Month: August 2015

Park City’s King Con Express Taking Shape

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The same K-Max from Timberline Helicopters that I watched in Jackson Hole a few weeks ago flew the tower heads for the new King Con Express at Park City the same week.  14 of King Con’s 15 tower tubes were re-used from the previous CTEC detachable quad.  Most of the new six pack towers have short extensions to make them taller.

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Not much has changed at the bottom terminal except a pit was poured for the loading carpet.  Windows are being installed at the top drive terminal.  The haul rope spool was delivered to the flats between towers 4 and 5.  The six-person chairs are still down in Park City’s main parking lot.  King Con Express and Motherlode Express are both further along than the Quicksilver Gondola, which still needs towers and a mid-station.  Still, an impressive amount of work has taken place and I have no doubt Vail Resorts will have everything ready by November for Park City’s first season as America’s largest resort.

Touring Utah’s Newest Ski Resort

Peter Landsman6 Comments
Cherry Peak's brand new lodge and Gateway chairlift with three months to go until opening.
Cherry Peak’s brand new lodge and Gateway chairlift with three months to go until opening.

Utah may have lost a resort last month but now it has another.  I recently got the chance to tour what will be America’s first new ski resort since Tamarack Resort opened in 2004.  Cherry Peak Resort is under construction just outside of Richmond, Utah.  It is named after the 9,765 foot peak nearby but the ski area will not even reach 8,000 feet.  The resort was scheduled to open last season but never got enough snow and construction fell behind.  Cherry Peak Resort is owned by local developer John Chadwick and located entirely on his private land.  He has been quietly working to build the ski area for the past five years while buying used lifts and equipment.  To call Cherry Peak a resort is a stretch but this will be a nice community ski area with 1,265 vertical feet of skiing and three lifts.

Cherry Peak's trail map. Note the lift in the middle does not exist yet.
Cherry Peak’s trail map. Note the lift to the top does not exist yet.
Gateway chairlift which came from Blackcomb, BC.
Gateway chairlift which came from Blackcomb, BC.
Looking down the Gateway chair which still needs some paint.
Looking down the Gateway chair which still needs some paint.

Chadwick is currently running the ski lift version of a chop shop with used Yan lifts from across the west being cobbled together into three new triple chairs.  Two lifts, dubbed Gateway and Vista are completed and load tested.  Gateway was Blackcomb’s former Crystal Chair while Vista came from Sunnyside at Sun Valley.  Cherry Peak also bought multiple used lifts from Squaw Valley in 2012.

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Park City Quicksilver Gondola August Update

Peter Landsman5 Comments
Drive terminal of Park City's new Quicksilver Gondola in The Colony.
Drive terminal of Park City’s new Quicksilver Gondola in The Colony.

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.

Return terminal next to the new Miners Camp Lodge with future cabin parking facility.
Return terminal next to the new Miners Camp Lodge with future cabin parking facility.

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.

This is Tower 24 which will be on one end of a huge span to Tower 23.
This is Tower 24 which will be on one end of a huge span to Tower 23.

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.

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Did Northstar California Build a New Gondola in Three Months?

Peter Landsman3 Comments

It appears Northstar California replaced most of its Big Springs Gondola in just three months between the end of last winter and the start of this summer.  The bottom terminal of this 1985 Doppelmayr 6-passenger gondola was previously relocated in 2004.  From the below pictures on Instagram, it appears Doppelmayr installed brand new terminal equipment inside of the existing terminal buildings along with new Agamatic grips, hangars and line gear.  The first-generation CWA cabins were previously refurbished in 2013.  Maybe Vail Resorts got a ‘buy eight get two free’ deal on Uni-G terminals from Doppelmayr this summer.

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Lift Profile: Tote Road Quad at Loon Mountain

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Looking back towards Loon Mountain on the Tote Road Quad that connects to South Peak.
Looking back towards Loon Mountain on the Tote Road Quad that connects to South Peak.
When Loon Mountain in New Hampshire’s White Mountains designed their South Peak expansion a decade ago, they needed a way to move skiers between Loon Peak and South Peak over terrain too flat to ski.  Doppelmayr CTEC engineered the Tote Road quad, a two-way chairlift to transport skiers between the mountains.  This was a cheaper solution than building heavily-graded ski trails or a detachable gondola.

Doppelmayr CTEC Uni-Star drive terminal and loading area.
Doppelmayr CTEC Uni-Star drive terminal and loading area.
The drive terminal was sited along the Upper Bear Claw trail near the summit of Loon.  After loading here, the lift rises sharply to allow skiers coming from the other direction to cross underneath.  Tote Road descends modestly before climbing to the summit of South Peak.  The return terminal is located adjacent to the top of the Lincoln Express which also opened for the 2007-2008 season.  On the return trip from South Peak, skiers unload at a ramp well before the drive terminal but still close enough for the loading and unloading ramps to share one set of controls and a single lift shack.  To my knowledge, each end of Tote Road is always staffed by two operators even though Loon could theoretically get away with just one.

