Top bullwheel and unloading dock.View down the line which has no towers.Bottom station.View up the line from the bottom.Bottom station with drive and tensioning.Bottom dock.Arriving at the top dock.In 2017, a tower was added to increase clearance near the top terminal.Cabin 1 near tower 1.European style tower.Doppelmayr Worldbook entry.Doppelmayr Worldbook entry continued.
This lift was originally named “Olympic Tram” when installed. Its name was changed to “Mt. Allen Tram” shortly after the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002 and again to “Allen Peak Tram” in 2008.
Grampa Earl wanted things to look classy. Same reason he sprang for the fancy matching cladding on the late Wildcat and Middle Bowl Triples. Also why Strawberry gots that puuuurty barn and JP and Needles have the underground garages. Or internal routing on bikes these days. Gotta have the look.
Ay I prefer that approach to the Deer Valley/Vail/Northstar cookie cutter “luxury skiing”. Snowbasin and Sun Valley have always felt classy but rugged. The lodges are always spacious and rustic. The food has always been great, but not quite the 5-star Deer Valley or Whistler ulta-formal. They feel more consistently themed, and imo it’s marketing that has worked to keep them competitive with the Vails and Alterras of the world.
Too bad Snowbasin ruined the classiness of the consistent and beautiful Doppelmayr lift enclosure aesthetics across the mountain with an LPA 6 pack, that doesn’t remotely fit in with the style and aesthetics of every other lift. They should have gone with a 6 pack Uni-G, for both the aesthetic, and economically for part sharing. The extra cost put into these enclosures for the tram were a total waste with LPA showing up
An olympic downhill course needs to have at least 800 meters (2624 ft) of vertical drop, that’s one of the reasons a downhill course was purpose-built near Beijing for the 2022 olympics instead of using other ski areas further north with more snow, the terrain needs to supply at least that much elevation difference. John Paul is already a monster of a high speed quad at 2435 ft of vertical, but it is just short (<200 ft) of the minimum drop the downhill required. Someone else on the blog has already gone into more detail about how there was a land swap and the tram was built with some public funds, but the Allen Peak Tram serves to add another 500 ft of vertical drop in a limited fashion. As for post-olympics usage, it serves its purpose to get the hardcore crowd up the mountain to access some of the rowdier terrain basin has, but that ridgeline is very small and can't handle big crowds (or a big lift terminal) the way JP, Needles and Strawberry do at their respective summits.
Maybe someday they replace John Paul / Allen peak with a Chondola where chairs turn around at JP lodge but cabins continue to the summit, but that's pure speculation. Basin has bigger priorities like upgrading Becker and Porky.
There was also some pushback from town. The terminal wasn’t supposed to be seen from Ogden, and, having lived on 23rd at the bottom of Taylor Canyon, can confirm it is not. I couldn’t figure out why folks cared, but the jigback turnaround is so compact, it was probly not a crazy challenge on the design end to tuck it away. Construction, on the other hand, likely was quite the undertaking. As MB98 points out, there ain’t no room at the inn. The gate for Banana Chute/Taylor Canyon is a few ski lengths from the end of the unload ramp, and the exit to the in-bounds skeening is immediate and challenging. With people walking rather than skiing, if a crowd does form, it isn’t dangerous. A 6-pack or even a quad would be a turd fest, especially given how bad folks are at following “Expert Only” signs.
Another good example of this setup is the Valluga II jigback in St. Anton (Austria), Valluga I is a bigger tram that can carry more people, but Valluga II to the true summit is tiny, it makes the beercan tram on Allen Peak look spacious by comparison. There’s nothing but a handful of steep bowls and chutes off it, sounds familiar… ;)
Lift Blog 
The new tower has a european style lifting frame. Look on Snowbasin’s instagram post.
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You can delete my old post now, thanks for adding the new pictures of the tower
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This lift was originally named “Olympic Tram” when installed. Its name was changed to “Mt. Allen Tram” shortly after the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002 and again to “Allen Peak Tram” in 2008.
