I believe this to be the longest fixed-grip lift in the world at nearly 10,000 feet. It takes 21 minutes to ride.The drive station came from the Sundance quad.Lower terminal and bottom portion of the lift line.Looking back towards the base.Passing through the midway loading station.Towers are widely spaced because the line has so few chairs. Chair spacing is 115 feet!Fixed bullwheel up top.View down the upper line.Mid-station from above.Side view of the top terminal at Top of the World.View from the summit with very wide chair spacing.Line above the middle station.Load point at the mid with half tower.View riding out of the mid-station.A hold down tower.Doppelmayr ’90s style tower head.Tower 29 and the new Crystal Chair.View down below the mid-station.Looking up toward the mid.Lower lift line.The first few towers over a horse pasture.View up near the base.Arriving at the mid load.Tower 19.Doppelmayr Worldbook entry.
It’s not rare for high speed chairlifts to have midstations. Collins @Alta, Orange Bubble @Park City, Peak 8 SuperConnect @Breck, Riva Bahn @Vail, etc.
High speed quads/six packs with half-stations are rarer. Collins, the Peak 8 SuperConnect, and the Riva Bahn Express all have turns at their midstations. There’s only a few high speed quads/six packs I can think of with half-stations, those being Orange Bubble, the Village Express (Snowmass), and the West Buttermilk Express.
It wouldn’t take too much to convert to a high speed quad. Just put that half midstation in, retain all the other towers, and switch out the chair hanger arms. The 115 foot gaps between chairs on the line would still be maintainable.
One master plan proposes a high speed quad starting near the bottom of the West Bowl T-Bar, running to the top of Burfield, to replace the upper half above the midstation and take over for service on the Juniper Ridge. The plan also had a detachable replacing Crystal on a longer alignment, which would cover the rest of the Crystal Bowl. And in it, Burfield would be cut back to end around the midstation.
There is no way that will happen, because both burfield and the west bowl T-bar are very low traffic. It would be nice to have a HSQ for the new crystal, but the plans for a quad are already final
They wanted a new Sundance lift because it was one of the most high capacity lifts at Sun Peaks, so they just took a bunch of parts from the quad before it so Burfield would be cheap
This lift is a good example of Nippon Cable (the corporation that owns Sun Peaks) choosing the cheap route, instead of making it a detachable like it should have been.
Let’s keep in mind the extremely low ridership that prevails on this lift. A lineup at midstation or the base is a seldom-occurring experience. Yes, it’s a bugger for the ride, but there isn’t much reason anyone should ride to the bottom anyway. The only foreseeable reason is that the base of the Burfield complex can be fantastic snow, but not often. Midstation is far more popular, and from there it’s a much more average ride; only about 10 mins or so.
The problem is that detachables run several times the price of a fixed grip. It just isn’t economically feasible to spend that money on a lift that’ll only serve 470 guests per hour.
Midstation has been getting busier since the Crystal moved to go to Top Of The World (in my observance). More skiers go over the Chief (Sunnyside, etc) now.
I’m not too clear on if the new West Bowl lift can replace going to Burfield Mid though. Master plan looks like no, but I think the West Bowl is going higher and lower than listed on the plan…
Their own lift are license build of Dopplmayr designs. I’m pretty sure the agreement spells out exactly where they can be sold, and I’m also pretty sure that does not cover Canada.
Nippon Cable is based in Japan. When this lift was built (1997), Japan was going through an economic crisis. They must have not had enough money to buy a new detachable for this. They must have also not renewed their licence with Doppelmayr for the DT grips, since they made lifts with DS until at least 2007. Now they are doing much better and have built 4 or 5 funitels.
2 Things about the old centerpole
1. the sideways footrest bars like the mueller ones at mt sutton and other canadian doubles of this era were sometime replaced with the tradional lap bars seen on mueller CP doubles
2. I have a sun peaks book with plenty more pictures of the old double
Any chance you could send (some of) those pictures you have of the old double! I’ve looked long and hard to find pictures of it, but I havent found many online.
I’m actually surprised to see the picture from skier72 above, I thought it was a bottom drive lift and I thought I’ve seen pictures of the bottom terminal before which had the drive equipment in some sort of building. I have no idea what else it would be though, that lift terminal doesn’t look like any other I’m familiar with, and its supposed to be a Murray-Latta lift.
Here’s another photo I found of the Burfield double from the mid-station looking upward. I’m still trying to find a photo showing the top terminal, but this one shows the towers at least.
I recently visited Sun Peaks, which was part of the reason for my renewed interest in the old Burfield. This was my first time in years, and it was one of the best ski days I’ve had in memory!
