This lift replaced a shorter Riblet double and will eventually service a new day skier base area near the bottom terminal.Leitner-Poma chairs from the Telfs, Austria factory.View up the middle section of the line.Lower lift line.Unique hold down-support tower setup at the bottom terminal.Side view of the lower station.Lift overview.Loading area and new bridge over Schweitzer Creek.RFID gates and return terminal.Tower 4 at the top of the bridge.A quad chair with LPA grip.Upper lift line.Unloading area and maintenance rail.The top terminal near two other high speed quads.Lift line seen from above. Note the remaining Riblet tower from the prior lift.Aerial view of the top drive station.Drive station.Upper station in the main village plaza.View up at tower 10.Tower 7.Creek crossing.View up at tower 4.The bottom terminal and future base area.Schweitzer creek crossing.Lift line seen from the bottom terminal area.LPA station.View departing the loading station.Tower 2.Tower 3.Riding over the bridge.Arriving at the top terminal with Great Escape in the background.View from the summit.Tower 12.
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4 thoughts on “Creekside Express – Schweitzer, ID”
Philip Jonathan KeeveDecember 30, 2023 / 5:39 pm
Finally! Long overdue but much needed on this part of the mountain.
Nope. It’s been regraded so much and looks so different that it’s kind of hard to tell, but I know the Enchanted Forest like the back of my hand. Musical Chairs loaded essentially where the bridge starts.
Thanks for the pictures, Peter! Great shots as always and you make my currently near-snowless second home look fantastic!
Some tidbits after riding this the other day:
– Surprised they didn’t go with contour loading, at least for this season. Will probably make more sense when Creekside Village and the new parking lot are in place. (Basin Express should really be contour loading too, and it was until a few years ago.)
– Also surprised they have RFID scanners down there now. They *never* used to scan tickets at Musical Chairs, in part because it was an access lift from the parking lot. Again, they’ll make more sense next year with the new parking lot and probably TVMs, so I suppose they figured they’d just get it out of the way.
– The bridge is way wider than it looks on photos. It’s a UNIT.
– I expected the new unload location about 50 feet to rider’s right to create more room in the village and…it didn’t, at all. It creates almost an even bigger chokepoint with the Basin Express lift line because as a HSQ it needs more unloading space than the prior fixed double did. This area is notorious for crowding already. I don’t know what the alternative would have been, but I do know that on busy days, like an at-capacity MLK or Presidents’ Day Saturday, they’re probably going to have to have staff members out there making sure people move along.
Lift Blog 
Finally! Long overdue but much needed on this part of the mountain.
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The double started between towers 4 and 5 of the present lift.
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Nope. It’s been regraded so much and looks so different that it’s kind of hard to tell, but I know the Enchanted Forest like the back of my hand. Musical Chairs loaded essentially where the bridge starts.
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Thanks for the pictures, Peter! Great shots as always and you make my currently near-snowless second home look fantastic!
Some tidbits after riding this the other day:
– Surprised they didn’t go with contour loading, at least for this season. Will probably make more sense when Creekside Village and the new parking lot are in place. (Basin Express should really be contour loading too, and it was until a few years ago.)
– Also surprised they have RFID scanners down there now. They *never* used to scan tickets at Musical Chairs, in part because it was an access lift from the parking lot. Again, they’ll make more sense next year with the new parking lot and probably TVMs, so I suppose they figured they’d just get it out of the way.
– The bridge is way wider than it looks on photos. It’s a UNIT.
– I expected the new unload location about 50 feet to rider’s right to create more room in the village and…it didn’t, at all. It creates almost an even bigger chokepoint with the Basin Express lift line because as a HSQ it needs more unloading space than the prior fixed double did. This area is notorious for crowding already. I don’t know what the alternative would have been, but I do know that on busy days, like an at-capacity MLK or Presidents’ Day Saturday, they’re probably going to have to have staff members out there making sure people move along.
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