29 replies to this topic

[skier2]

Given Lutsen's questionable history (they haven't listed any of the lifts that have been constructed since the 1970's) I was wondering if anybody knew the correct vertical and length, as well as year of installation of more recent lifts including
Mystery Mountain Lift
Bridge Lift
Caribou Lift
Bull Lift
Timberwolf Lift
Gondola

[Peter]

From the Installation Surveys, Lutsen installed 2 Riblet doubles in 1972, though I don't know which lifts they are. You can look in the surveys for the stats on those.

[Lift Kid]

Although I may live in MN, Lutsen is a ways away from the cities where I live. I have only been there once in the summer. I rode the gondola for the fun of it. From what I know, they have a lot of Hall center pole chairs. The gondola is a PHB/Hall. It is a manual attach system. The operator pulls the attach cord! This, I am afraid, is all I know.

[Peter]

The gondola came used from Loon Mountain, NH. It was built at loon in 1966, and removed 1989, so it was reinstalled at Lutsen sometime after that.

[skier2]

That's weird- from what I've heard Moose Mountain opened in 1986, and was serviced by buses and the gondola was installed in 1988. Also, the chairs are all RIBLET center pole chairs (not hall) and old style Yan doubles. The plans call for a new detachable or two, so it will be interesting to find out just how much vertical the resort really has- it fluctuates from year to year in the brochure. Also, it should be cool to see the new village that is to be built within the next couple of years. There has already been major construction of a township with house lots on the ridge that overlooks part of the mountain, as well as a remodel of the historic chalet, and a new chalet of 7000 square feet has been constructed atop one of the peaks. People take the area for granted- many do not give Minnesota credit for its skiing. Lutsen, afterall has about 1000 vertical feet and sprawls out over 1000 acres.

This post has been edited by skier2: 28 March 2006 - 06:30 PM

[Peter]

Moose Mountain, in Alaska, opened in 1986 with busses, and is still only served by buses. I don't know if thats what you are thinking of.

[liftmech]

No, part of Lutsen is called Moose Mountain. We've got a map in the shop but it's a strange one, so it's hard to tell how one gets around there.

[nathanvg]

Lutsen's biggest mounatin is called moose mountain. Moose mountain is connected to the older parts of the ski area by the gondola. Take a look at an uptodate trail map and you will see this.

http://www.lutsen.co...640TrailMap.jpg

You get back to the old ski area via run and lift up eagle mt.

[Lift Kid]

Sorry about that error with the "have a lot of Hall Center pole lifts" comment. I know for a fact that they have several. I also think that if our snow starts to improve here in MN they may want to be very careful with one section of the gondola. When I rode it, the weeds and grass hit the carrier which was only about 3 feet off of the ground at that section. What would happen with snow. They would need to do some clearing!

[skier2]

Typically they clear it every once in a while.

[skier691]

Lutsen. Ive been many a time there. This is what I know. Moose Mt is their largest. About 800 vert lift served. 1 old yan, a 'combo' special lift, and most receintly a riblet. A PHB/Hall Gondola originally from Loon services the almost peak of Moose from the main lodge area. Before it you could ski/skate a trail back to the base of Eagle or take a bus from the base of Moose to Base of Eagle. Eagle (650vert) has 1 riblet( with mid load for summer alpine slide, and 1 mueller lift. Ullr (300ish vert)and Mystery Mt(600 vert) each have 1 riblet each. All chairs are doubles. The gondola is quite a ride. You get to cross a river then shoot straight up a huge cliff. Big place. Any one of their mountains are bigger than 95% of all other midwest areas

[tcs]

 Skier, on Mar 28 2006, 06:52 PM, said:

The gondola came used from Loon Mountain, NH. It was built at loon in 1966, and removed 1989, so it was reinstalled at Lutsen sometime after that.

I'm pretty sure that the gondola was moved from Loon to Lutsen in 1988.

