Twenty years ago this spring, 15 resorts faced near-disaster when the high-speed lifts they spent more than $50 million to build proved to be of faulty design and had to be retrofitted or replaced just a few years later. Lift Engineering, the company founded in 1965 by Yanek Kunczynski and more commonly called Yan, entered the detachable lift market in 1986 at June Mountain, CA reportedly after just one year of development. Yan built a total of 31 detachable quads in the US and Canada between 1986 and 1994. The majority of Yan’s customers were repeat clients such as Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation, which bought three high speed quads and the Sun Valley Company, which purchased seven. Whistler’s general manager would later write to Lift Engineering describing his team as the “unwitting recipients of a research and development project.”
Frenchman’s is one of seven high speed quads on Bald Mountain built by Yan and retrofitted by Doppelmayr after accidents elsewhere. The original Yan teardrop chairs are some of the most comfortable I’ve ever ridden.Three incidents in two years sealed the fate of Yan detachables and eventually forced Lift Engineering to liquidate. On April 4, 1993, a 9-year old boy was killed and another child injured when loose bolts and a subsequent derailment caused two chairs to stack up on Sierra Ski Ranch’s Slingshot lift. The same lift had sent an empty chair to the ground two months prior when a grip failed. Lift Engineering settled a wrongful-death suit after the accident for $1.9 million. Sierra Ski Ranch’s marketing director would later state, “we found they just didn’t withstand the test of time” when the company committed $6 million to replace its three Yan detachables in 1996.
A Yan type-11 grip with marshmallow rubber springs on a bubble chair from Whistler’s Quicksilver high speed quad.On December 23rd, 1995, a routine emergency stop on the Quicksilver high speed quad at Whistler Mountain initiated a chain reaction crash of four down-bound chairs, plunging skiers 75 feet onto the Dave Murray Downhill course below. 25-year old Trevor MacDonald died at the scene, nine people were seriously injured, 200 had to be evacuated and a second guest died 12 days later. The coroner’s investigation revealed Yan’s design failed to maintain the required 15-degree lateral swing clearance over towers, causing damage to grips over time. The type-11 grips could not maintain adequate clamping force for the maximum 38-degree rope angle on Quicksilver between towers 20-21 (Quicksilver was the only lift built with Yan’s type-11 grip owing to its heavier chairs with bubbles, the rest had the type-7 grip.) On two prior occasions, empty chairs had fallen from Quicksilver’s line, including one time three weeks prior to the deadly accident and in the same location. Leading up to December 23rd, mechanics were getting grip force faults 20+ times a day and had reportedly stuffed paper into the corresponding alarm. At the time, detachable lifts were relatively new and not required to stop automatically as a result of a grip force fault.
Shortly after the Whistler accident, mechanics at Schweitzer in Idaho found cracks in its Yan type-7 detachable grip jaws and shut the lift down for the remainder of the season. “There were a lot of quality control problems,” Schweitzer’s mountain manager told the Wall Street Journal in 1997. The loss of a workhorse lift at the height of ski season through the following Christmas and resulting $1 million retrofit by Doppelmayr forced Schweitzer into bankruptcy.
Schweitzer’s Great Escape Quad retains Yan towers, operator houses, control systems, electric motor and gearbox while using Doppelmayr chairs, detachable grips and line equipment.Yan type-7 grips used at Schweitzer/Sierra and type-11 grips on Quicksilver utilized rubber “marshmallow” springs manufactured by Firestone rather than the helical, metal springs that are industry standard. Rubber proved susceptible to changing temperatures in mountain environments. Both grips relied on gravity such that grip force would be reduced when the line would bounce. Les Okreglak, a former Yan engineer, formed a company called Pol-X-West to develop a replacement grip using four coil springs compatible with Yan terminal equipment. Pol-X-West replaced grips on four lifts at Lake Louise and Silver Star in time for the 1996-1997 ski season.
The 1996 retrofits were such a massive undertaking that June Mountain operated its quads for a season without covers on the tire banks.Most customers opted to completely replace Yan detachable equipment, in part due to the US Forest Service requiring replacement of Yan detachables operating in National Forests. Quicksilver never re-opened and Whistler Mountain spent $6.2 million to replace the lift with a Poma gondola the following summer. Eight other high speed quads were replaced with brand new lifts in 1996. Poma retrofitted six additional Yan detachables, all of which happened to be at American Skiing Company resorts in the northeastern US. They got TB-41 grips, new sheaves and upgraded terminals. In an ironic twist, it was a job with Poma that brought Mr. Kunczynski to the United States 30 years prior.