There are some old pictures of the original burfield in the village daylodge and around the resort, including the ones from this thread, but also some other ones I had not seen before. Turns out, the photo of what I thought was the base drive terminal building was actually the top terminal after all! Indeed, that sizeable drive building was built on that narrow, windy, remote summit ridge. It was the world’s longest chairlift at the time.
Of course, that matches the return terminal pictured above. That terminal pictured above is different from any other Murray-Latta terminal I have seen, and it has different sheaves too compared with other M-L lifts. I guess, this lift was built 4-5 years before any other M-L lifts I am aware of, so it makes sense that the design was a bit different. Other aspects match later M-L lifts I am familar with, though.
To be honest, I am quite surprised that they would build the lift as a top drive, in such a remote location. Lifts of the era featured plenty of bottom drive setups, which seem much more convenient in terms of utilities and maintenance. Bottom vault drive/top tension was quite common (correct me if I am wrong) on Murray-Latta and Riblet lifts of the era in the Northwest, whereas Muellers were often bottom drive and tensison. Mt Seymour’s lower lifts were a bit of an exception due to the road/parking lot being at the TOP of the slope for Ridge and Lodge.
Finally, one of the historic photos from the opening festivities I saw had (60s era BC minister of highways) Phil Gaglardi riding the lift up, which led me to believe that the BC Goverment was involved with this project as with many other early BC ski hill projects, and these government investments tended to involve the (local) Murray-Latta firm for infrastructure. (Other examples are the initial developments of Cypress, Seymour and Manning).
The Worldbook Entry for some reason depicts the lift when it was the short lived Sundance Fixed Grip Quad from 1993, the only pictures I can find of the Fixed Grip Sundance.
Lift Blog 
The problem with that is the mid station. They could build a minimalist half mid station like they did at park city
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It’s not rare for high speed chairlifts to have midstations. Collins @Alta, Orange Bubble @Park City, Peak 8 SuperConnect @Breck, Riva Bahn @Vail, etc.
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High speed quads/six packs with half-stations are rarer. Collins, the Peak 8 SuperConnect, and the Riva Bahn Express all have turns at their midstations. There’s only a few high speed quads/six packs I can think of with half-stations, those being Orange Bubble, the Village Express (Snowmass), and the West Buttermilk Express.
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Palmer, as well.
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If you include gondolas Quicksilver at PC has one.
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Also Christie Peak Express @Steamboat has a turning mid.
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Maillard Express at Le Massif, Quebec also has a Half station.
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Flying Mile at Tremblant has a half mid-station only used in the summer (for the luge).
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Treeline Cirque at Palisades Tahoe in California has the only turning LPA midstation.
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Not any more. Base to Base Gondola.
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It wouldn’t take too much to convert to a high speed quad. Just put that half midstation in, retain all the other towers, and switch out the chair hanger arms. The 115 foot gaps between chairs on the line would still be maintainable.
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One master plan proposes a high speed quad starting near the bottom of the West Bowl T-Bar, running to the top of Burfield, to replace the upper half above the midstation and take over for service on the Juniper Ridge. The plan also had a detachable replacing Crystal on a longer alignment, which would cover the rest of the Crystal Bowl. And in it, Burfield would be cut back to end around the midstation.
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There is no way that will happen, because both burfield and the west bowl T-bar are very low traffic. It would be nice to have a HSQ for the new crystal, but the plans for a quad are already final
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Why didn’t they make it a HSQ originally?
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They wanted a new Sundance lift because it was one of the most high capacity lifts at Sun Peaks, so they just took a bunch of parts from the quad before it so Burfield would be cheap
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Why does the chairlift take 21 minutes??? That’s so long. Are they thinking of updating the lift system?
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This lift is a good example of Nippon Cable (the corporation that owns Sun Peaks) choosing the cheap route, instead of making it a detachable like it should have been.
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Let’s keep in mind the extremely low ridership that prevails on this lift. A lineup at midstation or the base is a seldom-occurring experience. Yes, it’s a bugger for the ride, but there isn’t much reason anyone should ride to the bottom anyway. The only foreseeable reason is that the base of the Burfield complex can be fantastic snow, but not often. Midstation is far more popular, and from there it’s a much more average ride; only about 10 mins or so.
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Sure, but capacity isn’t the point of a detachable. They don’t move more people than fixed grips, they just reduce time spent on the lift.
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The problem is that detachables run several times the price of a fixed grip. It just isn’t economically feasible to spend that money on a lift that’ll only serve 470 guests per hour.
