Upper stretch of the lift line in the summer.Bottom terminal at the top of the Creekside Gondola.Return station.Lower lift line.Yan wrap-around tower 6.Riding up at tower 10.Arriving at the drive terminal.Side view of the top station.Doppelmayr Worldbook entry.
Yes, it always has long lines whenever I’ve been! I’m surprised they haven’t upgraded it yet! I feel that when they get to doing Whistler Westside that they will upgrade this to a 6 or 8. Maybe give it bubbles too? Oh, and while they’re at it, heated seats…
Current plans are to supplement Big Red instead of to upgrade it. They’re going to run a gondola from Creekside to the top of the Chic Pea. Then, Franz’s will be upgraded to a detachable quad, an realigned to run to the top of the T-Bars.
Not Really. Big Red (2,800pp/h) will be served by the Creekside Gondola (2,370pp/h), and Franz’s (2,800pp/h) will be served by Orange (2,200pp/h). There’s a lot of lifts that need installation before Big Red gets an upgrade.
The terrain has a very steep cross slope there, so the downhill side needed an extra tower. They didn’t put a regular tower to support both sides of the line because it would’ve had the uphill side very high and susceptible to wind closures. Keep in mind this lift was once a Yan detachable that was upgraded by Doppelmayr. Yan often used wraparounds for one sided towers as was done here.
I was up there the other day and noticed something a bit odd in the top terminal. I had a picture of the top terminal from the previous summer and the sticker said it had a 50% download capacity, and it was loaded as such. However, in my recent trip this winter, they had stuck a new sticker on top of the previous sticker reading 0% download capacity. Could that just be for the winter, or does that mean the lift failed some sort of test?
What’s the point of the orange gondola? They should upgrade big red to a six or even eight, replace franz’s and the t bars with a detach quad, and upgrade Creekside to a 8 or 10 passenger version.
There is a plan, I think to have a high speed quad replace Franz’s and the old T-Bars. As for the Orange upgrade, I’d honestly say putting a high speed quad or six pack running from the bottom of Big Red to the top of Garbanzo Express would be the smarter strategy. It would allow people to access the Emerald and Garbanzo areas from Creekside while bypassing the Roundhouse.
Isn’t the whole point of the Orange Gondola to increase out-of-base capacity so that more people use Creekside, and redirect people from Big Red to Franz’s and Emerald?
I agree but with a slight variation. If it were me I would move the current Big Red Chair to install the Franz/T-Bar Chair. Then I would replace both Creekside and Big Red with a 10 PAX Gondola similar to Blackcomb Gondola starting at Creekside, mid-station at Raven’s Nest then an extension to the Roundhouse Lodge. There is enough room for a cabin barn at the mid-station. Means you could get from Creekside to the Rendezvous in two lifts.
Big Red is a lapping lift, and I don’t think it would be wise to have it where people have to take off their equipment after each lap. It makes more sense to keep Big Red as a chairlift.
I mean.. it is a once in a century kind of event.. But as somebody who has preferred chairlifts since the start, I’d be happy to see them as an alternative more often.
This lift by the look of the lines should be a detach 6 of not detach 8
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Yes, it always has long lines whenever I’ve been! I’m surprised they haven’t upgraded it yet! I feel that when they get to doing Whistler Westside that they will upgrade this to a 6 or 8. Maybe give it bubbles too? Oh, and while they’re at it, heated seats…
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Current plans are to supplement Big Red instead of to upgrade it. They’re going to run a gondola from Creekside to the top of the Chic Pea. Then, Franz’s will be upgraded to a detachable quad, an realigned to run to the top of the T-Bars.
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Then a detach 6 would still make sense
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Not Really. Big Red (2,800pp/h) will be served by the Creekside Gondola (2,370pp/h), and Franz’s (2,800pp/h) will be served by Orange (2,200pp/h). There’s a lot of lifts that need installation before Big Red gets an upgrade.
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What is that wrap around tower for?
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The terrain has a very steep cross slope there, so the downhill side needed an extra tower. They didn’t put a regular tower to support both sides of the line because it would’ve had the uphill side very high and susceptible to wind closures. Keep in mind this lift was once a Yan detachable that was upgraded by Doppelmayr. Yan often used wraparounds for one sided towers as was done here.
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There was another reason too. The foundation placed there was from the original Red chair.
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Is anything else yan here besides the towers?
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The terminal masts are from the original Redline.
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The terminal masts
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I was up there the other day and noticed something a bit odd in the top terminal. I had a picture of the top terminal from the previous summer and the sticker said it had a 50% download capacity, and it was loaded as such. However, in my recent trip this winter, they had stuck a new sticker on top of the previous sticker reading 0% download capacity. Could that just be for the winter, or does that mean the lift failed some sort of test?
LikeLike
What’s the point of the orange gondola? They should upgrade big red to a six or even eight, replace franz’s and the t bars with a detach quad, and upgrade Creekside to a 8 or 10 passenger version.
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There is a plan, I think to have a high speed quad replace Franz’s and the old T-Bars. As for the Orange upgrade, I’d honestly say putting a high speed quad or six pack running from the bottom of Big Red to the top of Garbanzo Express would be the smarter strategy. It would allow people to access the Emerald and Garbanzo areas from Creekside while bypassing the Roundhouse.
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Isn’t the whole point of the Orange Gondola to increase out-of-base capacity so that more people use Creekside, and redirect people from Big Red to Franz’s and Emerald?
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I agree but with a slight variation. If it were me I would move the current Big Red Chair to install the Franz/T-Bar Chair. Then I would replace both Creekside and Big Red with a 10 PAX Gondola similar to Blackcomb Gondola starting at Creekside, mid-station at Raven’s Nest then an extension to the Roundhouse Lodge. There is enough room for a cabin barn at the mid-station. Means you could get from Creekside to the Rendezvous in two lifts.
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Big Red is a lapping lift, and I don’t think it would be wise to have it where people have to take off their equipment after each lap. It makes more sense to keep Big Red as a chairlift.
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With the current situation, Whistler is definitely reconsidering building more gondolas with no back up lift.
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I mean.. it is a once in a century kind of event.. But as somebody who has preferred chairlifts since the start, I’d be happy to see them as an alternative more often.
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