Everything that could be salvaged was kept at Sun Valley while the grip-related components were replaced with Doppelmayr equipment.The Sun Valley Company announced a retrofit program together with Doppelmayr in May 1996. Doppelmayr replaced 652 grips and hangers, line gear on 134 towers and tire banks/contours in 14 terminals on Bald Mountain at a total cost of $9 million. General manager Wally Huffman called the episode as an “almost devastating financial blow to the company.” Doppelmayr faced a huge backlog that summer refitting 12 lifts with DT-104 grips and new terminals in addition to building ten other lifts. Due to limited manufacturing capability in St. Jerome, 75 percent of the equipment came from Austria and many of the retrofits weren’t completed until January 1997.
At Sunday River and four other New England resorts, Poma re-built terminals and provided new sheaves/grips for six Yan detachables.Lift Engineering built its last lifts in 1994 and filed for bankruptcy in July of 1997. The four Yan high speed quads in Canada that remained in operation have since been replaced (Silver Star’s in 2002, Lake Louise’s in 2003-2004.) At least two Lift Engineering detachable quad lifts still operate abroad. One is called La Roca at a ski resort in Spain that still has the original marshmallow springs that failed at Whistler, although they are the smaller type-7 size. The other is at the Nazhvan Forest Park in Iran, a re-installation from Silver Star with the safer Pol-X-West grips.
It’s funny, I came across the Quicksilver chair in a field mountain biking near Sun Valley a few years ago. I’d be interested to hear why it ended up there. SV also has all 7 of their Yan motor room enclosures and hundreds of teardrop chairs in their boneyard.
At Killington the Superstar Express lift has Poma chairs and grips, but Snowshed Express appears to still have the original Yan chairs and grips. The Summit and Golden Express lifts at Pico appear to have the original Yan chairs and grips as well.
I wonder why they couldn’t have used the Pol-X-West grips on all the lifts, or something similar that worked in the SA.d terminals. It would’ve saved the resorts millions of dollars if they only had to replace grips and not replace all of the line gear and terminal machinery. Did those grips have problems too? All the lifts they got them are gone now.
My understanding is at Whistler there were more problems than just the grips. When Sun Valley decided to replace all seven of their HSQ’s, they were concerned not only about Yan’s ability to deliver new grips on time but also public perception after Teller and Quicksilver.
I’d be curious to see/read more about the gondola at Keystone and the QMC tram at June in addition to these.
On another note, I always hated riding the Great Escape Express at Schweitzer. And it nearly threw some family and friends off of it in 2007 on an emergency stop.
Here’s a video I just stumbled upon on youtube of a Yan detachable located in Spain WITH ORIGINAL GRIPS, SHEAVES, AND TERMINALS, as well as the towers. The Chairs have been replaced.
One thing I am confused about is why Yan didn’t build any lifts in 1995. If the big accident was in 1996, wouldn’t they’ve kept making lifts until then?
The Whistler YAN accident was Dec 23, 1995. I will let others in the industry make statements about why no YAN high speed quads were build in the summer of 1995.
I noticed in a thread on Skilifts.org, you posted some pictures of Yan detachables. Currently, they can’t be viewed, would you mind letting me see them?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xTzEC6vQCs This video has a bunch of old Yan lift footage in it. It’s from Mammoth and June and includes some footage of the QMC Tram, J6, and Broadway Express.
Considering that the chairs fell off in classic Yan detach failure fashion, this isn’t a surprise. What is a surprise is that it lasted this long. Considering Lift Engineering was an American company, it’s kind of surprising they have an installation in Europe.
My huge question is what the YAN Gondolas that lived very short lives at Keystone and Squaw Valley looked like and what their specs were. I believe they were both built in 1984 and replaced in 1985 by a VonRoll and Poma gondola respectively, with 6 person cabins and the usual statistics. 1984 and before were interesting for detachable lifts because 1985 was when things got arguably modern in terms of specs and design.
I remember reading an archived newspaper about how the quick replacement of the Squaw Valley YAN Gondola caused a falling out between Jan Kunczynski and the owners of Squaw Valley.
