126 replies to this topic

[DonaldMReif]

skierdude9450, on 24 December 2012 - 12:36 PM, said:

Some pictures from Vail's completed Gondola One complete with a gold cabin #50 to commemorate Vail's 50th anniversary.

Seeing the style of those towers makes me think ahead to wonder if this is the tower head style Breckenridge will use when they build the Peak 6 expansion lifts. I wonder whether that will or will not be the case, considering that they might want a style that fits in with their other lifts, since all of their high speed lifts are Pomas.

Just food for thought.

[skierdude9450]

I doubt it as I think Leitner-Poma has gon completely to the LPA style, so they probably don't manufacture much of their old equipment anymore.

[DonaldMReif]

Well, I shot down the idea within seconds.

[liftmech]

I think Lift Dino has addressed this before, but towerheads are not chosen to 'go with' other existing lifts. It depends on what the manufacturer has in stock or can build.

[DonaldMReif]

Not necessarily "New Lift Construction", but "New Lift Repainting": I noticed today that Keystone did some more repainting on their high speed quads. The Montezuma Express, Santiago Express, and Outback Express lifts, plus Wayback, have dark green paint on their lift terminals (which I take is sort of a retro paint scheme, given that these lifts were built with that paint scheme, and then got repainted beige about seven years ago). They started this last year with the Peru Express and Summit Express lifts.

Here's what the new paint schemes look like (see other peoples' galleries for the old beige paints):

Outback Express:
http://www.panoramio.../photo/84014421

http://www.panoramio.../photo/84017070

Peru Express:
http://www.panoramio.../photo/84014411

http://www.panoramio.../photo/84014407

Montezuma Express:
http://www.panoramio.../photo/84014416

http://www.panoramio.../photo/84045689

Santiago Express:
http://www.panoramio.../photo/84017229

http://www.panoramio.../photo/84017162


Summit Express:
http://www.panoramio.../photo/84017156

I admit it, these look a lot better than the beige paints. It looks about the same shade as the green that Crystal Mountain uses on their high speed quads and six packs (so for a good comparison, see Green Valley, since that is a Doppelmayr high speed quad with terminals similar to those on the Summit Express and Santiago Express lifts).

For a comparison, the old versions of the paint schemes:

Montezuma Express:
http://www.skilifts....owerstation.jpg

http://www.skilifts..../topstation.jpg

Outback Express:
http://www.skilifts....owerstation.jpg

http://www.skilifts....topstation2.jpg

Peru Express:
http://www.skilifts....owerstation.jpg

http://www.skilifts....topstation2.jpg

Santiago Express:
http://www.skilifts....owerstation.jpg

http://www.skilifts..../topstation.jpg

This post has been edited by DonaldMReif: 30 December 2012 - 10:53 AM

[liftmech]

Green is the new black. Everyone's doing it. Kind of makes me wish for when I was a kid and lifts were painted various bright circus colours.

[skier691]

liftmech, on 31 December 2012 - 06:53 PM, said:

Green is the new black. Everyone's doing it. Kind of makes me wish for when I was a kid and lifts were painted various bright circus colours.

as the caretaker of a Pink, Yellow, Red, Blue, Green and Purple Lift, circus colors are horrible to maintain.....

[DonaldMReif]

skier691, on 31 December 2012 - 08:02 PM, said:

as the caretaker of a Pink, Yellow, Red, Blue, Green and Purple Lift, circus colors are horrible to maintain.....

You're from Red River?

[floridaskier]

liftmech, on 31 December 2012 - 06:53 PM, said:

Green is the new black. Everyone's doing it. Kind of makes me wish for when I was a kid and lifts were painted various bright circus colours.

The Canyons went from boring green and gray to their new orange and cream colors. Definitely more exciting

[DonaldMReif]

floridaskier, on 02 January 2013 - 06:54 AM, said:

The Canyons went from boring green and gray to their new orange and cream colors. Definitely more exciting

I could see that in the photos you've supplied us. Though I think they changed to it in time to coincide with the Orange Bubble's construction.

And if it hasn't been mentioned here, in another subject change, the Colorado SuperChair has new chairs, and a sheave train was modified on the uphill line at tower 15. You can see my YouTube page for a video of the lift with the new chairs.

[liftmech]

skier691, on 31 December 2012 - 08:02 PM, said:

as the caretaker of a Pink, Yellow, Red, Blue, Green and Purple Lift, circus colors are horrible to maintain.....

I'm sure. We've gone to grey towers (our old black faded to grey anyway) and are updating several a year. Paint's expensive, can't imagine doing your entire fleet at once.

[DonaldMReif]

liftmech, on 02 January 2013 - 06:35 PM, said:

I'm sure. We've gone to grey towers (our old black faded to grey anyway) and are updating several a year. Paint's expensive, can't imagine doing your entire fleet at once.

