Doppelmayr will build the first D-Line lift in Utah this summer, a six pack replacing the aging Crest Express at Brighton Resort. In typical Boyne Resorts fashion, the replacement lift will feature 90 degree loading with a conveyor and video screen. Riders will enjoy a 5.3 minute ride time with an hourly capacity of 2,400 skiers per hour. In the summer, Crest will serve mountain bikers with three Bike Clips on each chair. The lift won’t have bubbles or heated seats.
Brighton also announced construction of a new mid-mountain restaurant and implementation of a parking reservation system for next season.
Crest 6 is the 9th new lift project announced by Brighton owner Boyne Resorts for the 2023/24 ski season. Construction is expected to begin in May.
Lift Blog 
2400 per hour seems like a downgrade compared to the current theoretical capacity. Could that be an error?
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With a 9 second loading interval, misloads will be reduced, and the effective capacity will be higher than a 2400 hsq (in theory). Additionally, while current Crest may be listed at a higher capacity, it may not achieve that capacity anymore if they don’t ever run it full speed.
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Why no bubbles or heated seats? I thought Boyne wanted to build a signature bubble lift at all their resorts?
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I was told by a guy on the lift who said he was from lift maintenance. He said that if they were to put bubbles here they would immediately be vandalized. Its sad that they cant go bubbles with seat heat, would be my only chance of experiencing that.
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He’s right. I’ve buffed out more carved-with-a-sharp-object graffiti on the Flyer than I care to admit. Seems people have no respect.
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After announcing a 6 pack with bubbles and heated seats at The Highlands in MICHIGAN, it’s shocking that they aren’t going that route with one of their flagship resorts out west. Seems like it should be the other way around😂
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Even though its owned by Boyne, Brighton is more of a simple ski area with locals as its target customer. It embraces the fact that its not a fancy resort. Having unnecessary luxuries like a bubble or heated seats would go against its humble vibe.
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Seconding this. It’s been a few years, but walking into that A-frame lodge was like going back in time to 1989 CM for me, which I dug. Also, Michigan might get more truly adverse weather than this little pocket of BCC. The Central Wasatch gets loads of snow most years, and winds, but Brighton’s base is nice and high, and it just doesn’t get that 33 degree “snow” as much or the subzero but still somehow humid midwest cold.
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lol, Brighton is *not* one of Boyne’s “flagship” resorts. The locals’ joke is that it’s kind of trashy.
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You must not know the locals well
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Brighton is NOT one of their flagship resorts
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What are the advantages of contour loading? Seems to cause confusion more than anything. Haven’t seen loading conveyers do anything other than cause issues with less experienced skiers either.
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In my (limited) experience, the carpets on high capacity detachables a help a lot in spacing people out and getting them to the load point on time. Without it, snowboarders and skiers without poles take a while to get there, and the inexperienced ones can not get there in time and force the lift to stop. My only experience with this is the disciples 8 at bound mtn compared to their older 6 pack. The 6 (no carpet or gates) stops a lot more while the 8 (carpet and timed gates) runs fairly smoothly with 6-8 people per chair.
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Thanks. I wonder what conventional wisdom is here. Vail’s Chair 4 (a detach 6) opened about a decade ago with 90 degree loading and a carpet, but eventually abandoned both. Misloads and stoppages were constant! Now loads inline with no carpet.
I’m sure contour loading also puts additional strain on terminal components with extra weight going around the turn.
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Both of Vail’s Doppelmayr six packs were built with carpets. Avanti’s is still in use (though the fact that it’s an in-line loading lift helps).
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Lifts designed for contour loading don’t have any additional strain, as you put it, because they are already structured for that extra load.
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with my experience today, this is 100% incorrect. Contour loading and the carpet just mess everything up. People don’t get into groups, meaning chairs go up empty, people fall.
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Am I the only one who somehow doesn’t view 8-packs as an improvement in the skier experience?
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Nope. Not alone.
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What happened to “an 8-pack in every pot”?
It’s also a bit ironic that the company weirdly obsessed with bubbles and heated seats decided to drop them on the main night skiing lift here.
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That’s ok. We don’t need bubbles and heated seats anyway.
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Did Boyne mention any plans for where we might see the Crest HSQ get reinstated?
