Canyon is a Yan/Poma fixed-grip quad located between the K1 gondola and the North Ridge.Tower 3.View down at T2.View up from the base terminal.Lift overview.Tall rear mast at the return station.Riding up an empty line.View back down the line.Arriving at the drive station.Yan ’80s-style drive terminal.Top station and unloading ramp.Another view down line.
When this lift was at Steamboat, it had the same bullwheel design that the Teller lift in Keystone had. Faulty welds caused the bullwheel on the Teller lift to fall off. I was at Steamboat when that happened. The Storm Peak and Sundown chairs were shut down, inspected, and modified.
It’s got a doppylmayr gear box. I was a drive operator at killington from 99-02. Worst lift to drive as the constant buzzing from the electronics cabinet behind made for a very long day as opposed to the Snowdon quad where the drive cabinet was in the drive room itself. Quite a frankenlift though. When they used to do downloading in the fall before the peak stairway was built they would load two people skip a chair, load two people skip two chairs and repeat. You would hear the motor make less and less noise as the downhill side became more loaded than the uphill side at the end of the day.
From the description on the main page, of “Relocated from Steamboat, CO with new Poma towers and chairs added”, I’m guessing that this lift was built from one of the three Yans replaced by the Storm Peak Express and Sundown Express lifts. The Sundown triple, most likely, since those would be easier to convert to a quad than either of the doubles the Storm Peak Express replaced (the original Four Points plus WJW).
The Yan parts for this lift came from the Sundown Triple. The current Four Points Triple IS the old Storm Peak triple, but was just shortened. This lift was built before Steamboat and Killington were sister resorts under ASC. The purpose of it was to provide extra capacity and reduce wait times at the old Peak Double. Experts would instead use this lift and not go to the bottom and wait 45-60 minutes for the double. While it’s less important with the addition of the K1 Gondola, it still sees a good amount of ridership and is run on weekends plus Monday/Wednesday/Friday midweek whenever the terrain is open.
Yes, it never has lines, and it does only run Weekends + MWF, but I do think a detachable lift here would greatly reduce the gondola line. The gondola always has a long line and there is really no way to increase capacity there at the moment. Reducing the need for people to take it is the best way to reduce crowds, and allowing people to remain in the Canyon pod is a great way for this to happen.
When Stratton upgraded Snow Bowl to a detachable quad, they shortened lift lines at Amex and URSA because people were now utilizing Snow Bowl and not heading all the way down to other lifts for lapping. This is the same idea.
This lift probably made a ton of sense as a quad chair when it was installed. It relieved the long and slow K double chair by serving most of the fun steep terrain with more capacity. After the gondola went in, this lift became way less useful. It went from the fast and high capacity option to the slow low capacity option. The location doesn’t help either. I’m pretty good at using a trail map but even I had trouble reaching this lift on a day where some trails were closed.
If they replace this lift with a new chair, it should be a HSQ that starts at the base area. That way it would relieve Snowdon and K-1, be easier to find, and be usable by intermediates.
I completely disagree. Intermediates have the North Ridge Quad on Killington Peak and Snowdon Six on Snowdon, an experts-only chair can exist between the two. Canyon allows for the best expert terrain pod on Killington Peak to be easily lapped, as the terrain below the lift is a simple runout and contrasts the well-pitched advanced terrain under the lift.
K-1 allows for people to get to the top of Killington Peak in the morning and then choose to either go to an intermediate terrain pod (North Ridge), an expert terrain pod (Canyon), or a mix of both (South Ridge). If they need more out of base capacity, the logical upgrade would be Superstar to a 6 or 8 pack.
On the Snowden lifts. I didn’t follow replacement reasons. My guess is, replacing the Quad allowed them to move it to Southridge. It is a 1992 Poma with much lift left. Whereas the Triple is a 1973 Heron-Poma. There’s not long lift left it that. Plus, they (and the school) went to the expense of adding the mid-station the previous season.
Now that I’ve retired to Maine, skiing at Killington will be rare. But I like Canyon as it is. It saved the long, long runout to K1 base area. This serves two significant glades and many challenging trails. Being fixed grip is fine, my legs need the rest.
My point is that this lift is overkill when you consider it’s redundancy. It probably is ~2400 pph and only really needs 800-1200 pph even on the most crowded days. It’s a bit of a waste of a mostly-poma 1990 FGQ.