I know that when Steamboat repainted their high speed quads, it took about four years to do. I think that the year the Sunshine Express lift was built, the Storm Peak Express and Sundown Express lifts were repainted in their current paint - gray terminals with red tops. If it wasn't 2006, it would have been the year after, when the Christie Peak Express was installed. I know they had the red/gray paint in 2008 as I went up that February. It wasn't until 2009-2010 that the Thunderhead Express lift received the paint scheme, and the Pony Express lift only received it in 2010. It looks best on the UNI terminals of the 1992 Doppelmayrs, and not exactly half-bad on the others.

[Andoman]

DonaldMReif, on 01 January 2013 - 07:11 PM, said:

You're from Red River?

From the color pink I would assume he works at Shanty Creek.

[floridaskier]

floridaskier, on 24 December 2012 - 06:31 PM, said:

The new Mountaineer Express at Deer Valley. Replacing the Deer Crest fixed quad, this is a huge improvement. It's DV's first and only Uni-G, with Doppelmayr chairs and Austrian controls. It looks like they reused the tower tubes and footings, but reinstalled them with new Doppeltec ladders and towerheads. The Uni-G sure looks sharp. They also lowered the top section, which is very exposed. Today was really windy, and they had it running half speed. It'll probably be no more than a 4 minute ride on full speed.

Edit: attachment thing isn't working. Here's the link: http://imageshack.us/g/1/9933441/

Rode up Mountaineer Express at DV with a guy the other day who told me the 4-foot extensions on the bottoms of the two towers over the road were late additions (at Doppelmayr's expense), since the chairs were too close to trucks passing underneath. He said they only discovered this during testing, and almost didn't get it open in time. Looking at some other parts of the lift, it's really close to the ground, especially passing over Mountaineer run . I tried it out yesterday, and I could have hit skis with my pole, even in a bad snow year. Another foot or two of snow and they would really have to worry about ground clearance there. They took the Cascade run off the map this year, and the chair is way too low at that spot to ever open it again.

They reused the tower tubes from the old CTEC fixed quad, but with the opposite rotation direction (heavy side is now the uphill side), much longer HSQ hanger arms, and Doppelmayr sheaves mounted below the crossarms, the new chairs hang much lower than the old ones. I bet we see some modifications to Mountaineer over the summer to make it a little higher.

[DonaldMReif]

floridaskier, on 04 January 2013 - 08:20 AM, said:

Rode up Mountaineer Express at DV with a guy the other day who told me the 4-foot extensions on the bottoms of the two towers over the road were late additions (at Doppelmayr's expense), since the chairs were too close to trucks passing underneath. He said they only discovered this during testing, and almost didn't get it open in time. Looking at some other parts of the lift, it's really close to the ground, especially passing over Mountaineer run . I tried it out yesterday, and I could have hit skis with my pole, even in a bad snow year. Another foot or two of snow and they would really have to worry about ground clearance there. They took the Cascade run off the map this year, and the chair is way too low at that spot to ever open it again.

They reused the tower tubes from the old CTEC fixed quad, but with the opposite rotation direction (heavy side is now the uphill side), much longer HSQ hanger arms, and Doppelmayr sheaves mounted below the crossarms, the new chairs hang much lower than the old ones. I bet we [will] see some modifications to Mountaineer over the summer to make it a little higher.

I'd agree. I've read in a few places stuff that suggests Killington needs to make the towers taller on a lot of their lifts so that they'll have safer clearance for skiers on the trails underneath.

[missouriskier]

Here's the latest from Hidden Valley, MO:

The new West Mountain Quad Lift is a nice addition. Looking back in the lift construction survey from when it was originally built at Cherokee, VA in 1989, it was designed for 450 fpm. I would say that it still runs at that speed as it is easily the fastest lift here now. It also has seat cushions, which are always appreciated.

Now for the pictures:

The lower terminal:

 2012-12-26_15-07-04_60.jpg (1.27MB)
Number of downloads: 104

 2013-01-01_16-48-05_954.jpg (1.45MB)
Number of downloads: 141

Different shots along the line of the new quad:

 2013-01-01_15-44-51_784.jpg (1.8MB)
Number of downloads: 139

 2013-01-01_15-47-45_630.jpg (1.45MB)
Number of downloads: 128

 2013-01-01_15-47-51_944.jpg (1.26MB)
Number of downloads: 110

 2012-12-26_15-07-12_814.jpg (1.39MB)
Number of downloads: 117

The top terminal:

 2012-12-26_13-56-46_570.jpg (1.14MB)
Number of downloads: 117

The new "black" run, Cold Rush:

 2012-12-26_13-56-36_544.jpg (1.43MB)
Number of downloads: 114

The new blue run, Route 66:

 2013-01-01_15-41-09_749.jpg (1.4MB)
Number of downloads: 107

And, last but not least, the powerful snowmaking system that lets us ski in places like Missouri:

 2013-01-01_16-25-24_390.jpg (1.5MB)
Number of downloads: 85

Enjoy the pictures. Hidden Valley opened on Sunday, December 23rd, and with the exception of Christmas Eve, they have been open every day since then. I went on the 26th and on January 1st.

