Skilifts.org / SORT Forum

Ok i had a question today while skiing...why would a lift need to operate in reverse. there was a trivia question by one of the lifties that said "what is the only lift that can go in reverse at copper?" well the obvious answer was timberline and it was indeed correct according to him. does anyone know why one would need this feature and why don't lifts made by Poma go backwards too?

thanks!

Our YAN's go backwards! We only use it to put chairs back on the line. Other reasons may be to get a hanging person back into the terminal and Scaring the crap out of people! Not all lifts are designed to go backwards... They would have to design the opening/closing rails to work in reverse & I don't know if Poma's done this.

i have seen poma's go backwards

For HS lifts i would hope that it is not full speed backwards and instead like 3 m/s on line and slower than 1 m/s through the terminal

Here are a few reasons why lifts are designed to go forward only.

Manufactures for years have tried to keep there lifts going in one direction only. History of rollbacks was a big design hurdle in 60s and 70s. A rollback of a Riblet lift at an Aspen ski area in 80s was one of the last embarrassing incidents in US. (Accident is difficult to find with web search and the lift has been replaced). Some of the larger lifts can have up to three self actuating anti-rollback (not service stop) brakes. The physical disengagement of these brakes is quite time consuming, therefore not practical. Pretty good reasons I must say.

Ryan B

Something in Doppelmayr's software requires their lifts to run in reverse in certain chair spacing situations. I personally have never seen this happen, but apparently it does. We run I in reverse only when we are putting chairs on or off line- it makes life much easier than running that chair all the way around.

Brad- you must have been at Copper yesterday (the 6th) because I saw that same trivia question at the bottom of Reso while freeskiing.

coski, on Feb 6 2004, 10:49 PM, said:

Okay, I don't want to rain on your parade, but Poma does not build lifts that can go backwards. You must have been present at a load test where the rollback and backstop brakes were disengaged, or you were looking at a Doppelmayr.

yea, the conditions were great, but it got a little cold at the end of the day

it might of been a dopp. i don't know. it was before i was interested in chairlifts.

The new doppelmayr gondola at mammoth can run full speed backwards to put the cabins on the line

i'd imagine a gondola would be easier to run backwards logistically. as the carriers are not direction specific like chairs are.

The Flying Mile Express (Dopp, Tremblant) can probably run backwards. There are opening and closing rails on both sides.
This post has been edited by Dr Frankenstein: 09 February 2004 - 06:32 PM

You're right, as Doppelmayr designs all their detachable lifts for reverse operation.

I love it on the HSQ's at Snowbird where they have signs on the towers saying

"This lift may run backwards in normal operation"

Sorry buddy but backwards sure doesn't seem normal to me.

Dr Frankenstein, on Feb 9 2004, 09:31 PM, said:

On February 2nd, I saw that lift run in backwards

Really wierd

all of our detaches run in reverse, and a couple of our yans do as well. We run our detaches in reverse to take carriers off or put them on again. When the lift is put in reverse mode, it won't run any faster than slow speed. Kinda funny to see the ski lift in reverse

I've been noticing that most of the Doppelmayrs at Vail and Keystone have these stickers that say something like 'This lift may run in reverse at any time' . What would require the lift to run in reverse during normal operation while people were on it during the day?

Doppelmayr's use this for chair spacing. However, this doesn't happen when the lift is moving, it may only move backwards after a stop.

QuickDraw Express can run Full Speed going Backwards.... (1100fpm)

How would going backwards help putting carriers on the line?

Also, is there a reason Poma doesn't have their lifts go backwards? As far as I know the opening/closing rail could support reverso operation, it seems to incline and decline at the same angle.