This Leitner-Poma detachable quad became the first high speed lift at Loveland in 2018.It replaced a Yan triple known as Chair 1.Tower 2.A three section tower.The lift line is short and steep with a ride time under five minutes.Tower 7 near the summit.Arriving at the return terminal.Side view of the top station.View up the lift line at tower 6.Lower lift line.T4.Tower 1 and the drive station.Loading area and maintenance rail.Side view of the top terminal.The entire lift line.Another view of the bottom station.Top station turnaround area.View from the summit.Unloading area.
They are called KidStop. As the name suggests, they help prevent small children from sliding under the bar. Skytrac sells them now in addition to Leitner-Poma.
I get the idea, but there are better ways to accomplish that purpose. The way the bars have the kid restrained on Black Mountain Express at a basin is much more comfortable for riders, as it doesn’t restrict leg movement.
Looks like the kid stop stops people from lowering the bar, not too many people using the bar in those pictures. I hope they dont implement them here, i can see them being uncomfortable and our local resorts mandate lowering the bar.
I’m pretty sure that the metal webbing is called the taco. The taco is used as an insulator and makes the ride smoother. Older lifts that don’t have tacos on their chairs vibrate a lot more when going over sheaves and I know from riding lifts that lifts with a tacos on their chairs result in a smoother ride.
The metal webbing is an electrical bonding strip. It’s meant to dissipate any static that builds up in the chair so it doesn’t discharge near sensitive electronics in the terminals. There’s another one bonding the hanger to the grip (or there might be).
The ‘taco’, as UPS calls it, is the much bulkier steel and rubber section between the bail and hanger.
This is likely a question Peter can just immediately answer because he has all the data, but does anyone know of a lift that has a larger vertical rise per minute of ride time than Chet’s Dream? (which gets almost 1000 feet of vert in just over 2.5 minutes).
By being both detach & going up the face of a double-black, I would guess this has to be near the top of that ranking.
Well if you count trams: Jackson Hole’s tram gets 4000 vertical feet in 6.2 minutes (average: 645 vert ft/min), Snowbird’s tram rises an average of 674 vert ft/min, and the Gilbert Tram beats both of those with an insane average of 1587 vert ft/min.
Look at the trail map. It’s the main out-of-base access lift other than 2, which is shorter. It also has a decent pod of lapable terrain, making it the highest demand lift, even if it isn’t the iconic high alpine terrain Loveland is famous for.
Beyond that, the best candidates for highspeed replacements are probably 3, 4, and 6.
3 is such a standalone lift, and making it detachable would make their begginer area much more attribe for newer skiers. 4 and 6 both make sense, but they make more sense with another highspeed lift to get to them… Like 1. They are also fairly new, built in 2011 and 2022… So doubtful Loveland would want to replace their investments so quickly.
8 and 9 make a bit less sense for flow/logistics/wind and icing, and serve more advanced terrain pods. Mountains typically want an investment like a highspeed lift to serve more popular terrain, or essential links. They’re often fine leaving double black laps to cheaper fixed grip, lower capacity lifts. See; Lenawee vs Pali or Beavers at A-Basin, or lifts like Northway at Crystal. It’s why Kestone was eager to put a HS6 to their beginner/intermediate bowl terrain, but is fine with a double at A51.
When I first skied here Lift 1 was a 1981 Yan Triple and Lift 2 the Yan triple ran all the way to the top of Ptarmigan with a mid load station at Lift 6.
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What are the black things on the safety bar?
I’ve seen them on a couple of the new LPA lifts.
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They are called KidStop. As the name suggests, they help prevent small children from sliding under the bar. Skytrac sells them now in addition to Leitner-Poma.
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I get the idea, but there are better ways to accomplish that purpose. The way the bars have the kid restrained on Black Mountain Express at a basin is much more comfortable for riders, as it doesn’t restrict leg movement.
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Looks like the kid stop stops people from lowering the bar, not too many people using the bar in those pictures. I hope they dont implement them here, i can see them being uncomfortable and our local resorts mandate lowering the bar.
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Looks that way, but no. They’re hinged and spring-loaded so that they adjust to varying leg sizes.
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I think the chairs on this lift look cool!
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Video:
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These chairs have a piece of metal webbing where the hangar connects to the chair. What’s it used for?
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I’m pretty sure that the metal webbing is called the taco. The taco is used as an insulator and makes the ride smoother. Older lifts that don’t have tacos on their chairs vibrate a lot more when going over sheaves and I know from riding lifts that lifts with a tacos on their chairs result in a smoother ride.
LikeLike
The metal webbing is an electrical bonding strip. It’s meant to dissipate any static that builds up in the chair so it doesn’t discharge near sensitive electronics in the terminals. There’s another one bonding the hanger to the grip (or there might be).
The ‘taco’, as UPS calls it, is the much bulkier steel and rubber section between the bail and hanger.
LikeLiked by 2 people
This is likely a question Peter can just immediately answer because he has all the data, but does anyone know of a lift that has a larger vertical rise per minute of ride time than Chet’s Dream? (which gets almost 1000 feet of vert in just over 2.5 minutes).
By being both detach & going up the face of a double-black, I would guess this has to be near the top of that ranking.
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Lift 1 at Taos probably has a similar ranking to Chets Dream.
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Mineral at Snowbird gets 1400-ish vert in 3.5 minutes. Pretty close, maybe slightly more vertical though.
If Alpental Chair 2 were detachable it would probably be pretty close too.
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Well if you count trams: Jackson Hole’s tram gets 4000 vertical feet in 6.2 minutes (average: 645 vert ft/min), Snowbird’s tram rises an average of 674 vert ft/min, and the Gilbert Tram beats both of those with an insane average of 1587 vert ft/min.
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Does this lift have a Direct Drive?
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No. We have two of the first three in the country, the third being over at Winter Park.
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Why is the shortest lift at Loveland their only high speed lift????
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Look at the trail map. It’s the main out-of-base access lift other than 2, which is shorter. It also has a decent pod of lapable terrain, making it the highest demand lift, even if it isn’t the iconic high alpine terrain Loveland is famous for.
Beyond that, the best candidates for highspeed replacements are probably 3, 4, and 6.
3 is such a standalone lift, and making it detachable would make their begginer area much more attribe for newer skiers. 4 and 6 both make sense, but they make more sense with another highspeed lift to get to them… Like 1. They are also fairly new, built in 2011 and 2022… So doubtful Loveland would want to replace their investments so quickly.
8 and 9 make a bit less sense for flow/logistics/wind and icing, and serve more advanced terrain pods. Mountains typically want an investment like a highspeed lift to serve more popular terrain, or essential links. They’re often fine leaving double black laps to cheaper fixed grip, lower capacity lifts. See; Lenawee vs Pali or Beavers at A-Basin, or lifts like Northway at Crystal. It’s why Kestone was eager to put a HS6 to their beginner/intermediate bowl terrain, but is fine with a double at A51.
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When I first skied here Lift 1 was a 1981 Yan Triple and Lift 2 the Yan triple ran all the way to the top of Ptarmigan with a mid load station at Lift 6.
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