Leitner-Poma Omega detachable terminal at the base.Tri-leg return station.View up the line on stage I.Tower 3.Looking up stage II.The angle station.View towards the summit.Side view of the mid-station with turn.View down stage I.Angle station from below.Top station with maintenance bay.Triple tower with shared tubes.Top station maintenance rail.Riding up in winterTop station side view.Lift line view from the gondola.Stage II line.Just before the angle station.Towers 17-19 share two tubes.The bottom terminal and lower section towers were moved slightly in 2022 to make room for the Wild Blue Gondola.Arriving at the mid-station after the slight modification in angle.The upper section was left untouched during the remodel.New lower station location in between two gondolas.Side view of the bottom terminal.Modified angle station.The angle got slightly sharper with the gondola change.View up the relocated lower line.Relocated towers 1 and 2.
60 thoughts on “Christie Peak Express – Steamboat, CO”
Donald M. ReifFebruary 27, 2019 / 8:11 pm
The altitude at the top of the Christie Peak Express is lower than the altitude of the loading station on the Storm Peak Express, due to the geography of the terrain.
I like how this lift so nicely cleaned up the base area and improved operational efficiency. Before, it was a tangled mess of 5 fixed grip lifts. Three double chairs (Headwall, Preview, and Christie 2) were removed and this lift has higher capacity than all of them combined. The South Face Triple was also realigned to become the new Preview, a dedicated beginner lift. When I was at Steamboat in December 2015, I much preferred riding this lift to the Thunderhead Express over riding the gondola which ran painfully slow, stopped frequently, and had a massive line. However, next year with the second phase of the gondola upgrade, it will no longer be the highest capacity lift out of the base area.
It’s replacing basically everything not replaced in 2017. New cabins, towers, motor, and drive bullwheel. Sticking with 8 person cabins but increasing capacity to 3600 by having 12 more and increasing line speed to 1200 feet per minute.
I don’t think loading will be an issue on the new gondola because there is a ton of space on the platforms due to the terminals being super long and the fact that the new cabins will be level walk in to further speed things up. Interval will be 8 seconds.
Christie has a capacity of 3200/hr but not all of it can be used for out of base traffic because beginners get off at the mid station. During the morning rush I think they encourage beginners to use the Preview Triple to allow more of this lift’s capacity to bring people out of the base. The Bashor Bowl complex will alleviate this further.
The old gondola could run at 5 m/s and this one will be designed for 6 m/s. It is possible they ran the old one at only 4.5 but plan on running the new one at 5.7, which their sister resort Tremblant often runs their gondola at. No way it is 5.5 and 6.7.
My first time to Steamboat was the year that they built Christie Peak Express. And I always started out going this lift to the Thunderhead Express lift, thanks to the little warmup run one gets migrating over.
Since these photos were taken, the hill has become a bit cluttered with the installation of the alpine coaster, which revolves around the lift line from tower 11 on down. But is still better than the pre-2007 gaggle of chairlifts.
Why should a midway unloading station be an indicator for if the lift has footrests or not? The Orange Bubble at Canyons has footrests, even though the lift has a midstation.
It sounds like the bottom terminal will shift closer to the Steamboat Gondola because Wild Blue will start where CPE does now. The mid station angle will become sharper and switch to a double groove bullwheel setup rather than horizontal sheaves. LPOA is doing the work. Preview will be removed.
That is a lot more work than I thought would occur. I figured they would simply move the bottom terminal uphill along the existing liftline to minimize the cost and work needed to be done.
With Christie peak being in that location, I’m guessing the lil rodeo park will built somewhere else as the half pipe ends where the relocated Christie peak starts.
This sort of modification work sounds like a reverse “Red Pine” situation. Because this is exactly what happened at PCMR when Orange Bubble was built: they relocated the Red Pine Gondola’s bottom terminal to start near the Cabriolet (with Orange Bubble starting in the gondola’s old starting location), which necessitated building a custom Challenger terminal to act as a turn station. What makes Steamboat’s case an inversion is that it’s the chairlift being rerouted to make room for the gondola, and it’s replacing one turn station with a sharper one rather than getting an all-new one.
It’ll be interesting seeing them create a custom Omega terminal to accommodate the double-grooved bullwheel setup.
