Bear Mountain Express #9 – Bear Mountain, CA

The first detachable at Bear Mountain was also one of the first CTEC high speed quads.
Loading area.
Bottom terminal and lift line.
View up from the bottom terminal.
Lower station and towers 1-2.
Lift line near the summit.
Looking up at the top station.
Side view of the breakover and drive.
Upper terminal and turnaround.
Unloading area.
Tall breakover towers.
Lift line near the summit.
View down the middle part of the mile long lift line.
Steep middle section of the line.
Lower section of the line.
View up the line.
Uphill view from the base area.
Side view of the lower station in winter.
View riding up the line.
View back down the line.
Arriving at the highest lift-served point in SoCal.

14 thoughts on “Bear Mountain Express #9 – Bear Mountain, CA

  1. pbropetech's avatar pbropetech July 24, 2021 / 5:42 am

    I think so too. This design appears to be shared with the European version, before they came out with the Stealth terminals (funny how both Garaventa and Poma had North American models but Doppelmayr does not).

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  2. ski man's avatar ski man January 27, 2022 / 7:06 pm

    Even though this lift is called a CTEC it has some gareventa parts
    Like chairs and grips here at Bear Mountain

    Snow Summit same chairs

    And also this lift is CTEC the terminals look different with height adjustments.

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    • Paul's avatar Paul March 21, 2022 / 9:33 pm

      The grips, detaching equipment, and controls are almost identical to the two CTEC/Garaventa lifts at snow summit. Small differences like this chair using AK4.0 grips instead of 4.1 and PTO using shafts instead of belts. I think CTEC was already collaborating with Garaventa before they merged.

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      • SilverSubaru's avatar julestheshiba February 14, 2023 / 8:01 pm

        Yeah I was kind of wondering how different the guts of this thing are from the stealth lifts. I thought it might be different since the turnaround is not a perfect semicircle

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  3. SilverSubaru's avatar julestheshiba March 10, 2023 / 11:16 am

    I dont have any first hand experience from any lift maintenance people but I cant help but notice that while Doppelmayer Unis of the same era are being replaced due to maintenance issues and unreliability these CTEC/Garaventa chairs are still sticking around. I would love to hear from someone with first hand experience.

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    • pbropetech's avatar pbropetech August 5, 2023 / 7:41 pm

      I would argue that the Doppelmayrs of this vintage are perfectly reliable, but they take maybe some more time on our part to make them so (like anything else this old). There are very few CTEC detaches where I’m at so I don’t know as much about them, but talking to a few of my counterparts this past year I get the impression that they soak up parts and maintenance hours as much as anything else. As for why they’re getting replaced more than CTEC-Garaventas, there are just numerically more Doppelmayrs out there so it skews the perception.

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      • vons3's avatar vons3 August 8, 2023 / 12:32 am

        I do know of a number of G-Ctec Detachables that are on the shortlist for replacement but the Stealth 2 and 3s were a fairly robust design so quite a few have gotten new guts in the last few years and may live on for a time.

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  4. Anonymous's avatar Anonymous February 15, 2024 / 5:23 pm

    This lift has a design capacity of 3000pph at 1000fpm, but it now has a maximum speed of 800fpm with a capacity of 2400pph. Apparently it was too hard to consistently load a quad with spacing that tight, especially with the large snowboarder population.

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  5. Lachlan's avatar Lachlan March 15, 2024 / 4:21 pm

    Are the terminals chain driven?

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    • Anonymous's avatar Anonymous March 18, 2024 / 6:43 pm

      Tire driven. I think this is the first tire driven CTEC detachable.

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  6. Lachlan Marler's avatar Lachlan Marler December 9, 2025 / 10:14 am

    This isn’t the highest lift served point in social. Chair 8 is higher.

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