The experiment to build a detachable quad with an eight degree turn and no angle station may be coming to an end. This week Alta Ski Area General Manager Mike Maughan revealed the Supreme lift is suffering from accelerated metal fatigue, requiring the ski area to look at major modifications. Specifically the lift’s chairs have become damaged over time as they pass through numerous canted sheave assemblies. “Every one of those [chair pans] is cracked significantly,” Maughan told the Alta Town Council Thursday. “An investigation by engineers said we’re accelerating fatigue on the chairs, the grips and the bend itself.”
Supreme was constructed in 2017 to replace two separate lifts – Cecret and Supreme – which ran consecutively in different alignments. A new high speed quad was envisioned to include an angle station near the top of the old Cecret chair where beginners could unload. Chairs would detach, turn and continue to the Supreme summit. That plan proved expensive so Alta pivoted to a unique bend design that kept chairs moving at full speed through a line turn. By following both old lift lines with a bend, Alta would cut fewer trees and avoid significant ground disturbance. Doppelmayr reportedly declined to bid on the bend design and would only supply the lift with an angle station (like they did on nearby Collins.) Alta went ahead with Leitner-Poma and the new Supreme opened for the 2017-18 season. From the beginning skiers noticed the ride through the bend was quite bumpy and jarring. Last winter, Alta experimented with a different Leitner chair design in an attempt to mitigate the rough ride through the bend.
Fast forward to today and Alta sees two possible paths forward. The first is to rebuild the lift in a straight path between the top and bottom terminals. This would require every tower and terminal foundation to be replaced. “All the equipment would be re-used with maybe a few new towers added to the mix,” said Maughan. A second, less likely option is to keep both terminals in place and build a full angle station where the bend stands today. Analysis is underway to determine the best solution. “We approached the Forest Service and they are open to the realignment approach which would end up with a simpler lift with fewer moving parts and less wear and tear,” noted Maughan. Either way, the project will be a major undertaking targeted for summer 2025. “We’re waiting for numbers back from Poma to understand the cost of both options.”
For the upcoming 2024-25 season, the lift is expected to continue operating with chairs either repaired or replaced as necessary. It’s important to remember Supreme has operated safely for seven years and thorough inspections caught the issue before any incident. Now that the problem is known, Alta will work closely with the Forest Service, Leitner-Poma and the Utah Passenger Ropeway Safety Committee on safe interim and long term solutions.
Lift Blog 
As I recall, the turn was put in to get around a property line.
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Yeah, that’s what I thought when I read this. I’m curious what changed? Maybe it’s going to be an alignment that’s harder to access but stays completely on forest service land.
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Yep a angle mid station makes the most sense here rather than trying to reconstruct the entire chairlift into a straight line.
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shows the quality of the steel they use. In Switzerland, Von Roll built a bend or a curve similar to this. Lasted some 28 years .
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The Letiner Poma factory is in grand Junction CO.
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This was always a risk with taking a novel approach. It’s a cool lift and I’m glad I got to ride it in the original configuration.
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Will they reuse the current lift components and just make new foundations the new alignment?
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Reread the post and you’ll find the answer to your question there. It’s in a direct quote from the Alta GM 😊
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The rope deflection, hold down sheaves, and angle change seem to be adding a huge amount of fatigue cycles to the grips and carriers. Similar to what you would have in a grip and carrier testing situation designed to accelerate fatigue cycles ?? I am sure they have a pretty good idea of grip and carrier cycles through the angle station based on operating hours and grip count.
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Many spoke their piece when asked years ago, they did not listen.
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could be an opportunity to upgrade Supreme to HSS since it has to be rebuilt anyway and move the current quad to replace Wildcat…
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No. Wildcat is the only thing good about Alta.
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Naah. Wildcat needs to go. It’s an awesome looking lift, but those outdated and very uncomfortable center pole double chairs need to go. I’ve not skied there in years, so unsure as to how crowded it gets.. perhaps upgrading it to a FGQ or the HSQ is in line. I just remember how uncomfortable the seats were back in the late 90s when I last skied it.
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You took a wrong turn and thought you were at Deer Valley.
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I don’t get why people complain so much about center-pole chairs. Never had any problems with them, especially not Wildcat’s.
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The YAN center poles were not so much as uncomfortable vs the Riblet. If you are on the bigger size, say 250+ lbs and tall, that center pole on the riblets can make things feel very tight
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could be an opportunity to upgrade Supreme to HSS since it has to be rebuilt anyway and move the current quad to replace Wildcat…
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@BOARDSKI You’re out of your mind if you think that Wildcat should be replaced. It is one of the most classic lifts in Utah, and has a reputation amongst Alta’s locals for its profile character. Also, way to like your own comment.
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only reason it showed up twice was a glitch, I actually would never intentionally like my own comment, I’m just remembering Wildcat was an upgrade considered when , Sunnyside was removed, capacity could be regulated by chair spacing to take care to not overload this area. I have visited Alta a few times and have ridden all of the lifts there. In the end, I’m sure those who are paying the bills will decide what is most efficient.