[boardski]

Does Hidden Valley get much natural snow? Or is it mostly machine-made?
Thanks for the pics. I have actually never ridden a Riblet quad but many of thier doubles and triples. Colorado has been full of center-bar Riblet doubles in years past but they are rapidly vanishing.

[missouriskier]

boardski, on 05 January 2013 - 04:03 PM, said:

Does Hidden Valley get much natural snow? Or is it mostly machine-made?
Thanks for the pics. I have actually never ridden a Riblet quad but many of thier doubles and triples. Colorado has been full of center-bar Riblet doubles in years past but they are rapidly vanishing.

Probably 95-99% of Hidden Valley's snow is machine-made. We do get more snow right in this area than most of Greater St. Louis (I live on the same ridge as Hidden Valley, just a couple miles west.) Average is probably 18 inches or so, we can get as much as 30, like in 2010-2011, or as little as 4-6 inches, like last year.

There are always enough cold nights to run at least 50 days, sometimes they can run 80 or so. The second weekend of December is as early as they open, the third weekend of March is a late closing. Usually the season runs from the third Saturday in December to the first or second weekend in March.

Hidden Valley's elevation is about 850-860 feet above sea level at the main summit. West Mountain is around 800. The base of the two quads is the low point, 550 feet, by the snowmaking reservoir.

The snowmaking is all manually controlled SMI fan/water snowguns, mostly Polecats. They probably have 80-100 total.

Edit: We did have 3 inches of snow on the ground on Jan 1. That is the only reason that the West Mountain lift had snow under it.

As for the Riblet chairlifts, I really like them. They did make center-pole quads as well. I have ridden a couple at Devil's Head Wisconsin. I also like riding the center-pole doubles, maybe just because they are so historical now, but there are less and less of them just as you said.

This post has been edited by missouriskier: 06 January 2013 - 06:49 PM

[DonaldMReif]

skierdude9450, on 24 December 2012 - 12:36 PM, said:

Some pictures from Vail's completed Gondola One complete with a gold cabin #50 to commemorate Vail's 50th anniversary.

I was on the Gondola One last week. There were still a few of the Vista Bahn's tower pylons still standing, minus their tower heads. I think they recycled parts of the old lift on the other Doppelmayrs - based on its sound, I think the Vista Bahn's motor went to the Game Creek Express lift.

I don't know whether the new gondola or the old chairlift was better. I think the only reason the gondola is good here is because it's just an access lift, although it does feel unusual putting your skis on at Mid-Vail instead of at the base of the mountain. I still think that Vail needs to make it so that you can have a one seat chairlift ride to terrain without needing to go up One and then take the Wildwood Express lift or Mountaintop Express lift. It probably won't happen, but it would be very practical to have a high speed quad run from Vail Village up to the first Pika switchback, hence providing direct access to Lodgepole, Columbine and Bear Tree without going the long way 'round through Mid-Vail. That and possibly the construction of a lift on the Minnie's line would improve the space between the Eagle Bahn and Avanti. Perhaps another lift from the bottom of Riva Ridge to the top of Christmas would make it possible to go from Golden Peak to Mid-Vail in two lift rides via the Riva Bahn midstation and take some of the crowds off Northwoods.

Anyways, what I think of the cabins is that they are quiet. The spans are a lot longer and higher - only 24 towers as opposed to 33 for the chairlift. They also cut a lot of trees because of the wider line. For general reference, the Vista Bahn's unload terminal was where the cabin parking garage is now located. The load terminal is in the location of the old one. Vail is good at having people at the top help remove your skis, but you have to load them yourself at the bottom and it's quite a bit of a challenge getting them into the rack space in the few seconds.

I know that the lift is new, and all that, but the cabins definitely are nicer than those on the BreckConnect Gondola. Of course the BreckConnect's windows are all scratched and dirty and bad for viewing out of because Breckenridge didn't put outside storage racks for ski equipment, but that isn't the point.

Anyone been out to Squaw lately to see the new Blue Bird lift?

This post has been edited by DonaldMReif: 09 January 2013 - 04:13 PM

[liftmech]

Nice to see Hidden Valley is repurposing a good lift. I worked on two Riblet quads and helped build a third-- solid machines. Very basic but that's okay.