75 replies to this topic

[iceberg210]

My best friends aunt is seriously thinking aboutstarting a ski resort in Wyoming and I thought that you "experts" would be the ones to ask for suggestions on misc. stuff.

So flood me with your knowlegde

And yes this is serious.

This post has been edited by iceberg210: 10 February 2004 - 01:40 PM

[SkiBachelor]

Well, there is a Montana ski resort that is looking to be closing their doors for good and removing the lifts if a buyer is not found. You might be able to get a few lifts from this resort.

There is also a POMA 6 person gondola for sale that has 29 towers, and is selling for $400,000. So your looking for $1.3 million installing this lift. You can call Jimmy King at 530-581-7127.

I will see what else I can find. It would be cool if we had a topo map and picture of this resorts location so it would help us plan out the mountain. :)

[Bill]

There is so much you need to know before planning out a mountain. Goto Crystal Mountains website and read through the DEIS and see how you need to get geologists on site to check out your dirt, timber people to make sure you dont have any rare Lichen in your trees, which wont allow you to chop them down, the riparian flows for water evac, wildlife habitat, pollution control, etc. Its a serious business just planning your runs and lifts. Its not, "That peak looks good" etc. Pretty amazing, best bet is to hire the SE Group out of Bellevue, WA, they will do it all for you and help you get your feet wet with the government on getting an OK on a project of that size.

[SkiBachelor]

I suggest SEgroup for base planning, and ECOsign for the mountain planning. I've skied a few SE designed mountains and I don't really find them that great of a mountain layout. However, I can't really say who's better since I have never used either of these companies and don't even own a ski resort. This is just my opinion of course.

[iceberg210]

All taken as opions.

But BTW we are not lokking into huge HS lifts at the moment our goal is to stay with a very low overhead at first and then go from there. Anyway I will get those topo maps up on the fourm ASAP

[Dr Frankenstein]

Install old used lifts.

[SkiBachelor]

Both Deer Valley and Mammoth Mountain are removing lifts and replacing them with new ones.

Deer Valley is removing the Sultan triple. A ski resort here in my state of Oregon recently bought a triple from Deer Valley and installed it at their resort. They did fund raising which paid for the lift and had volunteers install the lift for them. I think they got the triple for $90,000 or maybe less.

When Mammaoth Mountain replaced five of their doubles with new HSQs, they sat in the parking lot for a while until they were required to remove them by the state. They were asking way too much for these lifts and when they had to get rid of them fast, they sold one double to Silverton in Colorado for only $20,000.

Alpine Meadows also has plans of replacing one of their triples with a new HSQ and so does Kirkwood. Kirkwood might selling the whole-in-the-wall lift for cheap since they are kind of a low profile resort.

I would contact both of these resorts and see if they are going to sell these lifts and ask for their asking price. Fund raising is the best way to make money fast and easy, plus if you have the communities help.

You should really contact any resort that is removing chairlifts this summer or plans to and see what their price is and play around until you find the best deal.

[iceberg210]

Do you have pictures of these To Be Removed lifts?

Also do you think it is a good idea to buy lifts that have been sitting a while ie THe Dinasour at Hyak?

[KZ]

Mammoth is removing chair 17 this summer, a nice yan triple with bottom drive and hydrolic tensioning. Also the chair at kirkwood is probably a bit too short. The poma 6 person gondola mentioned above is located at squaw valley in lake tahoe. It probably wouldnt be too hard to acquire a few old yan lifts for reasonable prices. Resort Boneyard has a few and prices:

(2) YAN chairlifts: 1) '82 YAN triple, 1130 x 300, 75hp DC, 57 chrs/400FPM/1800pph, Riblet drive. 2) '86 YAN double, 2800 x 400, 100 hp DC/Base 10, Kissling 940, 142 chrs/400fpm/1200pph. Sierras. All offers considered. Knapp Associates, 260 Pinehurst Drive, Shelburne, VT 05482; Tel: 802-985-2221 or (US Toll Free) 1-800-451-5167; Fax: 802-985-3849; Email: knapp.associates@resortboneyard.com

You could also get some riblet lifts for cheap:

'73 Riblet Double. 3700 x 1200. 150hp vault drive. Mostly parts but all there. Also: '80 Riblet double. 2000 x 500. 100hp overhead drive. 14 towers. 100 chairs. 1 1/8. No rope. Ready to relocate. Offers. Northwest. Knapp Associates, 260 Pinehurst Drive, Shelburne, VT 05482; Tel: 802-985-2221 or (US Toll Free) 1-800-451-5167; Fax: 802-985-3849; Email: knappassociates@resortboneyard.com

[iceberg210]

Yeah Yans and Riblets would be a good combo given that they are both fairly cheep and extremely reliable.

[Bill]

Well the Dinosaur at Hyak would be a big project, I wouldn't recommend the Dinosaur, its in bad shape, towers, chairs, drives, etc. It has one destination and that is the scrap yard. You can find better used lifts. If you want info on what it took to build a lift from multiple lifts, contact Turner Mountain in Montana. They bought 3 or 4 doubles from Booth Creek and made them into one.

[iceberg210]

I wasn't suggesting the Dinasour exactly i was just thinking what you guys thought of using lifts that had been cloed for a while.

Tell me more about this chair 14 at Mammouth it sounds like a possibility.

[SkiBachelor]

Here are some pictures of Hole N' Wall at Kirkwood. Zack took these pictures last year.





To answer your question about profit, it's better having a chairlift than a t-bar. Here in Oregon we had two ski resorts that were both non profit and all their employees were volunteers. One ski area, Warner Canyon went from a non profit ski hill to a profit making one by adding the used triple chairlift from Deer Valley. It's a lot better to start off as a small ski area rather than a big one, but having a chairlift will make your mountain appeal to more people and increase your skier visits and profit.

[iceberg210]

True on the chairlift side of things.

Do you guys know the details on the HOle N Wall and Chair 17

Thanks

This post has been edited by iceberg210: 10 February 2004 - 04:08 PM

[KZ]

Ok, Chair 17 at mammoth is a 1979 Yan Triple chair. It is 3865 feet long, but only has 700 vertical. You could probably add vertical with some doppelmayr combination assemblies if they are needed. It is basically just a good old yan triple lift.

[KZ]

Chair 7 at kirkwood is a 1976 yan triple with a bottom drive and counterweight tensioning. It doesnt have much vertical, and it isnt a very long lift. Kirkwood recently replaced a yan triple in 2000, and a yan double in 1998. You should contact both resorts, mammoth and krikwood and try to get some more information. This sounds like quite a project. Do you have any specific locations for the resort?

[iceberg210]

When I get all the specifics I will post them on here.

[KZ]

cool. SOunds fun. What are you guys thinking about for funding the project?

[hyak.net]

If your starting an area on a budget then I suggest rope tows and T-Bars. If the place seems to draw any people then add a used double chair after a couple years.

The equipment is usually not the stopping of any new resort, but more the enviro-wacko groups (Sierra Club, etc) and the government.

[iceberg210]

A couple different scenerios.

1. Fundraising
2. Funding from different friends and families
3. Selling of stock
4. Loan

Number four and three are last dicth effort ideas though

Also Jack,
I have been looking at prices for lifts and seriously the T-Bar prices aren't much lower than the double or triple prices

But we shall see

This post has been edited by iceberg210: 10 February 2004 - 04:43 PM