I remember when this lift originally went in brand new as C-9 Rendezvous at Crystal Mountain, Wa. It always had visible on the back of the return terminal frame a hand written “Magoo, Crystal Mt.”. Even after painting the writing would wear through. (Magoo is the run the lift was routed up at Crystal.) It’s good to see it still up and running.
Interesting that there’s no net under the lift where it crosses the road. Most other lifts I’ve seen which cross over a road has a net to catch potential fallen items or skiers.
Also no safety bar! That pic of it crossing the road also makes it look like its spanning above the trees, Wonder how it compares to the Whitecap, Wisc. ski lift with the high span that they now don’t allow skiers to ride.
It is because of the trail map’s perspective. The trail map is from the perspective of someone from the north looking south at Big Sky. From this perspective, the White Otter bottom terminal is to the left of the Cascade bottom terminal. Adding to the confusion is the fact that it is hard to show this lift’s orientation on the trail map, as the bottom terminal is actually next to White Otter’s bottom terminal. We are used to viewing all of the lifts on a trail map as having their bottom terminals physically placed below their top ones, so it is almost as if this lift is placed upside down.
I guess it’s because of some sort of perspective warping, but it still doesn’t make sense why (in the perspective of the map) cascade’s top terminal goes toward the moonlight area when in reality it goes away from moonlight. Aerial view on Google earth: https://earth.app.goo.gl/uZV6LK
Looks like it still has the sketchy swing-off-the-ladder move going into the motor room door. They did improve it with the hydraulic tension; the old counterweighted one would move all over the place when you hit a stop. You could tell new operators because they’d get run over by the control panel.
Indeed. I once had a large skier freak out and jump off the load ramp after I’d hit a stop; he landed on my toe and I had a really hard time standing after that. Fun times.
Lift Blog 
I remember when this lift originally went in brand new as C-9 Rendezvous at Crystal Mountain, Wa. It always had visible on the back of the return terminal frame a hand written “Magoo, Crystal Mt.”. Even after painting the writing would wear through. (Magoo is the run the lift was routed up at Crystal.) It’s good to see it still up and running.
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Interesting that there’s no net under the lift where it crosses the road. Most other lifts I’ve seen which cross over a road has a net to catch potential fallen items or skiers.
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Also no safety bar! That pic of it crossing the road also makes it look like its spanning above the trees, Wonder how it compares to the Whitecap, Wisc. ski lift with the high span that they now don’t allow skiers to ride.
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Why is this lift going to the right of white otter on the trail maps but actually going to the left?
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It is because of the trail map’s perspective. The trail map is from the perspective of someone from the north looking south at Big Sky. From this perspective, the White Otter bottom terminal is to the left of the Cascade bottom terminal. Adding to the confusion is the fact that it is hard to show this lift’s orientation on the trail map, as the bottom terminal is actually next to White Otter’s bottom terminal. We are used to viewing all of the lifts on a trail map as having their bottom terminals physically placed below their top ones, so it is almost as if this lift is placed upside down.
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I guess it’s because of some sort of perspective warping, but it still doesn’t make sense why (in the perspective of the map) cascade’s top terminal goes toward the moonlight area when in reality it goes away from moonlight. Aerial view on Google earth: https://earth.app.goo.gl/uZV6LK
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Looks like it still has the sketchy swing-off-the-ladder move going into the motor room door. They did improve it with the hydraulic tension; the old counterweighted one would move all over the place when you hit a stop. You could tell new operators because they’d get run over by the control panel.
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I remember seeing the tension carriage slide wildly back and forth a couple times at Crystal.
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Indeed. I once had a large skier freak out and jump off the load ramp after I’d hit a stop; he landed on my toe and I had a really hard time standing after that. Fun times.
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This was once Rendezvous at Crystal from ’83 (?) to ’97 I think
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It was. If you notice, the first comment on the page refers to that.
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