Yes I agree. The face that your skis are just hanging down combined with a slow lift and wind make this lift very uncomfortable. Killington should make it a priority to replace this lift or at least get new chairs.
After thinking about it some more, I were to change this lift, I’d just move the bottom terminal up to around tower 3. Every trail (except royal flush) just funnels into that last narrow little section (spillway) which is really a wasted, flat section of run. Spillway is also south-facing, meaning that they often have trouble keeping snow down to the bottom of the lift late in the season. Removing this section of lift and starting it at the bottom of East Fall/Cascade would make ride time a minute shorter.
The only disadvantages this brings up are space constraints and access from Royal Flush. They might have to do a little bit of earthwork to fit this bottom terminal in, which they probably wouldn’t really want to. As for Royal Flush, they could build a traverse to get back to that new starting location, or they could just leave it as it is. It’s south facing and serviced by both Snowdon lifts anyways.
The topography at tower 3 would be an immense challenge for a bottom terminal. Plus, besides Royal Flush, East Fall skiers would really need to have some speed and be all the way on the righthand side of the trail to reach the lift, which could result in collisions as they pop out and cut across Double Dipper where some skiers may be trying to head all the way down.
I do think it would make sense to slightly move the bottom terminal up to about tower 2. This would essentially swap the locations of Spillway and the terminal, as the trail would now go alongside the rocks and uphill woods and the terminal would go adjacent to the little stream. This would improve circulation by removing the slight uphill u-turn needed to get on the lift today. Plus, given that the lift spins counterclockwise, having skiers arrive from the looker’s right is also a slight improvement.
Canyon was installed in 1992 not 1990. Interestingly it originally had competition carriers but they were swapped out for arceaux carriers at some point. I’m not sure of the reasoning but I assume it was to create more parts commonality since Killington has a few other lifts with arceaux carriers.
Lift Blog 
So Poma chairs and towers, Yan terminals, and a few Doppelmayr sheaves.
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No Doppelmayr sheaves on this lift. However, the bullwheel appears to be Doppelmayr.
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When this lift was at Steamboat, it had the same bullwheel design that the Teller lift in Keystone had. Faulty welds caused the bullwheel on the Teller lift to fall off. I was at Steamboat when that happened. The Storm Peak and Sundown chairs were shut down, inspected, and modified.
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It’s got a doppylmayr gear box. I was a drive operator at killington from 99-02. Worst lift to drive as the constant buzzing from the electronics cabinet behind made for a very long day as opposed to the Snowdon quad where the drive cabinet was in the drive room itself. Quite a frankenlift though. When they used to do downloading in the fall before the peak stairway was built they would load two people skip a chair, load two people skip two chairs and repeat. You would hear the motor make less and less noise as the downhill side became more loaded than the uphill side at the end of the day.
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From the description on the main page, of “Relocated from Steamboat, CO with new Poma towers and chairs added”, I’m guessing that this lift was built from one of the three Yans replaced by the Storm Peak Express and Sundown Express lifts. The Sundown triple, most likely, since those would be easier to convert to a quad than either of the doubles the Storm Peak Express replaced (the original Four Points plus WJW).
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The Yan parts for this lift came from the Sundown Triple. The current Four Points Triple IS the old Storm Peak triple, but was just shortened. This lift was built before Steamboat and Killington were sister resorts under ASC. The purpose of it was to provide extra capacity and reduce wait times at the old Peak Double. Experts would instead use this lift and not go to the bottom and wait 45-60 minutes for the double. While it’s less important with the addition of the K1 Gondola, it still sees a good amount of ridership and is run on weekends plus Monday/Wednesday/Friday midweek whenever the terrain is open.
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This is an excellent area of the mountain to ski and I really wish they put a detachable lift here to allow for nice laps.
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They could even reuse the towers (unless FGQ line gauge is different from that needed for HSQs).
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This lift never ever has a line and serves only black runs. No chance this gets replaced with a detachable, it would be a complete waste of money.
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Yes, it never has lines, and it does only run Weekends + MWF, but I do think a detachable lift here would greatly reduce the gondola line. The gondola always has a long line and there is really no way to increase capacity there at the moment. Reducing the need for people to take it is the best way to reduce crowds, and allowing people to remain in the Canyon pod is a great way for this to happen.
