40 replies to this topic

[snoloco]

From what I know, a removed lift can have one of three fates when it is removed. They are listed below.

• Relocation: The lift gets relocated to either another spot on the mountain, or another mountain. Most parts are reused in the new lift.
  
• Spare Parts: The lift is taken apart and left in the resort's boneyard to be cannibalized for maintenance and spare parts used to keep other lifts of it's kind running.
  
• Scrapping: If the lift is completely unsafe or outdated, then it's parts are sold for scrap and nothing is reused anywhere.

Some examples of each scenario are below:

• Zephyr Express at Hunter Mountain is a 1987 Poma HSQ that was originally the Snowlite Express which was replaced by the Kaatskill Flyer in 2010. It was relocated to the west side of the mountain to replace the Y and Z lifts in 2011.
  
• The old Colorado Superchair at Breckenridge, from what I have heard, is being cannibalized for spare parts for the 4 other TB41 HSQ's at Breckenridge.
  
• The old Sojourn Double at Mountain Creek, as well as the lifts from the Vernon Valley Great Gorge days that were removed when Intrawest turned it into Mountain Creek, were completely scrapped. Some of the tower footings remain and some towers were left to rust away in the woods. The rest of the parts are no where to be seen anywhere.
  
• The Adirondack Express that is being removed, has been confirmed to be getting scrapped, not relocated. However, there is a chance the tower tubes are being reused for their next lift replacement.
  
• The Summit Local at Mount Snow was removed in March/April of 2011 to make way for the Bluebird Express. Originally they did not sell the chairs because they thought that they were relocating it. However, they just announced that they are selling the chairs, so it is either being scrapped, or being used to keep the rest of their Yan lifts running.

If anyone knows the fate of some other removed lifts, please post it. If there is another thing that happens when a lift is removed, please post it as well.

[DonaldMReif]

I've heard that the Colorado SuperChair's Omega chairs are going to the Beaver Run SuperChair. With no mountain cams, though, at Beaver Run, checking in through the website is impossible. Parts from the terminals might become cannibalized for the Falcon SuperChair, while the grips might become spares for any of the TB-41 high speed quads (though most likely not for the Mercury SuperChair or Rocky Mountain SuperChair, which are only 16 going on 17 this year).

Summit Express at Winter Park - similar story as Hunter Mountain's Snowlight Express. 1985 Poma high speed quad. Replaced with Super Gauge Express high speed six pack in 2005. The six pack reused some of the tower tubes of the old lift. The Summit Express is now the Liberator Express at Mission Ridge.

[Backbowlsbilly]

Vail used the Vista Bahn for parts on their other CLD-260's and I'm sure the same was true for Mountaintop when it was removed. Mt. Brighton got some of the chairs from Mountaintop as well on their two new quads. I'm pretty sure that the old River Run Gondola at Keystone was scrapped since it was getting up there in age and there are no other Von Roll gondolas operating at Vail Resorts, the original Yan River Run Gondola was scrapped too. Vail used parts from various old Doppelmayr triples (Sourdough, High Noon, Rose Bowl) on Little Eagle and Gopher Hill beginner lifts but Giant Steps and Highline, both Riblet doubles, were scrapped. Elkhorn at Beaver Creek was a relocated Doppelmayr triple but I'm not sure which one it previously was. Snowmass used parts from Fanny Hill on the Assay Hill and Meadows beginner fixed quads and the Campground lift has parts from another lift but I'm not sure which one.

[DonaldMReif]

Campground at Snowmass has parts from the original Aspen Mountan Ajax Express, when that was replaced with a Leitner-Poma quad in 2003.

[snoloco]

Some more lifts from Hunter Mountain:

• Y-Lift: Poma double chair that was removed and replaced by Zephyr Express in 2011. Most likely scrapped, or some might have been kept for spare parts for the H-Lift. Originally it was the F-Lift double, but they got a triple there in 1984 and relocated it to Hunter West.
  
• Z-Lift: Poma double chair that was replaced by Zephyr Express. Standing but not operating in 11-12 and removed and scrapped after the season. The chairs are in the boneyard awaiting sale or scrapping.
  
• G2-Lift: Poma double chair that was originally the G-Lift. It was an unnecessary lift once the Snowlite Express was installed. It was shortened and relocated to the beginner section as a bunny hill lift. It was removed in fall 2013 and replaced by a magic carpet. It was put up for sale on resortboneyard for $45,000.

And some from Windham Mountain:

• Why Not Triple: Installed by CTEC in 1987 on the new East Peak section. Replaced by East Peak Express in 2006. Relocated to the Wonderama slope as the new Wonderama Triple the same year to replace the original Wonderama Triple.
  
