Little Snow King Mountain in downtown Jackson, Wyoming is in the midst of an $8 million transformation. They are simultaneously building a new Doppelmayr quad, Wiegand alpine coaster, zip-line adventure course and brand new base lodge. The lift is nearly complete and expected to open shortly along with Snow King’s famous alpine slide. The goal was June 15th but I think it will probably be a week or so later. The alpine coaster is well on its way and planned to open in August. With a $4 million base-to-summit TechnoAlpin snowmaking system installed last summer, the future is looking good for this community ski area. The only thing they need now is a detachable summit lift and restaurant overlooking the Town of Jackson with the Tetons in the background. Willamette Pass’ six pack with gondola conversion would be perfect.
A motor room under the bottom dock houses electric motors, two generators, three braking systems and two evacuation drives.
The $31 million Jackson Hole Aerial Tram is the most expensive lift ever built at a US ski area. Constructed by Garaventa over 20 months, the new tram opened to great fanfare on December 20, 2008. It can move a hundred people 4,083 vertical feet in under nine minutes. Compared with a detachable lift, the tram is a relatively simple machine built on a massive scale.
The view from carriage level just above tower 2.
Like most jig-back aerial tramways, there are four track ropes and a single haul rope that that drives both cabins. All five wire ropes were manufactured by Fatzer in Switzerland. Five towers support the line; towers 1 and 2 are the tallest and furthest apart. Two CWA Kronos cabins move 650 passengers per hour per direction at a maximum speed of 10 m/s. Slope length is 12,463 feet.
I respect ski resorts that come up with creative, well-thought-out names for their lifts. A lift’s name will usually last decades and be passed on to subsequent lifts in the same location. KT-22 is an example of a lift name so iconic I do not even need to say the resort. Yet more than 900 lifts in the US and Canada have no name at all or go only by a letter/number. Many resorts have a bunch of lifts with generic names like “T-Bar” and “Beginner.” I set out to identify some of the most frequently-used names in hopes that the ski industry can be more creative in the future. Here are the top 10:
Summit. There are 38 lifts called Summit including nine Summit Expresses. Forty-four more lifts have other words added such as Mt. Snow’s Grand Summit Express. The temptation to name a lift Summit is obvious but it is hardly a helpful name when we are talking about machines that ascend mountains.
North. While only ten lifts are called North, 34 more are named North Bowl, North Creek, North Face, etc. The other compass directions are almost as common – there are 28 West lifts, 22 East lifts and 21 South lifts. Not very creative and I would argue most ski resort guests have no idea which direction is which.
Blue. Most ski areas have gotten away from painting their lifts bright colors and giving them corresponding names since the Forest Service banned such displays. However there are still 23 Blue lifts, 20 Green, 19 Silver, 15 Red & Gold, 7 Yellow, and a handful each of Orange, Pink and Purple lifts.
Eagle. A surprising 26 lifts have the word Eagle in their name including four that are Eagle Express. Other resorts go further with Flying Eagle, Soaring Eagle, Screaming Eagle, Golden Eagle and Copper’s American Eagle. Other popular animal names include Bear and Elk. These aren’t bad names; they are just too common.
Village. The US and Canada have 17 Village lifts including 4 Village Gondolas. I put these in the same generic category as Summit.
Sunrise. Some resorts try to get past East and West by using Sunrise and Sunset. The result is 15 Sunrise lifts and almost as many Sunsets. For an industry centered on snow, the word sun is very popular. I count 9 Sunnysides, 8 Sundances and 8 Sunshines among others.
Meadow. Learning lifts in particular seem to suffer from generic naming. Meadow is by far the most popular name for a beginner lift at 18, followed by Easy Rider at 12, Beginner (10) and Discovery (8.)
Skyline. A logging term for transporting timber by cable, Skyline is a natural name for a ski lift. But with 12 Skyline lifts and counting, it’s time to use some new logging terms.
Panorama. There are seven of these. Winter Park tried to put a spin on it with Panoramic Express but it’s still not very creative.
Last summer’s construction season had two new Summit lifts, 3 Sun variations, a Meadow and a Discovery. Hopefully 2015 will be better but it’s looking like we may see three more Summit chairs!
The Chondola at Sunday River, Maine was Boyne Resorts’ first (and arguably last) major investment after purchasing the resort from American Skiing Company in 2007. This Doppelmayr CTEC combination lift replaced two fixed grip lifts and connects the South Ridge Lodge to North Peak. The older South Ridge Express and North Peak Express run parallel enough that the latter no longer operates midweek. I would not be surprised to see this 1997 Doppelmayr detachable quad relocated within the Boyne Resorts family at some point. Big Sky perhaps?
There are 4 chairs for every gondola cabin.
At $7.2 million, the Chondola is one of the most expensive lifts ever built in New England. It is also one of only five combination lifts in North America, the others being at Telluride, Beaver Creek, Mont Orford and Northstar. It is one of only eleven lifts in North America with Doppelmayr’s European towers. Sixty-four six passenger chairs alternate with 16 eight passenger cabins that move a combined 2,330 passengers an hour. The chairs are Doppelmayr’s extra comfy “flying couches” from Austria. The Chondola is Sunday River’s longest lift at 6,427 feet although the vertical is a modest 1,138’. Continue reading →
The crew from Doppelmayr is just about finished at Snow King and they are moving down the road to Jackson Hole Mountain Resort to build the new Teton detachable quad. Most of the return terminal parts are now on site along with the haul rope. I was surprised to see the rope was manufactured in France by a company called ArcelorMittal. Apparently it’s the largest steel company in the world and they supplied the rope for Vail’s Gondola One.
Two new aerial tramways are about to open on the Italian side of Mont Blanc that will be among the steepest in the world. This is Doppelmayr’s largest project ever on Leitner’s home turf. The €110 million contract was awarded in late 2011 and construction began in 2012. Two sets of 80-passenger cabins will ascend a crazy 7,093 vertical feet in ten minutes. For comparison, Palm Springs’ tram does 5,873 feet in 12 minutes, Jackson Hole’s 4,084 feet in nine minutes.
Mont Blanc will have CWA’s first fully-rotating cabins.
Mont Blanc can be accessed from both the Italian and French sides. There is also a highway tunnel under the mountain, but that’s not nearly as cool. The existing setup on the Italian side requires riding three lifts built in the 40s and 50s to reach Point Helbronner at 11,358 feet. The French side has two tramways, the famous Aguille du Midi 1 & 2 that reach 12,392 feet. Connecting the French and Italian summits is a 3.1 mile bi-cable pulse gondola that opened in 1957.
Both new trams will have the world’s first 360-degree rotating cabins (others like the Palm Springs Tramway have only rotating floors.) Built by CWA, these 80-passenger cabins will feature heating, air conditioning and video screens showing live camera views.
System Statistics
Both sections will be in new alignments as shown in Google Maps above. The first section ascends from the village of Entreves to a mid-station called Le Pavillon with three towers along the way. It will move 600 passengers per hour with a four minute ride. The second section from Le Pavillon to Point Helbronner has only two towers and ascends over 4,000 feet in six minutes. Both sections will operate year-round once they open in mid-June.
Red McCombs’ 28-year battle with the Forest Service over the Village at Wolf Creek may be coming to end. A private lift would access Wolf Creek Ski Area, although the owners of the ski area do not support the Village.
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