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Would someone mind explaining to me why there is a UNI station on a tram? What purpose does it serve? It may be obvious but this still baffles me.
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It’s a terminal covering meant to match the adjacent JP lift. It’s not actually a UNI terminal.
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Grampa Earl wanted things to look classy. Same reason he sprang for the fancy matching cladding on the late Wildcat and Middle Bowl Triples. Also why Strawberry gots that puuuurty barn and JP and Needles have the underground garages. Or internal routing on bikes these days. Gotta have the look.
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and the former little cat double. bottom terminal at least.
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Ay I prefer that approach to the Deer Valley/Vail/Northstar cookie cutter “luxury skiing”. Snowbasin and Sun Valley have always felt classy but rugged. The lodges are always spacious and rustic. The food has always been great, but not quite the 5-star Deer Valley or Whistler ulta-formal. They feel more consistently themed, and imo it’s marketing that has worked to keep them competitive with the Vails and Alterras of the world.
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Too bad Snowbasin ruined the classiness of the consistent and beautiful Doppelmayr lift enclosure aesthetics across the mountain with an LPA 6 pack, that doesn’t remotely fit in with the style and aesthetics of every other lift. They should have gone with a 6 pack Uni-G, for both the aesthetic, and economically for part sharing. The extra cost put into these enclosures for the tram were a total waste with LPA showing up
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Wow. That’s quite the take, Tyler. They’re chairlifts. Also, how are the tram enclosures a waste when they’ve been there for twenty-five years?
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Wow I’ve never seen a space jet terminal in a tram
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They did it to match the nearby John Paul and Needles. If it didn’t have it, it would look quite weird
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Wonder why they built a tram here. Why couldn’t they have just got a high-speed quad of six?
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An olympic downhill course needs to have at least 800 meters (2624 ft) of vertical drop, that’s one of the reasons a downhill course was purpose-built near Beijing for the 2022 olympics instead of using other ski areas further north with more snow, the terrain needs to supply at least that much elevation difference. John Paul is already a monster of a high speed quad at 2435 ft of vertical, but it is just short (<200 ft) of the minimum drop the downhill required. Someone else on the blog has already gone into more detail about how there was a land swap and the tram was built with some public funds, but the Allen Peak Tram serves to add another 500 ft of vertical drop in a limited fashion. As for post-olympics usage, it serves its purpose to get the hardcore crowd up the mountain to access some of the rowdier terrain basin has, but that ridgeline is very small and can't handle big crowds (or a big lift terminal) the way JP, Needles and Strawberry do at their respective summits.
Maybe someday they replace John Paul / Allen peak with a Chondola where chairs turn around at JP lodge but cabins continue to the summit, but that's pure speculation. Basin has bigger priorities like upgrading Becker and Porky.
LikeLike
There was also some pushback from town. The terminal wasn’t supposed to be seen from Ogden, and, having lived on 23rd at the bottom of Taylor Canyon, can confirm it is not. I couldn’t figure out why folks cared, but the jigback turnaround is so compact, it was probly not a crazy challenge on the design end to tuck it away. Construction, on the other hand, likely was quite the undertaking. As MB98 points out, there ain’t no room at the inn. The gate for Banana Chute/Taylor Canyon is a few ski lengths from the end of the unload ramp, and the exit to the in-bounds skeening is immediate and challenging. With people walking rather than skiing, if a crowd does form, it isn’t dangerous. A 6-pack or even a quad would be a turd fest, especially given how bad folks are at following “Expert Only” signs.
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Another good example of this setup is the Valluga II jigback in St. Anton (Austria), Valluga I is a bigger tram that can carry more people, but Valluga II to the true summit is tiny, it makes the beercan tram on Allen Peak look spacious by comparison. There’s nothing but a handful of steep bowls and chutes off it, sounds familiar… ;)
https://www.skiresort.info/ski-resort/st-antonst-christophstubenlechzuerswarthschroecken-ski-arlberg/ski-lifts/l254/
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Are there any other SpaceJet trams?
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