Lift Blog

Construction on Park City’s new lifts has noticeably shifted towards the new Quicksilver Gondola since my last update a few weeks ago.  Steel for the drive and return terminals is going up and there is only one tower left to pour concrete for.  The angle station is the least far along with just holes in the ground at this point.

The return terminal is going up next to the new Miners Camp lodge and Silverlode lift.  A cabin parking facility will be here and it appears it will be big enough for all the cabins, unlike the small maintenance bays at the Red Pine Gondola and Orange Bubble Express.  It looks like for the first year it will just have rails and no roof.  I’m guessing a building will be built over the whole thing another year.

Quicksilver will have 27 towers numbered from the drive terminal in White Pine Canyon.  There are only four towers in what used to be Park City Ski Area.  I did not realize until now that there will be a massive span over Thaynes Canyon that will rival the existing Red Pine Gondola with cabins at least 200 feet in the air.  Evidently Park City traded lower wind tolerance and a difficult evacuation scenario for fewer towers and a shorter lift.

There will be 14 towers between Miners Camp and the mid-station including three break-over towers at the top.  None of the gondola’s towers have been delivered yet as far as I could tell. Some of them are going to be very tall and in multiple sections.

Holes have been dug for the new angle station but no concrete has been poured and I couldn’t find any parts for it nearby.  Tower 13 on the Canyons side of the mid-station is the only tower footing which has not been finished.  It’s interesting that both sections have the same number of towers even though the Park City portion is twice as long.  The Canyons stage is much less steep and nearly flat for the first half.

The drive terminal is about as far along as the return; just waiting for a skin/windows and a lift shack.  All of the terminals are quite short unlike like the massive ones used on Beaver Creek’s Chondola last year.  The limiting factor on terminal length was probably space on Pinecone Ridge.  This may mean a slower line speed of 800 feet per minute instead of 1000.

I could not find where Park City is storing the new cabins which have apparently been delivered.  I looked all over for them on both sides of the hill but came up empty.  They were probably being hidden before the big logo/brand announcement on July 29th.  Does anyone know where they are being staged?