Lower terminal area.Looking up the lift line.Riblet tension station with Poma-built lift house.This lift makes a turn using canted sheaves at tower 10.In the summer, a mid-station serves an alpine slide.Arriving at the top.Vault drive bullwheel.Unload ramp.
Some might consider it dumb because the Colorado SuperChair already services the same stuff as Lift 5 and then more. Then again, Lift 5 could use more capacity on busy days. A high speed quad would certainly work better as far as the midline turn is concerned, since the turn is located right before the summer midstation used for the alpine slide. The loading area might have to be moved a little closer to the Colorado SuperChair in that case, but it’d be doable.
I guess I just thought of it as dumb, because as a midwest skier I always thought of lifts the short on trail maps being 100 feet long. But judging how it’s longer than many midwest detach lifts it sounds like a good idea to make it detach.
The turn is not original. The section of the lift below the turn was realigned to looker’s left to make way for the original Colorado Superchair in 1986. You can see the original alignment vs the current alignment on Google Earth.
If this lift were upgraded to a quad and there was simple access to 4-o’clock run, it could serve the same purpose to relieve congestion on the Colorado lift for people headed back to Peak 8 and beyond as the new lift on Peak 7 does. Vail is saying the upgrade of Rip’s Ride is going to do this, but I just don’t see it, it’s stuffed way over in the corner with a very narrow access to the main base area. IMO it will be too much trouble to work your way over to that isolated lift to try and bypass Colorado…
I have to agree. The Freedom SuperChair’s role in siphoning cross-traffic and lap traffic from the Independence SuperChair is guaranteed because for those skiing everything from Lincoln Meadows on north, or coming back from lapping the Kensho SuperChair, it’s the first lift you encounter after you pass Zendo.
Lift 7/Rip’s Ride is somewhat disconnected from the rest of the Peak 8 base lifts, so not many people are going to use the route of “Rip’s Ride HSQ to Crosscut to Lift C/Beaver Run SuperChair” to get to Peak 9 and will stick to just taking the Colorado SuperChair.
Making Lift 5 a detachable, on the other hand, absolutely WOULD relieve traffic from the Colorado SuperChair because it starts right across the way from the Peak 8 base superchairs. And, if the Colorado SuperChair goes down for any reason, you’d have an alternate way to the Vista Haus (and thus, Lift 6 and Imperial) because you can take Four O’Clock to Sawmill, then take that cutoff to reach the Peak 8 SuperConnect’s midstation.
Well, it is now official: Breck will be replacing this lift with a high speed quad for the 2023 season. It will certainly do wonders at shifting traffic over from the Colorado SuperChair, while also meaning that all of Peak 8’s lower lifts are detachable.
I talked to a few managers and Lifties today at Break regarding the upgrade of this chair for the 2023-2024 season.
One employee seemed confident that they would extend the slide to the top of the new chair.
Another talked about how they were still very undecided. When I mentioned a mid station that would only be used in the summer he did not seem fazed by the idea.
I was told they will find a way to operate the slide using the new lift in the summer because it is such a major attraction. Although it will obviously not operate summer of 2023 because of the constuction.
I also asked about an alignment change. While the employee said they have been looking to move the top and bottom station further south, he also mentioned that is not concrete yet.
The tower head appears different because of the lifting frame on it. I believe they do that because the canted sheaves require a bit more maintenance and thus the lifting frame makes it easier for them to do their work.
All of the Riblets save for Lift E had centerpole chairs until those were replaced sometime in the late 1990s. Not sure which year exactly, but I think it was between 1997 (when the Mercury and Rocky Mountain SuperChairs were built) and 1999 (when Quicksilver Super6 was built). I know Lift 4 only had them for a few seasons before it was replaced by the Peak 8 SuperConnect (and Keystone subsequently used Lift 4’s chairs to replace the Yan chairs on A-51 and Discovery).
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With the lines, a detach would be dumb but a fixed grip quad would be a good idea
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Why would a detach be dumb? It is certainly long enough and beginners/parkgoers lap this lift.
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Some might consider it dumb because the Colorado SuperChair already services the same stuff as Lift 5 and then more. Then again, Lift 5 could use more capacity on busy days. A high speed quad would certainly work better as far as the midline turn is concerned, since the turn is located right before the summer midstation used for the alpine slide. The loading area might have to be moved a little closer to the Colorado SuperChair in that case, but it’d be doable.