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I am pretty sure its being scrapped. I talked to a lift mechanic on the lift and they said its mechanically on its last legs.
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They could probably do a complete refurbishment on it, replace the wear components to fix the mechanical issues, and put a new uni-g enclosure on it like Boyne did when Kankamagus 4 became Seven Brothers quad, Ramcharger 4 became Shedhorn 4, Swift Current 4 is becoming Bucksaw Express, and Jordan 4 will be relocated to a TBD location
For reference, Crest was built in 1991, Kank in 1995, Ram in 1991, Swifty in 1996, and Jordan in 1994. So it is in the same age range as all these other lifts Boyne is willing to refurbish. Also it is a Doppelmayr like all of these. Even if the mechanical upgrades to this lift are more extensive than what was done to the others, it’s still likely way cheaper than buying a new HSQ. Hopefully we will see Crest 4 again in a few years somewhere else🤞
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I just know I asked the lift guy about why shedhorn was reused and he said this lift is in much worse shape
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All I know was that a lift mechanic told me the reason for replacement is mostly due to the lifts age so it probably won’t be reused
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It’s crazy to think about, as time truly flies, but Ramcharger was refurbished 5 years ago. Having 27 vs 32 years of life on a lift can be a lot (it’s more than 18% higher). Not to mention Brighton uses Crest for night skiing, so its hours are likely much higher.
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Also, these 90’s Uni detachables are typically really solid lifts. It’s not like we are talking about a Yan/Poma “frankenlift” like Barker HSQ. I get Boyne scraping that since it would be so much more difficult to refurbish than all the Doppelmayr Uni’s they have done
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I feel like it’s an odd thing depending on it’s usage and climate. Boyne often reuses lifts while Vail almost never does. And sometimes reusing a lift just won’t matter if the lift is in bad enough shape. I do think however in the past it seems like G-CTEC lifts seem to hold up the best
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By my count, it looks like there will be just as many D-Lines this year as UNI-G. At what point will they start production of them here in North America?
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Just to add clarification, the reason for the lack of bubbles on this lift is due to the limited space at both terminal sites, we couldn’t fit a parking structure and the lift would have too many chairs to terminal park at design capacity (which will be 2700 pph in its final configuration). Bubbles are a possible feature of other lifts at Brighton in the future.
Same reason for contour loading, the terminal will be pushed to the lookers right side of the current location and pulled downhill to allow ski under in front of the terminal and create space to set up a bigger maze.
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Everett, are you able to comment on the fate of the old lift? Will it be scrapped or stored for possible future use?
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Scrapped, the lift suffers from too many mechanical issues and would not be worth refurbishing.
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Crest needs a bigger maze for sure.
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Makes sense. I am assuming the forest service wouldn’t approve a free standing chair barn, so terminal parking would have been the only option, which as you said wouldn’t fit all the chairs.
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I am happy for Brighton- May this new lift serve a long and hopefully more reliable life. vs it’s predecessor.
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Will I be able to load my sno-go on this new lift? We can’t use Majestic, and I would hate to lose access to Crest.
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How about expansion beyond Greater Western to enable connection to Park City?
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Never gonna happen with Vail now in control of PCMR. They have little incentive to collaborate with their IKON rivals in BCC/LCC. Maybe once the LCC gondola issue is resolved and Alta turns its attention/political capital back towards the Grizzly Bowl expansion, chatter about an LCC/BCC connection may resurface but I think OneWasatch as envisaged is dead dead.
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why cant brighton expand into the terrain between milly and crest?
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Its a late comment. the main reason is just due to the fact that it is mainly large amounts of lakes up in that area Lake Catharine and Lake Mary come to thought. with that being said there is lots off cliffs in that area too and top top it off it would be the largest pain to install snowmaking lines being its lots of large boulders too.
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Expansion into Hidden Canyon would be easy:
https://www.deseret.com/1991/8/2/18934041/wasatch-official-oks-brighton-expansion-that-is-within-forest-purview
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funny enough, dispite this lift being scrapped because of high hours, most European Detachables that get removed get new homes elsewhere in Europe, either in original form or a few mods.
Exemptions include most Poma Alpha Evo lifts, Most 1980s Doppelmayr detachables, and Prototype Lifts
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