5 replies to this topic

[snoloco]

I have noticed that some lifts gap valleys that are in their route, while others go down and up staying with the contour of the land. The Cloudsplitter Gondola at Whiteface goes down and up through a valley, while the Red Pine Gondola at The Canyons gaps the entire thing. Reasons I have heard to gap a valley are that fewer towers are needed, less towers are needed, and friction on the line is less. Reasons to go down and up are that it keeps the lift out of the wind, and it is easier to evacuate. Are these reasons correct?

[DonaldMReif]

I think it is dependent on the resort's preference.

Though sometimes I question if there are some lifts that would be better if they did up and down vs. gapping a valley or some uphill climbs. There's a section on the upper part of the Peak 8 SuperConnect between where it crests the steep climb up the Tiger chutes at towers 22 and 23 and tower 26 where you have a few towers with three-stage tubes, like tower 24. This section of the lift gets pretty windy and I've been on this segment to notice that the distance chairs sway up and down when the lift slows or stops for a mis-load or misunload is pretty significant, and those happen pretty often (the same goes for Lift 6). Here, I sometimes wish that Lift 6 had some extra towers on the lower part so that the rise and fall during slows or stops would be less significant.

Another example might be the High Lonesome Express, which uses the down and up thing about six towers up due to the profile.

This post has been edited by DonaldMReif: 26 April 2014 - 09:06 AM

[floridaskier]

Marketing as another reason? The Canyons in the early years had tower signs right before the gap that said "Welcome to The Canyons" and "Wow!" Especially if you didn't know it was coming, it was pretty spectacular

[DonaldMReif]

Slide Brook at Sugarbush does the down-and-up method a couple times as it crosses a couple of valleys.

The Peak 2 Peak Gondola goes for 'gapping the valley', with the span being long enough to basically say "do not ride if you are afraid of heights".

[skidude2]

Those signs at Canyons are actually back! They were put up sometime in March I think. One is on the Red Pine Gondola right as it crests at the top of Doc's Run and is about to go over Red Pine Canyon, the other is on the Orange Bubble Express as it crests over the top of Silverado Bowl.

The signs say: "WOW! Welcome to Utah's Largest Resort!"

It is way cool how right at those two points you can see the entire resort and just how large it really is.

This post has been edited by skidude2: 10 June 2014 - 07:39 AM

[fireonthemountain]

i imagine if you gapped a valley evacuation would be much more difficult as the heights make throwing a line over the haul rope nearly impossible... or even getting someone to slide out of a chair that is 150 feet in the air...also you would have to have much more specailized equipment and staff to deal with such a evac if it were something like a gear box issue or deropement or something