sunlight people last year)

[liftmech]

That would make sense as there are two styles of Riblet towers plus those latticework ones. The bottom terminal looks like an old Riblet one, but it's hard to fully identify from the photo.

[coskibum]

would it be from parts of the lift that ran where the shadow mtn is now?

[Kicking Horse]

I think so. The lift was installed in the early to mid 50's @ Aspen. Shadow mountain was installed in 1971. And Segundo was installed @ Sunlight in 1972.
Let me find my Sunlight pics and I will post some of this lift.

This post has been edited by Kicking Horse: 03 March 2006 - 09:25 AM

[Kicking Horse]

some pics of Segundo

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•  sunlight10.JPG (507.15K)
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•  sunlight9.JPG (425.43K)
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•  sunlight45.JPG (421.29K)
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•  sunlight50.JPG (306.04K)
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•  sunlight55.JPG (349.38K)
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•  sunlight57.JPG (294.79K)
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•  sunlight61.JPG (370.41K)
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•  sunlight64.JPG (289.71K)
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•  sunlight65.JPG (426.29K)
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•  sunlight71.JPG (288.33K)
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•  sunlight78.JPG (331.23K)
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[skiersage]

Just based on the fact that the old towers on chair 1 (it was called chair 1 and not shadow mountain, the newer sli was called chair 1a before it was given the name shadow mountain) look like this and as well the fact that the lower tension station is still on the old lift, I don't think that the parts on segundo are from chair 1. I think that when sunlight said that segundo was from aspen mountain they may have been talking about the parts on it that we know are made by Riblet. I would however believe that those heron towers cam from the original bell mountain lift as that is the only other lift at aspen that it could have been.

On the other hand, I have never seen a lift that has two different types of towers with two different of sheaves. A classic and interesting lift indeed.

[tcs]

Okay, here is part of the answer. The Segundo chair at Sunlight did come from Aspen Mtn. It was chair 3, not chair 1. It was located where chair 3 is now. It was a HERON. It was installed at Aspen in 1954 and removed in 1969. Aspen saved the chair for possible use at "Haystack" but that project was canceled due to tree huggers.

In early 1972 Aspen traded the chairlift to Sunlight in return for Sunlight stock. Aspen agreed to do the engineering and install the lift or sell it as is for cash. During the summer of 1972, Aspen could not agree with Sunlight on the lift path and other engineering details so they backed out. They sold Sunlight the lift and gave them the engineering drawings. It took Sunlight until the 73-74 season to get Segundo operational (altho their trail maps show it in 72).

Here is some more info that may or may not prove useful. Sunlight also had a Hall chairlift. It was the "West" bunny chair and operated from 1968 to 1972. The original (new) chair operated at Glenwood Mountain Park for the 65-66 season. It was only 900 ft long and had only six towers. Is it possible that the Hall chair parts were used for Segundo?

It is interesting to note that for a few years after Segundo opened, the Sunlight trail maps listed two chairlifts, a Riblet (Primo) and a Hall.

The above information comes from a Forest Service booklet called Sunlight Ski Area Chronology by Paul Hauk.

Question: If most of the chairlift came from a 1954 Heron, does that make Segundo the oldest operating chairlift in Colorado? (Brad?)

TCS (useless info are us)

[coskibum]

Quote

Is it possible that the Hall chair parts were used for Segundo?

it is for sure not hall or has any hall parts.

did the glenwood mtn lift go to snowmass as the assay hill lift. that is the only hall lift in the valley?

Quote

Question: If most of the chairlift came from a 1954 Heron, does that make Segundo the oldest operating chairlift in Colorado? (Brad?)

hmmm....well its parts might be (1954), but it was a reinstall (1972), so then no. Loveland has one from '65 and there are still some miner denver and heron poma lifts hanging on as well from back then (late 60s/early 70s.

[Carl]

The Casper Triple at JH, a '74 vintage Heron Poma, has CTEC sheavetrains on it's lower compression towers. The outer rim of the sheaves were machined down to permit the HP grip to pass underneath.

"Combo" lifts are around this industry, eh?

Carl

[poloxskier]

I was told that the west chair, the hall from glenwood mountain was located in the area indicated in the area on this map. I was also told that at one point there may have been a t-bar or rope tow where indicated as well. TCS maybe you can verify either of these?

Attached File(s)

•  sunlight.jpg (263.58K)
  Number of downloads: 71

This post has been edited by poloxskier: 03 March 2006 - 11:30 PM

[tcs]

coskibum, on Mar 3 2006, 07:10 PM, said:

Did the glenwood mtn lift go to snowmass as the assay hill lift? That is the only hall lift in the valley?

