- Mammoth seeks to replace the workhorse Canyon Express #16 with a detachable six place lift in a new alignment.
- Plans for Battle Mountain Resort that once featured ten chairlifts and two gondolas near Vail no longer do.
- Leitner-Poma’s self-driving mini aerial tramway in San Francisco will debut this summer.
- A Grafton, Illinois gondola project faces a key vote with groundbreaking possible later this summer.
- Partek will build a brand new quad chair this summer at West Mountain, New York.
- Ghost Town – the defunct chairlift-accessed amusement park in North Carolina – may reopen in 2019.
- A court rules in favor of plaintiffs in three Hermitage Club cases but is still considering next steps for the ski mountain foreclosure.
- The latest Aspen Lift One meetings go well.
- You probably heard Jerusalem in the news this week but not for the $56 million earmarked to build a four station gondola there.
- Like the first one, the second Disney Skyliner terminal to go airborne has two distinct turnarounds.
After thinking for awhile. I think the second turnaround is to launch empty cabins so the other stations can load people easier on busy days.
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More details on Vail’s plans dropped later in the day today:
-New Game Creek Express will be a 3,000 pph six-pack in the existing alignment.
-Some towers will be reused, which could give the bidding edge to Doppelmayr.
-Timeline is this summer/fall pending approval in June.
-Additional expansion of Chair 4’s maze area implies abandonment of 90-degree loading.
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I thought Partek no longer made new lifts.
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Partek installed new lifts at Mt. Peter, North Carolina State Fair, National Winter Activity Center, Shawnee Peak and a few others in the last few years. I’d argue the added competition is a good thing, particularly for smaller areas in the East with older lifts.
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I’m happy Partek is still around.
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Regarding Mammoth Chair 16, the time was probably up on the old Yan/Dopplemayr frankenlift, so a replacement isn’t surprising. Possible new alignment is a surprise though. Any speculation on where it might top out now?
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Perhaps they are going to replace 22 as well? And have 16 end at the top of current 22?
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That’s a horrible idea for several reasons. first and foremost, Mammoth has some of the worst wind in the West, and 22 is regularly closed due to 100+mph winds. Putting the major out-of-base lift for the busiest lodge on the mountain in that alignment would kill circulation. Addtionally, the terrain at the top of 22 is for advanced intermediates at a minimum, with the sole execption of Solitude, which is the busiest run on the mountain. 16 is intended to serve low-intermediates trying to get across the mountain, and some repeat skiers on runs on the side of 22.
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Agree with Thomas for all the reasons he mentioned. Maybe it will be as simple as wanting to move it a touch downhill close to the top of 4 so that there is less of a junk show at the top headed down Easy Rider towards Ch 5 and Stump? That area gets pretty scraped off early in the day.
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I think that moving it downhill would make the offloading problems worse. You’d still have the same number of people going down Easy Rider, as that’s the main path to the other side of the mountain, but now you’d have an extra-crowded unloading ramp, seeing as there’d probably be 6,000 people per hour being dumped on that knoll. Keeping the station where it is keeps the unloading ramps seperate.
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I heard it will be closer to the top of chair 4 to reduce wind closures.
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