• Original Wonderama Triple: Originally a Carlevaro Savio double, it was converted to a triple at some point by CTEC. When replaced, the chairs were relocated to the Whiteway Triple (originally Von Roll with hall chairs) to replace it's original Hall chairs.

[Snowy Ferries]

Parts from the old C-2 at Mission Ridge have been saved and are being reused on their other Riblet Doubles, as well as to build rope tows. (The new #100 LAPS rope tows' terminals are old tower tubes from C-2.)

This post has been edited by Snowy Ferries: 03 June 2014 - 02:54 PM

[JSteigs]

Sometimes parts of old lifts stick around for a long time. Back in around 2008 or so, Squaw took a yan double ( high camp) and made it a triple using chairs from various lifts, a gearbox,and bullwheel from old headwall, a return bullwheel from somewhere at heavenly, and fabricated the cross arms in house. That lift was then removed, and relocated as mountain meadow in 2012.

[Nate214]

Most of the lifts here at Taos. Once removed have been cannibalized for parts and to build other smaller lifts and keep them going. Also parts from some other place have helped complete another little lift here a good while back. And installed a couple years ago a used lift from Deer Valley we used everything from that lift and had to build a tower, drive mast, and purchased more chairs and grips to complete that lift. The old lift 4 we used very little from that lift after removing from what I heard everything became benches around the resort, 2 sheaves and a half tower were used for another lift got about 4 sheaves around for that, some grip needles we used on another lift for a while, everything else sold off or scrapped. we have the carriage for that old Pullman Berry with gearbox and bullwheel been sitting in a boneyard in the elements for about 20 years.

[snoloco]

Backbowlsbilly, on 03 June 2014 - 01:55 PM, said:

I'm pretty sure that the old River Run Gondola at Keystone was scrapped since it was getting up there in age and there are no other Von Roll gondolas operating at Vail Resorts, the original Yan River Run Gondola was scrapped too.

Were any of the parts of the original Yan River Run Gondola used on the Von Roll River Run Gondola or any parts from the Von Roll River Run Gondola used on the Doppelmayr River Run Gondola? I'm thinking that the towers for the Yan and Von Roll lifts might have been the same and possibly the cabins, however, I don't know what exactly was done. I am pretty sure no parts from the Von Roll lift were used on the Doppelmayr lift, except maybe the motor room vault.

This post has been edited by snoloco: 04 June 2014 - 05:08 PM

[skier2]

snoloco, on 04 June 2014 - 05:07 PM, said:

Were any of the parts of the original Yan River Run Gondola used on the Von Roll River Run Gondola or any parts from the Von Roll River Run Gondola used on the Doppelmayr River Run Gondola? I'm thinking that the towers for the Yan and Von Roll lifts might have been the same and possibly the cabins, however, I don't know what exactly was done. I am pretty sure no parts from the Von Roll lift were used on the Doppelmayr lift, except maybe the motor room vault.

Not sure about the towers but the cabins for the Von Roll were definitely not remnants from the Yan.

[machskier]

Sunday River has some examples of removed and then mix matched together lifts. The Quantum Leap triple was mostly built up from parts of the south ridge double (towers and sheaves at least). Not sure if the drive was an upgrade, refurbed south ridge or other and not sure where the chairs came from but they are clearly not new chairs hung. I believe the Jordan Double is also a mix of new and old (the chairs are old for sure) though I think towers/sheaves are new for that.

[vons]

snoloco, on 04 June 2014 - 05:07 PM, said:

Were any of the parts of the original Yan River Run Gondola used on the Von Roll River Run Gondola or any parts from the Von Roll River Run Gondola used on the Doppelmayr River Run Gondola? I'm thinking that the towers for the Yan and Von Roll lifts might have been the same and possibly the cabins, however, I don't know what exactly was done. I am pretty sure no parts from the Von Roll lift were used on the Doppelmayr lift, except maybe the motor room vault.

Due to insurance issues post Teller lift accident I think not a single piece of the Yan gondola was kept and it all went to the scrapyard

[snoloco]

The Skye Peak Quad was a Yan fixed grip quad at Killington. When they replaced it with a Poma high speed quad called the Skye Peak Express in 2008, the tower tubes were reused, but to my knowledge, the rest was scrapped. The Devils Fiddle Quad was taken out of service in 2008, it was left "standing but not operating". The complete towers with the com line still up, bottom tension/return, and top drive still stand. Some of the drive components were removed and some old chairs placed inside to convert it to the one of a kind Motor Room Bar. The chairs were either sold off, used as spares for the Bear Mountain Quad, or scrapped.

