This lift was one of two on Bear Mountain but is the only that remains.The bottom station is a classic Yan model with three legs.Top terminal with fixed drive.View down from the summit with new tower heads from Poma.Looking up at the breakover.View down the steep lift line.Lower station near the Skye Peak Express.Side view of the bottom terminal.Lift overview.
This lift could really use an upgrade with the South Ridge Quad back. Skye Peak Express regularly has large lines because it is the best way to get from the Bear Mountain base to the main area of the mountain. If this lift went detachable, it could relieve Skye Peak as skiers would now be incentivized to go Bear Mountain -> South Ridge go from there.
True, although given that the trails from Bear Mountain are mostly expert and the lift isn’t too long I doubt they would put a detachable here without the South Ridge Quad being in place to allow beginners to have somewhere to go. Usually, lifts go detachable because they are either A) long or B) service a wide range of skiers/are popular. Since ride time isn’t an issue here, B would be good justification.
There’s literally no need to upgrade this lift. It only runs on weekends and doesn’t get crowded. Most people take the Skye Peak Express and this is really just a reliever lift for it. The only terrain you can only get to from this lift is the very top of Outer Limits and Devil’s Fiddle and most customers can’t even ski those trails anyways.
I’m interested as to what they’ll do with this liftline. I feel like it’s getting to that age, and the fact it’s a Yan doesn’t help matters. I’d say it has 10-15 years max. At that point, should the replacement be detachable or Fixed Grip? I’d imagine they’d go with another Fixed Grip because it’s short and mostly bump runs, but I don’t ski at Killington very much.
You just answered your own question :) More load on the heavy side. Other manufacturers would have added more sheaves, but Yan used higher-load sheaves in certain places rather than just adding more standard sheaves. Our A-lift has this feature. Most towers have the same number of sheaves on both sides, but the heavy side has beefier sheaves than the light side.
According to a Killington lift mechanic, when this lift was converted to a quad in the 1980s, Yan replaced the sheaves on the breakover towers with their aluminum hubcap sheaves. At some point since, Poma/LPOA switched out the entire towerheads, due to the problems with the hubcap sheaves. It appears that there was some clearance issue (perhaps due to the smaller sheaves?), so this may explain the chice to replace the entire towerheads instead of just the sheaves.
They don’t open this lift as much. It’s a very steep lift and meets up with the former Devils Fiddle Quad. Serves mainly expert runs but you can access anything off this lift. ANYTHING! It’s great access for Skye Peak. You can see south ridge, Skye peak, and K1-Peak at the top
Lift Blog 
This lift could really use an upgrade with the South Ridge Quad back. Skye Peak Express regularly has large lines because it is the best way to get from the Bear Mountain base to the main area of the mountain. If this lift went detachable, it could relieve Skye Peak as skiers would now be incentivized to go Bear Mountain -> South Ridge go from there.
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And not everything on Bear Mountain can be reached from Skye Peak.
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True, although given that the trails from Bear Mountain are mostly expert and the lift isn’t too long I doubt they would put a detachable here without the South Ridge Quad being in place to allow beginners to have somewhere to go. Usually, lifts go detachable because they are either A) long or B) service a wide range of skiers/are popular. Since ride time isn’t an issue here, B would be good justification.
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There’s literally no need to upgrade this lift. It only runs on weekends and doesn’t get crowded. Most people take the Skye Peak Express and this is really just a reliever lift for it. The only terrain you can only get to from this lift is the very top of Outer Limits and Devil’s Fiddle and most customers can’t even ski those trails anyways.
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I’m interested as to what they’ll do with this liftline. I feel like it’s getting to that age, and the fact it’s a Yan doesn’t help matters. I’d say it has 10-15 years max. At that point, should the replacement be detachable or Fixed Grip? I’d imagine they’d go with another Fixed Grip because it’s short and mostly bump runs, but I don’t ski at Killington very much.
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In 40 years the only lifts will be high speed. Probably High speed detachable
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In pic 1, why did Yan use larger sheaves on the heavy side than the light side?
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You just answered your own question :) More load on the heavy side. Other manufacturers would have added more sheaves, but Yan used higher-load sheaves in certain places rather than just adding more standard sheaves. Our A-lift has this feature. Most towers have the same number of sheaves on both sides, but the heavy side has beefier sheaves than the light side.
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The last towers have LPOA frames, but not the rest of the lift line. Why ? Only because they are breakkover towers ?
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According to a Killington lift mechanic, when this lift was converted to a quad in the 1980s, Yan replaced the sheaves on the breakover towers with their aluminum hubcap sheaves. At some point since, Poma/LPOA switched out the entire towerheads, due to the problems with the hubcap sheaves. It appears that there was some clearance issue (perhaps due to the smaller sheaves?), so this may explain the chice to replace the entire towerheads instead of just the sheaves.
LikeLike
They don’t open this lift as much. It’s a very steep lift and meets up with the former Devils Fiddle Quad. Serves mainly expert runs but you can access anything off this lift. ANYTHING! It’s great access for Skye Peak. You can see south ridge, Skye peak, and K1-Peak at the top
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