TCS

[Lift Kid]

I believe that is correct. Check it out at chairlift.org

[nathanvg]

 skier2, on Mar 28 2006, 05:17 PM, said:

Given Lutsen's questionable history (they haven't listed any of the lifts that have been constructed since the 1970's) I was wondering if anybody knew the correct vertical and length, as well as year of installation of more recent lifts including
Mystery Mountain Lift
Bridge Lift
Caribou Lift
Bull Lift
Timberwolf Lift
Gondola

I wouldn't call Lutsen's lift history questionable just because it does not appear in SAM's surveys. Many midwest ski areas have maintained very old lift, relocated lifts, and merged various lifts from there own area. These practices have not resulted in safety issues and have kept costs down. Relocations of any type are not on SAM's surveys and this is why you do not see more of lutsen's lifts on the survey. As for finding vertical and length, your best bet is looking up the topographical maps on the web at topozone or microsoft's terra server. The vertical they list on there website is a bit distorted. They list their "area" vertical which is misleading as you can't ski this vertical you would have to leave the ski area. The vertical they list for their sub mountains and as lift served is a good indication. I hope this helps.

[nathanvg]

 skier691, on Mar 30 2006, 08:41 PM, said:

Lutsen. Ive been many a time there. This is what I know. Moose Mt is their largest. About 800 vert lift served. 1 old yan, a 'combo' special lift, and most receintly a riblet. A PHB/Hall Gondola originally from Loon services the almost peak of Moose from the main lodge area. Before it you could ski/skate a trail back to the base of Eagle or take a bus from the base of Moose to Base of Eagle. Eagle (650vert) has 1 riblet( with mid load for summer alpine slide, and 1 mueller lift. Ullr (300ish vert)and Mystery Mt(600 vert) each have 1 riblet each. All chairs are doubles. The gondola is quite a ride. You get to cross a river then shoot straight up a huge cliff. Big place. Any one of their mountains are bigger than 95% of all other midwest areas

Lutsen is the biggest midwest ski area but lets not get carried away with "Any one of their mountains are bigger than 95% of all other midwest areas." There are tons of midwest ski areas that are larger than Ullr mt. There are even two that have a greater lift served vertical. And there are many that have more lifts. And there are some that are larger than even lutsen's biggest mountain, moose. Don't get me wrong, Lutsen is a very cool midwest ski area, it's just not the only one.

[skier2]

I'm not saying that the reason Lutsen is questionable is because the lift installations are not listed. It is moreso because of the things I have seen and heard partucularly during the summer. I am good friends with the son of a partial owner, and he has told me many things. And I do think that the area vertical is skiable, but there is no ONE lift that serves the entire vertical. if you ski either bridge run or mogen to bridge run on eagle mountain and then cut off at the moose access trail and take that all the way to the base of Moose Mountain, you have pretty much just skiied the enitre vertical- there is just no lift to bring you back up.

[nathanvg]

 skier2, on Apr 2 2006, 01:29 PM, said:

I'm not saying that the reason Lutsen is questionable is because the lift installations are not listed. It is moreso because of the things I have seen and heard partucularly during the summer. I am good friends with the son of a partial owner, and he has told me many things. And I do think that the area vertical is skiable, but there is no ONE lift that serves the entire vertical. if you ski either bridge run or mogen to bridge run on eagle mountain and then cut off at the moose access trail and take that all the way to the base of Moose Mountain, you have pretty much just skiied the enitre vertical- there is just no lift to bring you back up.

Take a look at the topo map and I think you'll see that even the route you describe above does not reach the area vertical that lutsen lists. Lutsen list a vertical of over 1000 feet which is from it's highest point (moose mountain 1688, eagle mt is 1660) to some point nearly level with lake superior. Lake superior is at about 600 feet.

[skier2]

I suppose that's true. I always thought that Eagle Mountain was higher just because that's what they always said. I believe the base of Moose is at about 850 feet, and this is backed- up by data from FIS.

This post has been edited by skier2: 03 April 2006 - 01:21 PM

[Lift Kid]

I will be traveling to Lutsen next weekend. I plan to take a bunch of pictures of their lifts for my website. I can't wait as it is my first trip to Lutsen in the winter.

[Lift Kid]

Well, after my trip, I have some questions. The Bull Chair has an odd drive. It kind of looks like a Borvig bull wheel. I was wondering if anyone knows about this?

Bull Chair:  Bullchair.jpg (277.91K)
Number of downloads: 102

A Borvig at Wild Mountain:  lift4.jpg (323.28K)
Number of downloads: 63