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I guess I just thought of it as dumb, because as a midwest skier I always thought of lifts the short on trail maps being 100 feet long. But judging how it’s longer than many midwest detach lifts it sounds like a good idea to make it detach.
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The turn is not original. The section of the lift below the turn was realigned to looker’s left to make way for the original Colorado Superchair in 1986. You can see the original alignment vs the current alignment on Google Earth.
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Here’s some old pictures that better illustrate what it looked like before the realignment:
The summer midstation was built with the lift, and that’s why the turn happens right below it:
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This answers the question regarding center pole carriers on the old Breck lifts. I think the first pic is the Checkerboard Yan at Keystone.
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If this lift were upgraded to a quad and there was simple access to 4-o’clock run, it could serve the same purpose to relieve congestion on the Colorado lift for people headed back to Peak 8 and beyond as the new lift on Peak 7 does. Vail is saying the upgrade of Rip’s Ride is going to do this, but I just don’t see it, it’s stuffed way over in the corner with a very narrow access to the main base area. IMO it will be too much trouble to work your way over to that isolated lift to try and bypass Colorado…
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I have to agree. The Freedom SuperChair’s role in siphoning cross-traffic and lap traffic from the Independence SuperChair is guaranteed because for those skiing everything from Lincoln Meadows on north, or coming back from lapping the Kensho SuperChair, it’s the first lift you encounter after you pass Zendo.
Lift 7/Rip’s Ride is somewhat disconnected from the rest of the Peak 8 base lifts, so not many people are going to use the route of “Rip’s Ride HSQ to Crosscut to Lift C/Beaver Run SuperChair” to get to Peak 9 and will stick to just taking the Colorado SuperChair.
Making Lift 5 a detachable, on the other hand, absolutely WOULD relieve traffic from the Colorado SuperChair because it starts right across the way from the Peak 8 base superchairs. And, if the Colorado SuperChair goes down for any reason, you’d have an alternate way to the Vista Haus (and thus, Lift 6 and Imperial) because you can take Four O’Clock to Sawmill, then take that cutoff to reach the Peak 8 SuperConnect’s midstation.
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Well, it is now official: Breck will be replacing this lift with a high speed quad for the 2023 season. It will certainly do wonders at shifting traffic over from the Colorado SuperChair, while also meaning that all of Peak 8’s lower lifts are detachable.
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Now the biggest question is how will they do the alpine slide with a detachable, or will they not do it?
This also means the alpine slide will be closed summer 2023, so who knows if this is the last summer with it or not.
It has to be a huge money maker so it would not makes sense to remove it but idk.
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I talked to a few managers and Lifties today at Break regarding the upgrade of this chair for the 2023-2024 season.
One employee seemed confident that they would extend the slide to the top of the new chair.
Another talked about how they were still very undecided. When I mentioned a mid station that would only be used in the summer he did not seem fazed by the idea.
I was told they will find a way to operate the slide using the new lift in the summer because it is such a major attraction. Although it will obviously not operate summer of 2023 because of the constuction.
I also asked about an alignment change. While the employee said they have been looking to move the top and bottom station further south, he also mentioned that is not concrete yet.
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Why is there a different tower head on tower 10B? It isn’t Riblet unless it is a late version. It looks Yan.
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The tower head appears different because of the lifting frame on it. I believe they do that because the canted sheaves require a bit more maintenance and thus the lifting frame makes it easier for them to do their work.
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Breck has certainly gotten great use out of this lift given it’s winter and summer operations. Installed in 1970 and being replaced in 2023.
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Are the chairs on this lift retrofits or originals? Does Superior Tramway still make them?
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The chairs are retro fits not sure when it happened though. I believe Superior tramway still makes them
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All of the Riblets save for Lift E had centerpole chairs until those were replaced sometime in the late 1990s. Not sure which year exactly, but I think it was between 1997 (when the Mercury and Rocky Mountain SuperChairs were built) and 1999 (when Quicksilver Super6 was built). I know Lift 4 only had them for a few seasons before it was replaced by the Peak 8 SuperConnect (and Keystone subsequently used Lift 4’s chairs to replace the Yan chairs on A-51 and Discovery).
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So the summer midstation on the replacement lift’s going to look more like this, per the master plan:
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