When Stratton upgraded Snow Bowl to a detachable quad, they shortened lift lines at Amex and URSA because people were now utilizing Snow Bowl and not heading all the way down to other lifts for lapping. This is the same idea.
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you have to go down an expert run to get to this lift so naturally it won’t attract as many people as snow bowl
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This lift probably made a ton of sense as a quad chair when it was installed. It relieved the long and slow K double chair by serving most of the fun steep terrain with more capacity. After the gondola went in, this lift became way less useful. It went from the fast and high capacity option to the slow low capacity option. The location doesn’t help either. I’m pretty good at using a trail map but even I had trouble reaching this lift on a day where some trails were closed.
If they replace this lift with a new chair, it should be a HSQ that starts at the base area. That way it would relieve Snowdon and K-1, be easier to find, and be usable by intermediates.
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I completely disagree. Intermediates have the North Ridge Quad on Killington Peak and Snowdon Six on Snowdon, an experts-only chair can exist between the two. Canyon allows for the best expert terrain pod on Killington Peak to be easily lapped, as the terrain below the lift is a simple runout and contrasts the well-pitched advanced terrain under the lift.
K-1 allows for people to get to the top of Killington Peak in the morning and then choose to either go to an intermediate terrain pod (North Ridge), an expert terrain pod (Canyon), or a mix of both (South Ridge). If they need more out of base capacity, the logical upgrade would be Superstar to a 6 or 8 pack.
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Superstar 6 with a connector trail to this chair would probably help popularize it.
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On the Snowden lifts. I didn’t follow replacement reasons. My guess is, replacing the Quad allowed them to move it to Southridge. It is a 1992 Poma with much lift left. Whereas the Triple is a 1973 Heron-Poma. There’s not long lift left it that. Plus, they (and the school) went to the expense of adding the mid-station the previous season.
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Now that I’ve retired to Maine, skiing at Killington will be rare. But I like Canyon as it is. It saved the long, long runout to K1 base area. This serves two significant glades and many challenging trails. Being fixed grip is fine, my legs need the rest.
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My point is that this lift is overkill when you consider it’s redundancy. It probably is ~2400 pph and only really needs 800-1200 pph even on the most crowded days. It’s a bit of a waste of a mostly-poma 1990 FGQ.
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Yes I agree. The face that your skis are just hanging down combined with a slow lift and wind make this lift very uncomfortable. Killington should make it a priority to replace this lift or at least get new chairs.
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After thinking about it some more, I were to change this lift, I’d just move the bottom terminal up to around tower 3. Every trail (except royal flush) just funnels into that last narrow little section (spillway) which is really a wasted, flat section of run. Spillway is also south-facing, meaning that they often have trouble keeping snow down to the bottom of the lift late in the season. Removing this section of lift and starting it at the bottom of East Fall/Cascade would make ride time a minute shorter.
The only disadvantages this brings up are space constraints and access from Royal Flush. They might have to do a little bit of earthwork to fit this bottom terminal in, which they probably wouldn’t really want to. As for Royal Flush, they could build a traverse to get back to that new starting location, or they could just leave it as it is. It’s south facing and serviced by both Snowdon lifts anyways.
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The topography at tower 3 would be an immense challenge for a bottom terminal. Plus, besides Royal Flush, East Fall skiers would really need to have some speed and be all the way on the righthand side of the trail to reach the lift, which could result in collisions as they pop out and cut across Double Dipper where some skiers may be trying to head all the way down.
I do think it would make sense to slightly move the bottom terminal up to about tower 2. This would essentially swap the locations of Spillway and the terminal, as the trail would now go alongside the rocks and uphill woods and the terminal would go adjacent to the little stream. This would improve circulation by removing the slight uphill u-turn needed to get on the lift today. Plus, given that the lift spins counterclockwise, having skiers arrive from the looker’s right is also a slight improvement.
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Canyon was installed in 1992 not 1990. Interestingly it originally had competition carriers but they were swapped out for arceaux carriers at some point. I’m not sure of the reasoning but I assume it was to create more parts commonality since Killington has a few other lifts with arceaux carriers.
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The swap must have happened sometime before 1997.
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Canyon my beloved. O beautiful Canyon.
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