View up from the base terminal.Doppelmayr Uni return terminal with exposed bullwheel.Parking rail at the bottom.Side view of the terminal.Work chair.Loading area and lift shack.Doppelmayr Worldbook entry.Leaving the base.Riding up the line.Arriving at the top.Unload at the drive.
As of December 2018, there are 3 work chairs on the rail, one dt, one ds and one fixed. Also notice how the dt grip is in the shut position, not the open one that would normally be on a rail.
Dipper should really be replaced with a Six-pack. On most days there’s a massive line that spills out of the loading area. The old HSQ should go elsewhere on the mountain, for example to replace North Bowl.
This and sky definitely need a capacity boost this and sky should be 6 pack chairs and both of the old HSQs could be relocated, Dipper could go to replace Comet for reliability reasons and sky could be relocated to a new lift from the bottom of sky to the gondola or to replace north bowl.
If only they had done that a few years ago so the old Dipper or Sky chairs could have replaced Galaxy before they bought a new triple chair. North Bowl desperately needs a replacement though. There’s great terrain under that chair but the long lift deters most people. A HSQ there might also take a little stress off of Comet and Dipper since people would have another option for lapping good tree skiing.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised by simply a terminal and grip upgrade for Comet. Would be very on brand for a resort that has a history of being stingy with lift upgrades, although I think it really deserves to be a HSS if they would just spend the money.
Not sure how much life the North Bowl chair has left in it. It is listed as a 1984 Riblet but in reality, most of it is a 1967 Riblet. Boulder and North Bowl used to be one 1967 Riblet double chair with a midstation which was split around 1984. North Bowl was then upgraded to a triple and received the chairs, crossarms, and the motor house from the old Dipper chair (also a 1967 Riblet) in 1994 when the current Dipper HSQ was installed. It’s showing it’s age with a chair falling off the line a few years ago. I would imagine at this point, it’s too old to be worth moving to a new location. Upgrading it with the current Dipper HSQ would make a lot of sense but I don’t think they would reuse the current North Bowl triple chair.
As far as Mott is concerned, it was in the 2007 master plan to replace the current Mott chair with a fixed grip quad extending to the top of Dipper. It really doesn’t need to be a HSQ since the ride isn’t very long and a high speed lift might encourage people who have no business in that type of terrain. Honestly I even think they could get away with a simple extension and realignment of the current double chair. There is really only a line down there on the busiest powder days of the year and even then it’s rarely more than a couple minutes.
Richard Lee – Agree 100%. The crowding on runs in the East Peak pod often approaches dangerous levels, with just the two HSQ’s. So much could be done to alleviate this simply by grooming a few more runs. Leaving so many on-piste runs to become moguled, iced over minefields is nuts, for two reasons:
Heavenly has a great abundance of off-piste terrain for those too good or too cool to ski groomers.
Like it or not, the overwhelming majority of Heavenly’s clientele spend most, if not all, of their day on groomers. For all those folks to be relegated to such a relatively tiny percentage of the mountain borders on criminal.
They are not. As someone else mentioned earlier in the thread, there have at times been other lifts’ work chairs parked on this rail- my guess is they use it as convenient storage.
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Seems weird the work chair has DT grips when the rest of the chairs on the line have DS grips.
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As of December 2018, there are 3 work chairs on the rail, one dt, one ds and one fixed. Also notice how the dt grip is in the shut position, not the open one that would normally be on a rail.
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I wonder how you would even use the DT grip work chair, or the fixed chair. How does the fixed chair even sit on the parking rail?
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Dipper should really be replaced with a Six-pack. On most days there’s a massive line that spills out of the loading area. The old HSQ should go elsewhere on the mountain, for example to replace North Bowl.
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While Comet is entirely in Nevada, minus the unload ramp which is in California, Dipper enters California between towers 12 and 13.
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This and sky definitely need a capacity boost this and sky should be 6 pack chairs and both of the old HSQs could be relocated, Dipper could go to replace Comet for reliability reasons and sky could be relocated to a new lift from the bottom of sky to the gondola or to replace north bowl.
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If only they had done that a few years ago so the old Dipper or Sky chairs could have replaced Galaxy before they bought a new triple chair. North Bowl desperately needs a replacement though. There’s great terrain under that chair but the long lift deters most people. A HSQ there might also take a little stress off of Comet and Dipper since people would have another option for lapping good tree skiing.
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I’ve never skied Heavenly, but this is my idea for a shuffle:
– New terminals and grips for Comet, reuse the rest
– HSS for both Dipper and Sky
– Move dipper HSQ to North Bowl
– Use North Bowl triple to create the long proposed Bottom of Sky->top of Gondola link
– Move Sky HSQ to create an extended Mott HSQ (that ends at the top of dipper)
– Putt Mott on a truck and ship it down to Kirkwood to service Thimble Peak/Cirque
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I wouldn’t be at all surprised by simply a terminal and grip upgrade for Comet. Would be very on brand for a resort that has a history of being stingy with lift upgrades, although I think it really deserves to be a HSS if they would just spend the money.
Not sure how much life the North Bowl chair has left in it. It is listed as a 1984 Riblet but in reality, most of it is a 1967 Riblet. Boulder and North Bowl used to be one 1967 Riblet double chair with a midstation which was split around 1984. North Bowl was then upgraded to a triple and received the chairs, crossarms, and the motor house from the old Dipper chair (also a 1967 Riblet) in 1994 when the current Dipper HSQ was installed. It’s showing it’s age with a chair falling off the line a few years ago. I would imagine at this point, it’s too old to be worth moving to a new location. Upgrading it with the current Dipper HSQ would make a lot of sense but I don’t think they would reuse the current North Bowl triple chair.
As far as Mott is concerned, it was in the 2007 master plan to replace the current Mott chair with a fixed grip quad extending to the top of Dipper. It really doesn’t need to be a HSQ since the ride isn’t very long and a high speed lift might encourage people who have no business in that type of terrain. Honestly I even think they could get away with a simple extension and realignment of the current double chair. There is really only a line down there on the busiest powder days of the year and even then it’s rarely more than a couple minutes.
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Absolutely not, there are way too many people on these runs as it is!
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Richard Lee – Agree 100%. The crowding on runs in the East Peak pod often approaches dangerous levels, with just the two HSQ’s. So much could be done to alleviate this simply by grooming a few more runs. Leaving so many on-piste runs to become moguled, iced over minefields is nuts, for two reasons:
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Are DS and DT grips interchangable? I see the work chair has DT grips.
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They are not. As someone else mentioned earlier in the thread, there have at times been other lifts’ work chairs parked on this rail- my guess is they use it as convenient storage.
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