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
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.
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.
This season, due to no snow, it has become quite obvious that the current Southern Comfort reuses many of the tower foundations from the triple as the anchor bolts stick out way above the jam nuts.
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
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
Lift Blog 
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
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This lift has now outlived it’s original successor, the American Eagle high speed quad which has since been removed and scrapped.
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Do you happen to know where the triple chairs came from?
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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.
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Once they replace Explorer with the new Gondola, Dakota will be the only Heron-Poma lift left at Big Sky…
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Sorry to say Southern Comfort was never a triple,, perhaps some parts were repurposed, but not all of it.
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Southern Comfort Triple…
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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
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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.
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This season, due to no snow, it has become quite obvious that the current Southern Comfort reuses many of the tower foundations from the triple as the anchor bolts stick out way above the jam nuts.
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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
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No Dakota will be fixed for 21/22 per their status update.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The towers finish makes them look like Doppelmayr Towers.
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