Looking down the lift line.Upper lift line.Bottom tension terminal.Top fixed drive station.Top terminal.Bottom station from above.Bottom and lift line.
All of the lifts at Silver Mountain make sense to me, except for this one. Why did they make this a fixed grip quad, the only quad chairlift at Silver Mountain in fact, yet make it have such wide chair spacing and such slow speed it has the same capacity as a traditional fixed grip double? With the exception of a small pod of short and sweet black diamonds under the chairlift (which are usually overlooked anyway when compared to the others Silver Mountain has to offer), this lift serves as an egress lift for riders who are looking to head to the Mountain House/Gondola hilltop from the Chair 2 side of the ski resort.
This lift isn’t the beginner lift at Silver Mountain either, that title would belong to the magic carpet next to the Gondola, and Chair 5 (or Chair 3 on days Chair 5 isn’t running, since the green that leads to Chair 5 can bring riders down a little further to Chair 3 at no additional difficulty). The only time I’ve ever seen significant amounts of beginner skiers on this lift were when they were lapping Alpenway in the early season before there was enough snow to open the Chair 5 greens.
Considering this lift has a 1,200pph capacity and is virtually empty save for the early season when there’s limited terrain, and closing on a peak day when everyone from the Chair 2 area is trying to get to the Gondola, it seems like a waste to have made this lift in quad gauge for everything, from the line equipment, towers and terminals, when it could’ve been a fixed grip double or triple with equal capacity. The very slow speed is also confusing since as I mentioned this lift isn’t the beginner chairlift at Silver Mountain, although it isn’t bothersome with how short the ride is anyway. The other fixed grip chairlifts at Silver Mountain are much hastier by comparison.
Before Chair 5 and the conveyor lift were added, there was a popular beginner groomed cat track that ran under Chair 1: Easy Street. Might explain what they were thinking capacity wise at the time.
Today it still seems that face under Chair 1 is underutilized. Glading between the black diamond runs could make it a more used lift.
Did VonRoll build any more quads or is this the only one?
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Winterplace in West Virginia has 3 Von Roll quads. Holiday Valley in New York had 2 Von Roll quads. There’s probably more I haven’t listed.
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although the VonRoll quads at holiday valley are now gone, there is still one operating at nearby Kissing Bridge, from 1983
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All of the lifts at Silver Mountain make sense to me, except for this one. Why did they make this a fixed grip quad, the only quad chairlift at Silver Mountain in fact, yet make it have such wide chair spacing and such slow speed it has the same capacity as a traditional fixed grip double? With the exception of a small pod of short and sweet black diamonds under the chairlift (which are usually overlooked anyway when compared to the others Silver Mountain has to offer), this lift serves as an egress lift for riders who are looking to head to the Mountain House/Gondola hilltop from the Chair 2 side of the ski resort.
This lift isn’t the beginner lift at Silver Mountain either, that title would belong to the magic carpet next to the Gondola, and Chair 5 (or Chair 3 on days Chair 5 isn’t running, since the green that leads to Chair 5 can bring riders down a little further to Chair 3 at no additional difficulty). The only time I’ve ever seen significant amounts of beginner skiers on this lift were when they were lapping Alpenway in the early season before there was enough snow to open the Chair 5 greens.
Considering this lift has a 1,200pph capacity and is virtually empty save for the early season when there’s limited terrain, and closing on a peak day when everyone from the Chair 2 area is trying to get to the Gondola, it seems like a waste to have made this lift in quad gauge for everything, from the line equipment, towers and terminals, when it could’ve been a fixed grip double or triple with equal capacity. The very slow speed is also confusing since as I mentioned this lift isn’t the beginner chairlift at Silver Mountain, although it isn’t bothersome with how short the ride is anyway. The other fixed grip chairlifts at Silver Mountain are much hastier by comparison.
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Before Chair 5 and the conveyor lift were added, there was a popular beginner groomed cat track that ran under Chair 1: Easy Street. Might explain what they were thinking capacity wise at the time.
Today it still seems that face under Chair 1 is underutilized. Glading between the black diamond runs could make it a more used lift.
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Are these chairs as narrow as 1970s Hall quad chairs?
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