Dakota – Big Sky, MT

big sky 2-18-08 005
Bottom tension station.
big sky 2-18-08 009
Looking back at the base.
big sky 2-18-08 022
Lift line with the Yellowstone Club in the background.
big sky 2-18-08 026
Upper lift line.
big sky 2-18-08 043
Last few towers.
big sky 2-18-08 044
Top vault drive.

16 thoughts on “Dakota – Big Sky, MT

  1. V3 April 14, 2018 / 5:24 pm

    Third life for this lift. The lift started its life in the early 70s as the double bubble F lift at Copper Mt CO. The Lift then moved to big sky in 1989 to became Southern Comfort triple. It was repurposed again to become Dakota

    Like

    • Collin Parsons November 15, 2018 / 9:48 pm

      This lift has now outlived it’s original successor, the American Eagle high speed quad which has since been removed and scrapped.

      Liked by 2 people

    • pbropetech March 10, 2021 / 9:04 am

      Do you happen to know where the triple chairs came from?

      Like

      • G1 April 11, 2021 / 8:28 pm

        Big Sky made them from scratch to up the capacity from a double to a triple. Almost 280 chairs to be exact. The triple chair in the bowl served as the model.

        Liked by 2 people

  2. MavRat January 1, 2019 / 11:21 am

    Once they replace Explorer with the new Gondola, Dakota will be the only Heron-Poma lift left at Big Sky…

    Like

  3. Noelle Hart February 5, 2021 / 12:32 pm

    Sorry to say Southern Comfort was never a triple,, perhaps some parts were repurposed, but not all of it.

    Like

    • Max Hart February 5, 2021 / 4:47 pm

      Southern Comfort Triple…

      Like

    • MavRat February 6, 2021 / 9:59 pm

      Sorry, but SoCo was in fact a triple before the current HSQ. I rode the old SoCo triple myself, pretty sure I know what I saw with my own 2 eyes

      Like

      • G1 October 29, 2021 / 7:34 am

        As someone on the crew who installed the first Southern Comfort in Big Sky, it was indeed a triple chair from the beginning at Big Sky, a double at Copper Mtn before hand.

        Like

  4. Sam wendles March 10, 2021 / 1:29 am

    Does anyone know if their thinking about building a new dakota lift considering this one is soooo old and has been donw the past 10 days. Hopefully a high speed quad

    Like

    • Calvin March 20, 2021 / 10:35 am

      No Dakota will be fixed for 21/22 per their status update.

      Like

      • vons3 February 21, 2023 / 9:03 am

        Yah they fixed it with the BW from the old Lone Peak lift, the old BW grenaded its cat final drive beyond repair BS tried to get a replacement fabricated but no manufacturer would touch such a project.

        Like

        • The Skier February 24, 2023 / 5:15 pm

          Did Big Sky keep a lot of the old parts from the Lone Peak triple and Shedhorn double with the intention of using them to keep Dakota running for the long haul?

          Like

    • Ryan Murphy March 20, 2021 / 12:03 pm

      There is rarely traffic at Dakota, partly because it’s only really gladed single black terrain, and partly because it’s an absolute pain to get to. You either take the tram, or spend 2 runs just on cat tracks.

      Like

  5. The Skier February 13, 2022 / 10:10 pm

    Even though Dakota is so far out, I wish Big Sky had used the old Swifty to replace Dakota. A detachable here would be really nice to reduce the ride time, plus it is probably getting difficult for Big Sky to find parts for this old Heron Poma.

    Like

    • Ryan March 19, 2022 / 10:11 am

      Nah. Not too difficult, plenty of Heron Pomas being retired, so its not too hard to get parts. Keep it running if it works well. Ride time isn’t everything. Sit back and relax a bit. Enjoy the ride and peace and quiet.

      Like

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s