The lift has two haulropes, and the double-grooved bullwheel transfers torque from the one directly being moved by the drive down to the one that isn’t. LPA has done this with Treeline Cirque.
I’ve watched early morning ops on CPE via the webcam and it’s fun to watch her run at full speed for about 20-30 min in the AM when they are doing all the checks. I’d guess the full 1000 FPM or more, and then they bring her back to 700-800 FPM for normal day ops, given the high number of newbies, I’d guess. When she is running fast, anyone who rides up (staff) can be in for a bit of a bounce or two right out of the lower station, more so than I’ve seen on a number of other High speeds.
Since the bottom station is being moved to a different location, does that mean the mid-station also has to be realigned since the haul rope will now be reaching the mid-station at a different angle?
Bottom towers started being installed this week, and new bottom terminal location foundation is poured and they are setting up the support beams now. Looks like the bottom terminal could be re-installed as soon as next week. Not counting the operator house.
Looks like they may be re-painting the bottom terminal blue, possibly to match the same color as Wild Blue.. Wild Blue cable is now spliced but CPE not yet strung up or spliced.
They loaded the chairs onto the lower line today. I wonder if they will need to do a load test given that they relocated the bottom terminal and towers below the mid-section? Steamboat is planning to open in 3 weeks.
It appears they indeed are doing load testing. They loaded the chairs this morning and have been running it throughout the day. Looks like she’ll be ready when they open in 2 weeks. They better start getting the snow guns going down in that area soon. Work continues on the new Gondola. No cabins on the line yet, except for 1 test gondola in the bottom station. but the grip maintenance facility is moving right a long.
What it looks from the live cam is that the queues for loading are on skiers right which would make sense for 90 loading but it is still inline which means skiers have to make a turn when they are pushing themselves up to the loading point. Why didn’t Steamboat change to 90 loading if it was possible?
Yup, although they haven’t moved on that project. Kurt uses the towers for rigging training for my counterparts (and this past few weeks, for my students as well).
When they adjusted the bottom station for Wild Blue, did they completely rebuild the midstation, or just majorly modify it to accommodate the sharper angle and the double groove bullwheel?
They modified it. All detach terminals these days, regardless of manufacturer, are modular in construction so it wasn’t much of a stretch to build only the new middle bend and reattach the lower section at its new angle and location.
Those are Pomapasses- a basic place for us to stand, tie off fall pro, and work on the assemblies. They’re a Poma design from the early 80s, if not before that, so not a Leitner-Poma design. Not a catwalk but better than nothing :)
Phht. You broke in at Crystal and worked on many 70s Riblets. Catwalks are for fluffy people who use things like “fall protection” and who’d “rather not die”. Just squeeze them adductors a little harder. Oh wait.
Something happened to cause them to close CPE over the weekend and today, (Monday) no info on the website but on facebook they had a reel pop up indicating it was closed yesterday for maintenance, and then a new reel indicating closed today for “maintenance” Seems a bit odd they’d pull it down for routine maintenance in a busy part of the summer for biking and what not. The Gondola is still running.
Steamboat put an update out. “Christie Peak Express lift will be closed until further notice to work on soil stabilization near tower 14. While the lift itself is in good condition, it’s not currently rideable during this essential work.”
Yeah wordpress is great but one issue i have with it is trying to add photos. They always seem to get caught in that spam filter or something when you post them in any decent number
Lift Blog 
The altitude at the top of the Christie Peak Express is lower than the altitude of the loading station on the Storm Peak Express, due to the geography of the terrain.
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These photos are from before Steamboat built their alpine coaster around the lift from the bottom up through tower 12.
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I like how this lift so nicely cleaned up the base area and improved operational efficiency. Before, it was a tangled mess of 5 fixed grip lifts. Three double chairs (Headwall, Preview, and Christie 2) were removed and this lift has higher capacity than all of them combined. The South Face Triple was also realigned to become the new Preview, a dedicated beginner lift. When I was at Steamboat in December 2015, I much preferred riding this lift to the Thunderhead Express over riding the gondola which ran painfully slow, stopped frequently, and had a massive line. However, next year with the second phase of the gondola upgrade, it will no longer be the highest capacity lift out of the base area.
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Do we know yet if the new gondola will be a completely new system or just further upgrades of the existing one??