There’s some other gems in that Mountain Scholar database. I linked below a couple photos that are claimed to be from Poma’s Pomaglaski Plant in Grenoble, France. Seems they might be Poma’s first couple attempts at a detachable grip.
“Quicksilver was the only lift built with Yan’s type-11 grip owing to its heavier chairs with bubbles, the rest had the type-7 grip.”
Unfortunately that’s not correct. LE built 15 detachable chairlifts with “Yan 11” grips and 23 with “Yan 7” grips. The lift in Spain was equipped with Yan 11 grips as well as six LE chairs in Japan.
6 HSQ named Short and Long at Kitz Meadows (today called Sun Meadows), Taro 2 and Davos at Sugadaira, #2 at Takasu and #6 at Tsumagoi plus one fixed double at Kitz Meadows.
It would be cool to see more yan bubble chair pics!!!
LikeLike
It’s funny, I came across the Quicksilver chair in a field mountain biking near Sun Valley a few years ago. I’d be interested to hear why it ended up there. SV also has all 7 of their Yan motor room enclosures and hundreds of teardrop chairs in their boneyard.
LikeLike
At Killington the Superstar Express lift has Poma chairs and grips, but Snowshed Express appears to still have the original Yan chairs and grips. The Summit and Golden Express lifts at Pico appear to have the original Yan chairs and grips as well.
LikeLike
Nice article Peter!
LikeLike
Thanks Cameron!
LikeLike
The Snowshed, Golden and Summit Express lifts have the original Yan chairs retrofitted with Poma grips.
LikeLike
Great article. It was nice to have the table showing what happened to all 31 lifts.
LikeLike
Awesome article Peter. Wish there were more photos of pre-retrofit YAN HSQs around. An interesting/sad period in ropeway tech for sure.
LikeLike
I was at Killington over the weekend. Chip is right the Snowshed Express quad has Poma grips and the original Yan chairs.
LikeLike
I wonder why they couldn’t have used the Pol-X-West grips on all the lifts, or something similar that worked in the SA.d terminals. It would’ve saved the resorts millions of dollars if they only had to replace grips and not replace all of the line gear and terminal machinery. Did those grips have problems too? All the lifts they got them are gone now.
LikeLike
My understanding is at Whistler there were more problems than just the grips. When Sun Valley decided to replace all seven of their HSQ’s, they were concerned not only about Yan’s ability to deliver new grips on time but also public perception after Teller and Quicksilver.
LikeLike
I’d be curious to see/read more about the gondola at Keystone and the QMC tram at June in addition to these.
On another note, I always hated riding the Great Escape Express at Schweitzer. And it nearly threw some family and friends off of it in 2007 on an emergency stop.
LikeLike
Hi
Friends and dear colleagues in the form of interest to the system YAN can from this page see below.
engineering-rope-way
LikeLike
Friends and dear colleagues in the form of interest to the system YAN can from this page see below.
engineering-rope-way
LikeLike
where is this lift?
LikeLike
LikeLike
LikeLike
https://www.instagram.ctoom/p/BAhq9MICEwa/
LikeLike
Here’s a video I just stumbled upon on youtube of a Yan detachable located in Spain WITH ORIGINAL GRIPS, SHEAVES, AND TERMINALS, as well as the towers. The Chairs have been replaced.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Chair fell off of La Roca yesterday:
https://www.nevasport.com/noticias/art/56692/espot-queda-cerrada-sin-fecha-de-apertura-por-la-averia-de-un-telesilla/
LikeLike
*curb your enthusiasm*
LikeLiked by 1 person
Does anybody know what kind of chairs are those in the video. They almost look like Skytrac chairs even though they don’t make detaches.
LikeLike
Those are GMM chairs (Gimar Montaz Mautino).
LikeLike
Thanks for this interesting blog article, Yan lifts with all their unconventional engineering wee always very fascinating for me.
Since I came across it, and for those interested, I made a tiny documentation about the Yan chairlift in Isfahan / Iran:
https://www.bergbahnen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2278
LikeLike
One thing I am confused about is why Yan didn’t build any lifts in 1995. If the big accident was in 1996, wouldn’t they’ve kept making lifts until then?
LikeLiked by 1 person
The Whistler YAN accident was Dec 23, 1995. I will let others in the industry make statements about why no YAN high speed quads were build in the summer of 1995.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fun reading, I worked on Sierra’s replacement on the electrical, the Yan’s were 600 volt and the Doppylmeyers were 480.