The original 1971 Borvig Sojourn Double at Mountain Creek, as I mentioned above was completely scrapped. It was taken out of service in March 2010. They sold off some of the chairs, scrapped some, and kept some in the boneyard. The full complete lift was left "standing but not operating for two seasons with the cable still up, but no chairs on. In Spring/Summer of 2012, they tore the rest down, scrapped it, and installed a Partek Double in it's place that Fall which opened on January 5, 2013. I found some cool videos of when they removed it on youtube. This removal was done as cheaply as possible. The lift was being scrapped, so they didn't need to worry about damaging it. In the first video, they cut the counterweight cable, and the drive goes flying forward and off its tracks. In the second video, they cut the haul rope. In the third, they remove a tower by blowtorching it off at the footing and letting gravity bring it down. This was obviously very dangerous, and the guy with the blowtorch in the first two videos put it on a ski patrol marker to be able to stand further away from the lift.

https://www.youtube....h?v=9RRuyajRsRc

https://www.youtube....h?v=R1Bgij8fDZk

https://www.youtube....h?v=xD-7okf_uEs

This post has been edited by snoloco: 05 June 2014 - 06:02 PM

[Yooper Skier]

machskier, on 05 June 2014 - 05:12 AM, said:

Sunday River has some examples of removed and then mix matched together lifts. The Quantum Leap triple was mostly built up from parts of the south ridge double (towers and sheaves at least). Not sure if the drive was an upgrade, refurbed south ridge or other and not sure where the chairs came from but they are clearly not new chairs hung. I believe the Jordan Double is also a mix of new and old (the chairs are old for sure) though I think towers/sheaves are new for that.

Quantum was moved in '92 by Poma to make way for the South Ridge Express. The depression tower is Poma, the motor room enclosure is Borvig, Hall triple chairs came from somewhere as it was a double while the South Ridge lift. Drive and return are Hall. Jordan was built in '94 by CTEC and utilized the double chairs that were on the South Ridge Double. To accommodate the Hall grip, custom sheaves were made by CTEC that will only work on that lift. Cool little lift...they are both a couple of my favorites to work on.

[liftmech]

Removed lifts from Copper have gone everywhere. Old F (where the Eagle is now) is somewhere at Big Sky. I and J stayed here and became 4 and 6. H is at 49 Degrees North as the Angel Peak lift. B, B-1, and G were scrapped. Storm King is back as a park lift.

As I understand it, the Colorado from Breck is going to live on as parts of other lifts. Grips and chairs will go to Beaver Run, I'm sure the sheave assemblies (at least some of them) will stay as spares, I'm hopefully going to get some terminal parts for the Flyer, et cetera.

[vons]

looking on the web cam L-P removed the bottom Colorado nicely vs. how removal is usually done when the lift is just going to the scrapper.

This post has been edited by vons: 07 June 2014 - 11:13 AM

[boardski]

Will they get those towers removed before the summer program starts next Friday? It's sort of funny, I remember reading the announcement for the "new" Colorado detatchable quad lift in a ski magazine and it stated "A new high-speed quad replaces the 25 year old landmark, lift 1". More than 25 years later, that does not seem that long for a lift to run- especially a fixed-grip. Those lines for chair 1 were ugly though, A giant mob double or sometimes triple the size of the corrals. I spent a lot of time last season riding Challenger and Iron Horse at Mary Jane and those are closing in on 40 seasons of operation. I ride past a house in Westminster frequently which has one of the chairs from lift 1 under the deck. I actually remember them auctioning those chairs, my Parents said "no" though, since I had to ask them back then. That's OK, I have an old Riblet double chair from Winter Park (the one I am pictured sitting in) on my patio now.

This post has been edited by boardski: 07 June 2014 - 03:39 PM

[DonaldMReif]

Maybe they took down the terminals that way and intend that the parts be reused on other lifts that need them.

We also all know where Berthoud Pass's fixed grip quad went - Berkshire East. And their triple, last I heard, went to some place in Iowa.

[RibStaThiok]

That is correct, Don. Both still running well too, great additions to those resorts.

[RibStaThiok]

The old Littlecat Double at Snowbasin (1974-5ish Thiokol Double Beginner lift) Ended up being scrapped, with the following exceptions:
- Seat cushions went to another nearby resort (Wolf Creek or Powder Mountain I believe)
- All the chairs were sold (I was able to purchase one of em)
- Some of the Sheaves may have been saved for the Wildcat Tripple (1973 Thiokol Tripple) A few odds and ends were also saved for Wildcat, but the towers were scrapped, cable was scrapped, most of the terminals were scrapped (even the retrofit that Doppie did to the bottom terminal back in 98, to match the scheme of the 2 new lifts installed in 98 next to her) http://www.skilifts....t/littlecat.htm

Anyone remember that youtube video that was around for a few weeks of when Vail removed one of their Riblet Double or Tripple a few years back, (Highline?) showing the mechanics trying to beat the crap out of the lift as they removed the carriers/chairs and what not? I believe she got scrapped completely and it was a same as that lift was in prime condition, and looked almost brand new.