Supposed to be 3600 p/h and a 8 person right?
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It’s replacing basically everything not replaced in 2017. New cabins, towers, motor, and drive bullwheel. Sticking with 8 person cabins but increasing capacity to 3600 by having 12 more and increasing line speed to 1200 feet per minute.
I don’t think loading will be an issue on the new gondola because there is a ton of space on the platforms due to the terminals being super long and the fact that the new cabins will be level walk in to further speed things up. Interval will be 8 seconds.
Christie has a capacity of 3200/hr but not all of it can be used for out of base traffic because beginners get off at the mid station. During the morning rush I think they encourage beginners to use the Preview Triple to allow more of this lift’s capacity to bring people out of the base. The Bashor Bowl complex will alleviate this further.
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Which is especially important whenever the gondola is on wind hold.
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I learned the old gondola ran at 5.5 meters per second and this new one will run at 6.7
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The old gondola could run at 5 m/s and this one will be designed for 6 m/s. It is possible they ran the old one at only 4.5 but plan on running the new one at 5.7, which their sister resort Tremblant often runs their gondola at. No way it is 5.5 and 6.7.
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My first time to Steamboat was the year that they built Christie Peak Express. And I always started out going this lift to the Thunderhead Express lift, thanks to the little warmup run one gets migrating over.
Since these photos were taken, the hill has become a bit cluttered with the installation of the alpine coaster, which revolves around the lift line from tower 11 on down. But is still better than the pre-2007 gaggle of chairlifts.
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I think this was the first six pack in Colorado to be built without footrests, due to the midway unload station.
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Why should a midway unloading station be an indicator for if the lift has footrests or not? The Orange Bubble at Canyons has footrests, even though the lift has a midstation.
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Same with Village Express at Snowmass which also turns out diagonally to unload then turns back to normal.
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I agree. Palmer at Timberline Lodge has footrests and a midstation. It has no difference.
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Riva Bahn at Vail, although not a six pack, has footrests and a midway unload both directions.
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I got to work this on 3-22-21, and I am only 9!
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Lifty or lift mechanic?
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Well, a lifty showed me the buttons and how to work them, and a mechanic showed me around in the top part of the lift!
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That sounds awesome. I wish someone had done that with me when I was younger.
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Does anyone have knowledge of exactly where the base terminal of this lift is being moved in 2022?
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It sounds like the bottom terminal will shift closer to the Steamboat Gondola because Wild Blue will start where CPE does now. The mid station angle will become sharper and switch to a double groove bullwheel setup rather than horizontal sheaves. LPOA is doing the work. Preview will be removed.
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That is a lot more work than I thought would occur. I figured they would simply move the bottom terminal uphill along the existing liftline to minimize the cost and work needed to be done.
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I had the same thought. I’ll be interested to see the new setup.
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With Christie peak being in that location, I’m guessing the lil rodeo park will built somewhere else as the half pipe ends where the relocated Christie peak starts.
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Not surprised about Preview being removed. They didn’t mention anything about Christie III?
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TBD but her days are probably numbered.
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This sort of modification work sounds like a reverse “Red Pine” situation. Because this is exactly what happened at PCMR when Orange Bubble was built: they relocated the Red Pine Gondola’s bottom terminal to start near the Cabriolet (with Orange Bubble starting in the gondola’s old starting location), which necessitated building a custom Challenger terminal to act as a turn station. What makes Steamboat’s case an inversion is that it’s the chairlift being rerouted to make room for the gondola, and it’s replacing one turn station with a sharper one rather than getting an all-new one.
It’ll be interesting seeing them create a custom Omega terminal to accommodate the double-grooved bullwheel setup.
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What exactly is a double grooved bullwheel, is there 2 haulropes?
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The lift has two haulropes, and the double-grooved bullwheel transfers torque from the one directly being moved by the drive down to the one that isn’t. LPA has done this with Treeline Cirque.
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I’ve watched early morning ops on CPE via the webcam and it’s fun to watch her run at full speed for about 20-30 min in the AM when they are doing all the checks. I’d guess the full 1000 FPM or more, and then they bring her back to 700-800 FPM for normal day ops, given the high number of newbies, I’d guess. When she is running fast, anyone who rides up (staff) can be in for a bit of a bounce or two right out of the lower station, more so than I’ve seen on a number of other High speeds.