I show the Assay lift going in in 1969 -- so the timing doesn't work as the Hall was still at Sunlight.

poloxskier, on Mar 4 2006, 12:30 AM, said:

I was told that the west chair, the hall from glenwood mountain was located in the area indicated in the area on this map. I was also told that at one point there may have been a t-bar or rope tow where indicated as well. TCS maybe you can verify either of these?

a. The West chair was located where you show it on the Sunlight trail maps of the era. However I don't believe it was there, for 3 reasons:
1) That terrain doesn't show up on aerial pix.
2) It would appear that you can't reach the bottom of the lift from the base area. How could you have a treaching lift with no access?
3) I skied Sunlight in 1974. As I skied down the lower UTE trail, there was a wide meadow, skier's left. There were still lift tower foundations at that time.

So I believe that the chairlift was on Ute, but I don't know if it reached the base area. Maybe they used over snow vehicles to get students to it -- and that is why the lift was a failure.

b. There was a rope tow where you showed but not at Sunlight! Sunlight was built at the location of a Lost Ski Area named Holiday Hill. The latter operated from 1947 to 1950, had a rope tow, and a vertical of about 400 ft. The tow ran up the "Trough" trail, which has been renamed "Showdown".

TCS (trivia are us)

[poloxskier]

The info that I got was that there were two runs that were removed from the map when the west lift was removed. I can see on the aerial photos, what looks to be a run that was cut that is being revegitated. I'll try to get a copy of it downloaded and posted here.

[coskibum]

is this what you were thinking?

Attached File(s)

•  sunlight.jpg (126.08K)
  Number of downloads: 50

[poloxskier]

No I think thats power lines, I was refering to the cut that is at the top left of the circle as being one of the closed runs that is being reforested with the west lift running up Ute.

TCS I was also told that the car that was used to drive the old ropetow is still up there in the trees but I was unable to locate it.

Attached File(s)

•  sunlight.jpg (126.76K)
  Number of downloads: 27

This post has been edited by poloxskier: 05 March 2006 - 03:21 PM

[liftmech]

The bottom terminal is definitely a Riblet- it's identical to the one I used to crawl around on at Baker on chair 1. The drive terminal is not the same vintage. Riblet probably sold them some parts to complete the re-install; there are two different vintages of towers as well.

[poloxskier]

tcs, on Mar 3 2006, 04:39 PM, said:

Okay, here is part of the answer. The Segundo chair at Sunlight did come from Aspen Mtn. It was chair 3, not chair 1. It was located where chair 3 is now. It was a HERON. It was installed at Aspen in 1954 and removed in 1969. Aspen saved the chair for possible use at "Haystack" but that project was canceled due to tree huggers.

In early 1972 Aspen traded the chairlift to Sunlight in return for Sunlight stock. Aspen agreed to do the engineering and install the lift or sell it as is for cash. During the summer of 1972, Aspen could not agree with Sunlight on the lift path and other engineering details so they backed out. They sold Sunlight the lift and gave them the engineering drawings. It took Sunlight until the 73-74 season to get Segundo operational (altho their trail maps show it in 72).

Here is some more info that may or may not prove useful. Sunlight also had a Hall chairlift. It was the "West" bunny chair and operated from 1968 to 1972. The original (new) chair operated at Glenwood Mountain Park for the 65-66 season. It was only 900 ft long and had only six towers. Is it possible that the Hall chair parts were used for Segundo?

It is interesting to note that for a few years after Segundo opened, the Sunlight trail maps listed two chairlifts, a Riblet (Primo) and a Hall.

The above information comes from a Forest Service booklet called Sunlight Ski Area Chronology by Paul Hauk.

Question: If most of the chairlift came from a 1954 Heron, does that make Segundo the oldest operating chairlift in Colorado? (Brad?)

TCS (useless info are us)

Heres a pic of Segundo originay installed as the Bell Mountain Lift at Ajax.
 IMG_0869.jpg (54.7K)
Number of downloads: 49

This post has been edited by poloxskier: 23 March 2006 - 12:04 AM

[coskibum]

it looks like that lift has clips and not grips. was it a heron or riblet initially or a modified heron at that picture's time?

[liftmech]

Riblet did a few modifications like that, mostly for customers who were unsatisfied with the grips that came with their lift. Herons of that vintage had those strange rubber-wrapped grips like chair 4 at Loveland. I'm guessing it was a modification like that.

[tcs]

poloxskier, on Mar 23 2006, 01:03 AM, said:

Heres a pic of Segundo originay installed as the Bell Mountain Lift at Ajax.
attachment

Hey Bryan, that's the second time I've seen you refer to this lift as the "Bell Mountain" lift. Bell Mountain is Lift #5 and goes to the top of Bell Mtn. The Heron lift I was referring to was Lift #3 which goes all the way to the top of Ajax. Which lift is the picture of?

Cheers, TCS