LikeLike
Peter,
I noticed in a thread on Skilifts.org, you posted some pictures of Yan detachables. Currently, they can’t be viewed, would you mind letting me see them?
The thread is here: http://www.skilifts.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=3899
LikeLike
Sure thing Misha.
LikeLiked by 1 person
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xTzEC6vQCs This video has a bunch of old Yan lift footage in it. It’s from Mammoth and June and includes some footage of the QMC Tram, J6, and Broadway Express.
LikeLike
Just watched the whole thing! Thanks for sharing Collin!
LikeLike
According to our french brethren the last Skyrail/Yan detachable quad, La Roca, will be replaced with a six pack this summer.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Considering that the chairs fell off in classic Yan detach failure fashion, this isn’t a surprise. What is a surprise is that it lasted this long. Considering Lift Engineering was an American company, it’s kind of surprising they have an installation in Europe.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Here are a few videos of the Nazhvan Forest Park Yan detachable.
https://www.dalfak.com/w/qz7f5/%D8%AA%D9%84%D9%87-%D8%B3%DB%8C%DA%98-%D9%86%D8%A7%DA%98%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A7%D8%B5%D9%81%D9%87%D8%A7%D9%86
LikeLike
And here are some terminal pictures not found in the videos I shared.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT8kcvizkbcUhB1win5r4tr1x9hVaTTmNZRm2OaRetH_JdXaNOb9Q&s
LikeLike
My huge question is what the YAN Gondolas that lived very short lives at Keystone and Squaw Valley looked like and what their specs were. I believe they were both built in 1984 and replaced in 1985 by a VonRoll and Poma gondola respectively, with 6 person cabins and the usual statistics. 1984 and before were interesting for detachable lifts because 1985 was when things got arguably modern in terms of specs and design.
I remember reading an archived newspaper about how the quick replacement of the Squaw Valley YAN Gondola caused a falling out between Jan Kunczynski and the owners of Squaw Valley.
LikeLike
Great pictures of the gondola at Keystone:
https://mountainscholar.org/handle/11124/20019/discover?query=yan+gondola
https://www.remontees-mecaniques.net/bdd/reportage-tcd6-river-run-1-yan-lift-engineering-5782.html
LikeLike
There’s some other gems in that Mountain Scholar database. I linked below a couple photos that are claimed to be from Poma’s Pomaglaski Plant in Grenoble, France. Seems they might be Poma’s first couple attempts at a detachable grip.
https://mountainscholar.org/handle/11124/8210
https://mountainscholar.org/handle/11124/8209
LikeLike
“Quicksilver was the only lift built with Yan’s type-11 grip owing to its heavier chairs with bubbles, the rest had the type-7 grip.”
Unfortunately that’s not correct. LE built 15 detachable chairlifts with “Yan 11” grips and 23 with “Yan 7” grips. The lift in Spain was equipped with Yan 11 grips as well as six LE chairs in Japan.
LikeLike
I’m really curious about the the Yan detachables in Japan. When did the last one get removed?
LikeLike
was it 6 ya high speed or was it 4 high speeds and 2 fixed grips
LikeLike
6 HSQ named Short and Long at Kitz Meadows (today called Sun Meadows), Taro 2 and Davos at Sugadaira, #2 at Takasu and #6 at Tsumagoi plus one fixed double at Kitz Meadows.
LikeLike
the same company mitsubshi also made garaventa quad chairs, how many garaventa quad did they make in japan?
LikeLiked by 1 person
you mean like this: https://www.remontees-mecaniques.net/bdd/reportage-tsf2-n-4-mitsubishi-354.html
LikeLike
They were all gone by the late 90s.
LikeLike
Can I see pictures of the Japanese yan high-speed quads and all six of them
LikeLike
is there a picture of sugadaria kogens yan chair
LikeLike
if there is put a link on the comment
LikeLike
because I saw pictures of Kitz Meadows, Takasu, Tsumagoi but I never even seen a picture of Sugadaira Kogen yan quad
LikeLike
The new La Roca chairlift in Spain is a Leitner high speed quad, and it opened today! Capacity is around 2,400 pph.
LikeLike
More info:
https://www.larepublica.cat/minut-a-minut/espot-inicia-la-temporada-desqui-amb-lestrena-del-nou-telecadira-la-roca-que-dona-acces-a-les-pistes-2/
LikeLike