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They removed the bottom terminal of the CPE today as they prepare to re-align the bottom area.
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Since the bottom station is being moved to a different location, does that mean the mid-station also has to be realigned since the haul rope will now be reaching the mid-station at a different angle?
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The midstation will be rebuilt to have a double grooved bullwheel.
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I was there a few days ago and preview was gone, and all of Christies bottom towers where gone. They had also removed the bottom terminal of Christie.
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Bottom towers started being installed this week, and new bottom terminal location foundation is poured and they are setting up the support beams now. Looks like the bottom terminal could be re-installed as soon as next week. Not counting the operator house.
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I take that back, those look like the new Gondola towers I am seeing on the webcam
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Looks like they may be re-painting the bottom terminal blue, possibly to match the same color as Wild Blue.. Wild Blue cable is now spliced but CPE not yet strung up or spliced.
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They loaded the chairs onto the lower line today. I wonder if they will need to do a load test given that they relocated the bottom terminal and towers below the mid-section? Steamboat is planning to open in 3 weeks.
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It appears they indeed are doing load testing. They loaded the chairs this morning and have been running it throughout the day. Looks like she’ll be ready when they open in 2 weeks. They better start getting the snow guns going down in that area soon. Work continues on the new Gondola. No cabins on the line yet, except for 1 test gondola in the bottom station. but the grip maintenance facility is moving right a long.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y31TXIpZFc8?t=135
They gave the terminals the same color scheme as Elkhead.
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What it looks from the live cam is that the queues for loading are on skiers right which would make sense for 90 loading but it is still inline which means skiers have to make a turn when they are pushing themselves up to the loading point. Why didn’t Steamboat change to 90 loading if it was possible?
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It looks like the upper towers and top terminal support of christie III still remain after the lift was removed
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For ski patrol lift evac training I am told.
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Yup, although they haven’t moved on that project. Kurt uses the towers for rigging training for my counterparts (and this past few weeks, for my students as well).
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When they adjusted the bottom station for Wild Blue, did they completely rebuild the midstation, or just majorly modify it to accommodate the sharper angle and the double groove bullwheel?
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They modified it. All detach terminals these days, regardless of manufacturer, are modular in construction so it wasn’t much of a stretch to build only the new middle bend and reattach the lower section at its new angle and location.
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What are these bars that appear to be behind the Leitner Poma sheave trains?
https://en.gravatar.com/userimage/236557963/d719a211aa138ae4382d10e77a045110?size=original
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Those are Pomapasses- a basic place for us to stand, tie off fall pro, and work on the assemblies. They’re a Poma design from the early 80s, if not before that, so not a Leitner-Poma design. Not a catwalk but better than nothing :)
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That makes sense, thanks! I noticed the towers that have them do not seem to have catwalks.
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Phht. You broke in at Crystal and worked on many 70s Riblets. Catwalks are for fluffy people who use things like “fall protection” and who’d “rather not die”. Just squeeze them adductors a little harder. Oh wait.
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You’re right, I did. But Riblets had halos and open-ironwork tower caps, so there’s that….
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Something happened to cause them to close CPE over the weekend and today, (Monday) no info on the website but on facebook they had a reel pop up indicating it was closed yesterday for maintenance, and then a new reel indicating closed today for “maintenance” Seems a bit odd they’d pull it down for routine maintenance in a busy part of the summer for biking and what not. The Gondola is still running.
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Steamboat put an update out. “Christie Peak Express lift will be closed until further notice to work on soil stabilization near tower 14. While the lift itself is in good condition, it’s not currently rideable during this essential work.”
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After the rebuild, the chairs were reduced to 78.
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For some reason, chair 13 has Kidstop while no other chairs have it. Same sort of thing with Morningside on Chair 1.
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Probably tester chairs.
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CPE Today
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CPE Skilift today- wind hold on upper Wild Blue Gondola.
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Ok I give up on trying to add photos. It once was very easy on here. Now these stupid missing attribute messages and can’t even drag and drop anymore. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=122161329686769969&set=p.122161329686769969&type=3
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Yeah wordpress is great but one issue i have with it is trying to add photos. They always seem to get caught in that spam filter or something when you post them in any decent number
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