Tote Road has loading and unloading at each end.
Tote Road has loading and unloading at each end and three split towers.
Tote Road has 11 towers; the first three are split towers with different heights on each side. Its 89 chairs move 2,400 skiers per hour in each direction at 450 feet a minute.  Because the lift goes down before it goes up, the vertical distance between terminals is only 95 feet.  Slope length is just under 2,000 feet with a ride time of 4.3 minutes each way.  By these numbers, Tote Rode is a small lift but it is a very important link at one of the most visited resorts in the East.

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News Roundup: Adding Lifts

Peter Landsman2 Comments
Poma Omega sample cabin for Jackson Hole's new Sweetwater Gondola.
Poma Sigma sample cabin for Jackson Hole’s new Sweetwater Gondola.
  • The Balsams mega-project gets snowmaking water permit and releases its phase one plan which includes six new lifts.  That will be the contract of the year next summer if it really happens.
  • The owners of Saddleback have extended the deadline to find financing for a new lift before pulling the plug on this season.
  • Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe announces an $11.00 minimum wage for all resort employees next season.
  • Kitzbuhel in Austria will add another 8-passenger bubble lift for next season to be built by Leitner.
  • France’s Avoriaz also announced a new Poma six-pack.
  • Whistler will add the Creekside Gondola to its Bike Park starting Friday.  The gondola has been outfitted with the latest Deasonbuilt center-pole bike carriers.  Creekside will become Whistler-Blackcomb’s 11th lift open for summer operations including three gondolas and six detachable quads.
  • The Neptuno double chair (Poma) in Las Lenas de-roped off 5 towers last week thanks to an avalanche.  See photo below.
Deropement off 5 towers in Las Lenas. Photo credit: Snowbrains.com
Five towers de-roped in Las Lenas after an avalanche. Photo credit: Snowbrains.com

Teton Quad Going Vertical

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Breakover towers 13, 14 and 15 have metal plates for sun protection.
Breakover towers 13, 14 and 15 have metal plates for sun protection.

August is when most new lifts really start to take shape.  After months of digging, tying re-bar cages and pouring concrete, the public always seems to wonder whether the lift is going to be done on time.  I’ve been hearing it for weeks from locals on the tram here.  Then towers get set in a matter of hours and the perception changes.  Terminals go up almost as quickly.

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The Teton Lift is at that point with towers and terminals going vertical.  The Ranch parking lot is getting emptier by the day as terminal parts make their way up the hill for installation.  Trail crew is finishing grading the new trails and working on erosion control.

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The return lift shack arrived from Salt Lake last week and boy does it have a lot of buttons.  An automated maintenance lock-out mode.  ‘Start drive station unmanned.’  A really large touchscreen.  I can only imagine the drive controls will look like.  Remote start will be especially nice on a lift with a top drive terminal in a very rugged spot.  On big storm nights, JHMR already has three “night creatures” at the top of the gondola, tram and Thunder to start lifts. (and in the case of the tram, to start digging out the top dock.)   The top of Teton will definitely have patrol and possibly a fourth night man.

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Lift Profile: Collins at Alta Ski Area

Peter Landsman4 Comments
Most skiers who ride Collins have no idea they area actually riding two different lifts joined in the middle.
Most skiers who ride Collins have no idea they area actually riding two different lifts joined in the middle.

When it opened at Alta Ski Area in 2004, the new Collins lift was the 66-year old resort’s first base-to-summit lift.  It replaced two older Yan fixed-grip lifts and dramatically improved the skiing experience at Alta.  Collins is actually two detachable quad lifts joined in the middle at a 29-degree angle.  Its four Stealth III terminals were the last off the line following Doppelmayr and CTEC’s merger two years earlier.

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The lower section replaced the Collins double in a completely new alignment from the parking lot level of Alta’s Wildcat base area.  The Wildcat double’s bottom terminal was also moved downhill the same summer to be adjacent to Collins.  Stage I is only 2,727 feet long with a vertical rise of 741 feet, nine towers and ride time of 2.7 minutes.  It was designed to be able to operate independently at night with gondola cabins to serve events and dining at the Watson Shelter although this has yet to be realized.

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Approaching the 29-degree Collins angle station.

The angle station adjacent to Watson Shelter houses 500-HP drive motors for both sections.  There is no unloading at the angle station but skiers can load empty up-bound chairs.  Automated gates prevent skiers (remember this is Alta – no snowboarders) from attempting to load occupied chairs.  The last time I was at Alta, there was no loading at the mid-station until after 10 am to allow maximum capacity out of the base area.  After that, every 6th chair was left empty at the base to allow for loading at the mid-station.

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