34 replies to this topic

[DonaldMReif]

What are several of the shortest high speed lifts, six pack, gondola, or quad, that you have been on or know of? And I'm talking of ones that are so short you wonder why a fixed grip lift couldn't do the same job there.


Ones that come to mind for me are:

1. Soudough Express at Vail. It's 0.46 miles, services beginner terrain, and has footrests for a 2.5 minute ride. For a beginner lift, they run it at the full 1,000 fpm. I think it had a lot of misloads when it had a 90 degree load (changed to in-line loading in 2010, I think because Vail wanted to make it so that skiers coming from Patrol Headquarters wouldn't have to make a gooseneck turn to line up with the lift, but that's not important now). I guess the lower speeds of the chairs while loading was one reason for the upgrade in 2007, but another might as well be for the convenience of skiers who want full detachable lift service across the entire mountain.

2. Buckaroo Gondola at Beaver Creek for their BC Village Learning Slope.

3. Excelerator at Copper is 0.46 miles, but it has its own run pod. The ride time is still three minutes.

4. Imperial at Breckenridge counts at a half-mile in length. Its horizontal distance is shorter than that of Lift 6, the lift you take to get to Imperial. At least "short" is prevented with the other quads, all of which are at least a mile in horizontal length (the Rocky Mountain SuperChair is exactly one mile).

5. The Gemini Express at Winter Park - 1993 Poma high speed quad that is just under a 1/2 mile in length. I guess its placement is justified beause it's slowed a little bit more for beginners. The Prospector Express isn't much longer, but it also has runs for other skill sets.

6. Ute Park at Telluride. It's got 9 towers, sure, but it's only got a 300 foot vertical rise and a ride time of what must be all of three minutes. It's short enough that a fixed grip quad with a five minute ride could be just as useful there. But considering that Ute Park is also used to transfer from the two-mile long Sunshine high speed quad over to Gold Hill and Prospect Bowl....

[SkiLiftsRock]

Here is another,

Easy Rider Express at Sierra at Tahoe, California.

Installed 1996 by Doppelmayr

On the beginer run, 4 towers and about 1,150 feet long (0.22 Miles). 30 carriers.

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Number of downloads: 119

This post has been edited by SkiLiftsRock: 09 October 2012 - 06:31 PM

[DonaldMReif]

I actually thought of that one, you know!

This post has been edited by DonaldMReif: 09 October 2012 - 06:39 PM

[ptolemy]

First Time @ Park City UT 1800'
Monadnock @ Wachusett MA 2300'
Mt. Rosebrook @ Bretton Woods NH 2500'
Coleman Brook @ Okemo VT 2500'

[DonaldMReif]

The Chondola at Telluride is 2,917 feet. A little over a half mile in length.

SkiLiftsRock, on 09 October 2012 - 06:29 PM, said:

Here is another,

Easy Rider Express at Sierra at Tahoe, California.

Installed 1996 by Doppelmayr

On the beginer run, 4 towers and about 1,150 feet long (0.22 Miles). 30 carriers.

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I wonder what person thought that slope justified an HSQ. I know for a fact that all of Keystone's high speed quads exceed 0.90 miles in length, with the Santiago Express being the shortest at 4,464 feet; the Outback Express lift is 5,661; the Peru Express lift is 6,165; the Montezuma Express lift is 6,873 feet; and the Summit Express is the longest at 9,200 feet.

Black Mountain at A-Basin is also a short HSQ, at 2,821 feet.

I did not include East River at Crested Butte as it is more than 0.60 miles in length.

[chairliftsrcool]

Raven Express at Wolf Creek?

[DonaldMReif]

chairliftsrcool, on 09 October 2012 - 08:48 PM, said:

Raven Express at Wolf Creek?

At 2,624 feet? Yeah, that's short.

[SkiBachelor]

Sunrise Accelerator at Mt. Bachelor is 1,880'

[pp492]

Bittersweet, MI @ 1816'.
Alpine Valley WI has 3 HSQ all at about 1/2 mile.

[jaytrem]

The Canada Olympic Park ones are quite short. The older one I see listed as 597 meters (1958 feet), and the new one listed at 500 meters (1640 feet). I assume there is some rounding going on for the new one, and I not sure it's even been completed yet. When I was there in Feb the had the lower terminal and towers in, but where still moving a massive amount of dirt around the top.

[skier691]

99' Alpine Valley, WI #7 = 1426'
97' Mt Holly, MI = 1465'

[Peter]

These are all less than 2000', ordered from shorter to longer:

1. Tremblant Cabriolet 1100
2. Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort Easy Rider Express 1165
3. Horseshoe Resort Chair 3 1400
4. Alpine Valley Resort Super Glide 1421
5. Alpine Valley Resort Valley Flyer 1426
6. Winter Park Resort Cabriolet 1436
7. Mount Holly 3 Mach 1 Express 1465
8. Stowe Over Easy 1483
9. Snowbasin Littlecat Express 1579
10. Beaver Creek Resort Buckaroo Gondola 1671
11. Canada Olympic Park 1716
12. Texas State Fair Texas Skyway 1738
13. Ski Bittersweet Sweet Express 1816
14. Park City Mountain Resort First Time 1823
15. Mammoth Mountain Ski Area 11 Discovery Express 1875
16. Mount Bachelor Sunshine Accelerator 1888
17. Big White Ski Resort Lara's Gondola 1909
18. Boyne Mountain Mountain Express 1941
19. Canada Olympic Park Legacy Express 1959

[Yooper Skier]

Boyne Highlands - Heather Express @ 2,850
Crystal Mountain (Michigan) - Crystal Clipper @ 2,167
Sunday River - South Ridge Express @ 3,074

[liftmech]

Imperial at Breck is a detach so they can remove the carriers at night.

[DonaldMReif]

liftmech, on 10 October 2012 - 07:06 PM, said:

Imperial at Breck is a detach so they can remove the carriers at night.

Forgot about that. Things do freeze more up in Imperial Bowl than they do lower down.

[cjb]

DonaldMReif, on 09 October 2012 - 08:42 PM, said:

I wonder what person thought that slope justified an HSQ.

For a lift that services almost exclusively beginners a detachable is the most customer friendly way to go, except for maybe a conveyor which were not so prevalent in 1996 when easy rider was installed.

This post has been edited by cjb: 10 October 2012 - 08:21 PM

[DonaldMReif]

Yeah. Ute Park at Telluride was what got me interested in creating a thread for listing these short HSQs. That thing's short enough to qualify as servicing a bunny hill. All it really does is service a few bunny greens and also allow skiers to get from Sunshine over to the Prospect Bowl and Gold Hill Express lifts.

[2milehi]

liftmech, on 10 October 2012 - 07:06 PM, said:

Imperial at Breck is a detach so they can remove the carriers at night.

That use to be the case when it first opened up six years ago but now they are left on line when Imperial opens to the public. When winter ends then all but one chair comes off.

[DonaldMReif]

2milehi, on 13 October 2012 - 04:08 AM, said:

That use to be the case when it first opened up six years ago but now they are left on line when Imperial opens to the public. When winter ends then all but one chair comes off.

When did you change procedures? I gather that there are occassional issues with rime build-up at the top.

And I haven't been up that far, but I wonder if Imperial's top terminal has ever been buried under snow drifts considering its location. I've only been as high as Lift 6.

[SkiLiftDude]

The Rocket at Crotched Mountain,NH. 4 minute ride-time.