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Problem comes when Crystal is closed; all the traffic gets directed down to Burf; 30 minute wait time. Yikes.
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Midstation has been getting busier since the Crystal moved to go to Top Of The World (in my observance). More skiers go over the Chief (Sunnyside, etc) now.
I’m not too clear on if the new West Bowl lift can replace going to Burfield Mid though. Master plan looks like no, but I think the West Bowl is going higher and lower than listed on the plan…
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Why didn’t Nippon Cable put in its own brand lifts?
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Their own lift are license build of Dopplmayr designs. I’m pretty sure the agreement spells out exactly where they can be sold, and I’m also pretty sure that does not cover Canada.
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Nippon Cable is based in Japan. When this lift was built (1997), Japan was going through an economic crisis. They must have not had enough money to buy a new detachable for this. They must have also not renewed their licence with Doppelmayr for the DT grips, since they made lifts with DS until at least 2007. Now they are doing much better and have built 4 or 5 funitels.
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The original Burfield double:
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For some reason, I can’t fathom what it was like riding a center pole as long as this.
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2 Things about the old centerpole
1. the sideways footrest bars like the mueller ones at mt sutton and other canadian doubles of this era were sometime replaced with the tradional lap bars seen on mueller CP doubles
2. I have a sun peaks book with plenty more pictures of the old double
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Sorry to post again, but it seems my reply didn’t properly attach to your message – see my post below!
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Another photo of the original Burfield:
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Slated chairs?
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Hey Kiroro,
Any chance you could send (some of) those pictures you have of the old double! I’ve looked long and hard to find pictures of it, but I havent found many online.
I’m actually surprised to see the picture from skier72 above, I thought it was a bottom drive lift and I thought I’ve seen pictures of the bottom terminal before which had the drive equipment in some sort of building. I have no idea what else it would be though, that lift terminal doesn’t look like any other I’m familiar with, and its supposed to be a Murray-Latta lift.
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Hi James,
Here’s another photo I found of the Burfield double from the mid-station looking upward. I’m still trying to find a photo showing the top terminal, but this one shows the towers at least.
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Wow. I struggle sitting on a double for more than 5 minutes. I can’t imagine how painfully slow it would be.
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I recently visited Sun Peaks, which was part of the reason for my renewed interest in the old Burfield. This was my first time in years, and it was one of the best ski days I’ve had in memory!
There are some old pictures of the original burfield in the village daylodge and around the resort, including the ones from this thread, but also some other ones I had not seen before. Turns out, the photo of what I thought was the base drive terminal building was actually the top terminal after all! Indeed, that sizeable drive building was built on that narrow, windy, remote summit ridge. It was the world’s longest chairlift at the time.
Of course, that matches the return terminal pictured above. That terminal pictured above is different from any other Murray-Latta terminal I have seen, and it has different sheaves too compared with other M-L lifts. I guess, this lift was built 4-5 years before any other M-L lifts I am aware of, so it makes sense that the design was a bit different. Other aspects match later M-L lifts I am familar with, though.
To be honest, I am quite surprised that they would build the lift as a top drive, in such a remote location. Lifts of the era featured plenty of bottom drive setups, which seem much more convenient in terms of utilities and maintenance. Bottom vault drive/top tension was quite common (correct me if I am wrong) on Murray-Latta and Riblet lifts of the era in the Northwest, whereas Muellers were often bottom drive and tensison. Mt Seymour’s lower lifts were a bit of an exception due to the road/parking lot being at the TOP of the slope for Ridge and Lodge.
Finally, one of the historic photos from the opening festivities I saw had (60s era BC minister of highways) Phil Gaglardi riding the lift up, which led me to believe that the BC Goverment was involved with this project as with many other early BC ski hill projects, and these government investments tended to involve the (local) Murray-Latta firm for infrastructure. (Other examples are the initial developments of Cypress, Seymour and Manning).
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Interestingly, although Burfield has a bottom drive, Crystal (which ends next to the top of Burfield) was built with a top drive.
The tightly spaced chairs on Crystal also makes Burfield’s wide chair spacing really noticeable.
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Let’s not forget that old Burf was a top drive, so the power supply for Crystal was already there.
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There’s finally a good full video of this lift!
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The sun peaks youtube channel made a Nice video about the lift, with some pictures of the original Murray Latta
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The Worldbook Entry for some reason depicts the lift when it was the short lived Sundance Fixed Grip Quad from 1993, the only pictures I can find of the Fixed Grip Sundance.
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This must be torture having to sit that long especially if its cold
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