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Honestly, they don’t really need to increase capacity up it. I’ve been skiing there for 5 years and supreme is almost always one of the least busy lifts
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They should re-do it with an angle station that allows unloading. A lot of beginner/low-intermediate terrain was rendered unavailable with the closing of Cecret.
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That’s a good argument in favor of having a mid-station.
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There were only two green trails…
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Yes – but they were a good stomping ground and a way for beginners to go a little off-piste, by ducking into the trees.
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This is true.
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It also allowed beginners to get onto the upper mountain a bit and experience what that looks/feels like vs. being confined to one base area lift. Kind of all the rage these days to create that sort of pod.
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as a skier I am glad to see the extremely bumpy turn go away. But as a engineering perspective it is a very unique part of the lift. I’d say it should go back to two lifts or run as one with the bend being the second loading zone to avoid the flat runout.
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I’ve never complained about a lift being rough and unless it’s extreme, never will. However, overstressing and cracking the carriers seems like an important issue to address.
The whole Supreme/Cecret complex at Alta has always seemed strange to me. I understand why they originally had the two chairs in a row, but I feel like there’s got to be a better solution for traffic flow. A mid turn station with an unload is a great option if you want people to be able to lap the old Cecret terrain. Could you theoretically ski downhill from the top of Albion to the bottom of the old Supreme? Having that traffic flow would be nice in letting people take Albion up and then splitting the traffic off to Supreme or to Sugarloaf.
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The Supreme quad travels along the same alignment as the original Supreme triple. The turn allowed for a one-lift replacement of Cecret and Supreme, without having to cut a new lift line over the rugged upper Supreme area. This saved on engineering & construction costs, and made it easier to get environmental approval.
As a guest, my ideal solution would be to add a Collins-like mid-station to replace the turn. Some believe the mid-station should be for unloading. I disagree. Alta is not a novice mountain at its core. It only needs a small amount of novice terrain to “check the box”. Sunnyside checks the box. The old Cecret novice terrain was very underutilized previously; the same would be true if it was resurrected. I say build a new Supreme mid-station – for loading, not unloading – to make lapping Supreme more convenient, without having to ski the flats down to the bottom each time.
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Totally agree about that underutilized green terrain. Albion/Sunnyside is great beginner terrain. Due to location, and having fast skiers skiing by, I wouldn’t want to teach on Cecret.
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Part of the reason Supreme is one lift not two is so it funnels skiers to the mid-mountain restaurant. This is also partially why the new Sunnyside 6 follows the line of the previous triple and not the old Albion Double- can’t see Alf’s from the top of where that lift terminated. Under the Cecret/Supreme lift configuration, one would not see the restaurant if they had followed the general pattern of advanced skiers of starting on the Wildcat side, and skiing off of Sugarloaf and the old Supreme chair.
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Just to chime in for those who haven’t skied Alta.
There’s a pretty long runout from the end of the pitch at Supreme to the bend/bottom of the old lift. There’s a longer runout to the base of the new lift and Alf’s. Cecret’s two beginner runs were not a great place to teach new skiers, since there was a lot of cross traffic from Supreme Access and the runout back to Alf’s on one run, and the other was relatively narrow and windy, and it often made new skiers nervous. From a flow perspective, having the potential mid station a load only makes more sense to me, so that the bulk of skiers are then avoiding the runout back. The two lost beginner runs are probably best left in the history books, and they added the new quad at the Albion base to effectively replace Cecret.
Supreme probably doesn’t have enough intermediate terrain to support a six, and too many of the runs end up on the same runouts. A quad is the best fit here.
Cat is a classic, but it’s also over 40 years old from a defunct manufacturer. It can’t support that much additional capacity, since the only intermediate runs share a cattrack. Realistically, it will get a high speed at some point, but it should be a low capacity quad, and it doesn’t need to be a priority.
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I think the turn station with midload might be cheaper than cutting a whole new lift alignment. And make this area kinda like Vasquez Ridge following the addition of Wild Spur.
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Short term building a midstation might be cheaper, but long term, realigning the lift without a midstation probably is. Midstation would add staffing and maintenance costs
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Dang, I’ll be sad to see the bend go. It’s very unique and I still enjoy it. It’s fun being on chairs where people are riding it for the first time.
I wonder if there’s a potential third option though. Get rid of the tight bend and space the turn out over a larger area. Do something similar to Silver Strike at Deer Valley and Baldy at Snowbird. Yes you’ll need more towers with canted sheaves than those 2 lifts have, with the curve being over a larger area. But you’ll save a ton of money not installing a mid station or rebuilding the entire lift. Just some new foundations, towers, and cutting a small lift line. It may be a good compromise and would keep the lift unique.
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They tried. I think it was a cool idea on paper but, in practice maybe not the best.
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I know they haven’t chosen yet, but does anyone know if they’re more likely to rebuild the lift line or make a mid station?
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