Doppelmayr replaced a CTEC-VonRoll detachable quad with this six pack in 2023.The lift was installed by Highlander Lift Services.Loading area.View up the line.Tower 1.View back down.Riding up the line.A heavily loaded tower with European style lifting frame.Upper lift line.Breakover towers at the top.Unloading area.Upper station overview.Another view of the top station.View from the summit.Towers 14 and 15.View down the line.A tall, three segment tower with Canadian style lifting frame.Upper lift line.Middle section of the line.Looking up.Lower lift line.Tower 4.The first two towers and bottom terminal.Looking up the line at tower 2.The new lower station takes up much less room than the old Eagle Express.UNI-G M station.Hold down tower 9.A tower near the summit.Another view of the top station.Chair with puck style foot rests.Side view of the drive terminal.
I feel about this sorta replacement the same way I do about my Forester: yeah, it’s way better than the previous beat-down Legacy L that some days acted as though you were tryna make it climb a mountain when it was really just accelerating at a fresh green light, but that ol’ car had character. It was fun. I knew all its idiosyncrasies, and all the copycats that were around when it was new were all replaced and it was just me driving it. Now, I am the same as all 8000 other boring 2018 Forester drivers around this exploding valley, and I gotta put stickers all over and and never wash it and drive it like a 16 year old with bald tyres so people don’t think I’m just copying every bougie white grandma around me. I mean, yeah, the new (well, not that new, now, kinda like Chair 2 at Bogus) car is more comfortable, hasn’t broken down once since I bought it in 2017, drives well–and importantly, smoothly–but it’s just, I don’t know, meh. The old Eagle was funky, uncomfortable, loud, wierd like Carissa (bonus points for knowing that one), fun, rad, interesting, a part of history from another time when BCC was empty and exciting. Now it’s just another blue terminal with EJ chairs in a canyon that is full of Ikon passes, Instagram accounts, and matchy top-to-bottom FlyLow with post-ironical Kinco glerves. Better for mosta y’all who like this sort of thing, but kinda sad. Like Stevo’s dad, Shooter McGavin, in SLC Punk!… “I didn’t sell out, son, I bought in.”
Although I’ve never skied here, I know it’s always a little sad to lose classic and rare lifts like the old Eagle, but as you mention the replacements bring many benefits. This new lift in particular is one of the better looking UNI-Gs in my opinion. The D-Line receives a lot of attention and praise as Doppelmayr’s premium detachable product, but I still think this 20-year-old terminal model is a great design in and of itself.
Agreed! That’s why the Forester is such an apt simile. I like mine. A lot. I think it’s a really good looking car, and it is reliable and does everything it’s supposed to, quite well at that. To paraphrase Jeremy Clarkson, it’s just a nice place to be. I’d like it more if it didn’t follow a 30th Anniversary Gold Legacy L wagon and a red 87 GL wagon, neither of which were as good, both of which left me stranded, both of which I miss like my old Kent hollowbody electric guitar I sold in ’04. Some things aren’t better just cos they’re better. I slept next to the White River at 3 in the morning when I ran out of gas on the way from a Radiohead show at the Gorge in the old GL back in ‘002. I remember one midnight in December of ‘001 spinning the tyres up to 35mph in 4 Low (MANUAL TRANSFER CASE WHEEEEEE!!!) and only managing 5 or 6 actual mph in true ground speed, hoping whomever had driven to the E Lodge before me hadn’t pulled a Joel Johnson and dumped it off the scree slope, only to wake to 32″ new and the realisation that I’d misheard Denny the week before and didn’t even need to be there, so I got to ski a 32″ day as a gift instead of working. I almost moved to Durango just cos the stock engine in my Legacy plumb blowed up driving up Camino del Rio toward Liza’s Ma’s house in ‘007. Now I just trundle safely about BoyCee in the Forester and have to content myself to kicking the tail out when there’s enough slickery snow on corners heading up to the Pioneer Lodge at Bogus. Safer, but not as fun.
I have a 2002 WRX Wagon and I would never trade it for any new Subaru, I do think a lot of stuff has just been homogenized, at one point we had at least 10 lift manufactures in this country but now we really only have 2, its part of why I want to see a break to the duopoly but that will never happen.
The other thing that is unfortunate about lifts like this is that lifts are public transit and in that they inherently build up tons of operating hours. We can see the UTA Trax trains on the Blue Line are reaching the end of their lifespan with tons of breakdowns and delays. In the case of trains and busses you can at least preserve them but you can’t do that with a lift. I only just wish we had actual diversity in designs so it wouldn’t feel like EVERY new lift install is either D-line, Uni-G, LPA. I was so excited when I saw the MND lift installed at Waterville thinking maybe we would get that but nope.
The opposite thing happened here to what happened over at Brighton. Crest had footrests as a quad but doesn’t as a six pack; with Eagle, it’s the opposite, as the quad lacked footrests while the current six pack has them.
You can also see that the lower half of the lift has been reprofiled to more closely follow the terrain, as there are now two combis below tower 9 (tower 10 on the original) where the quad had tall support towers. On the flipside, the upper section of the lift looks to be slightly higher off the ground than the quad had been.
This lift being built alongside Crest 6 allows one to compare a D-Line to a new UNI G. Plus one observes how Soltitude went in the opposite direction of Brighton: whereas the Crest quad had footrests, Crest 6 lacks them. With the Eagle Express, the quad didn’t have footrests, but the six pack does have them.
Of note, they also reprofiled the lift line from the bottom terminal up to tower 9 (former tower 10 on the quad) so that it follows the terrain more closely. As such, there are two combi towers on a segment where the quad had tall support towers.
It was because at the time Vonroll and Ctec were going to merge together. though this did not happen. It was one of the oddballs that did happen when they were planning to merge. Aside from that they also most likely wanted to continue with Ctec. rather than go with another company.
There is no ‘American’ lifting frame, unless you want to call it a ‘North American’. Towers manufactured in Ste-Jerome are the Canadian ones Peter mentions. They are standard pipe tubes for the structure, box-tube crossarms, and smaller box-tube for the lifting gantry. Euro towers are more manufacturing-intensive as everything is tapered. Since I’ve never been able to post any pictures here, refer to the above photos for context.
Lift Blog 
I feel about this sorta replacement the same way I do about my Forester: yeah, it’s way better than the previous beat-down Legacy L that some days acted as though you were tryna make it climb a mountain when it was really just accelerating at a fresh green light, but that ol’ car had character. It was fun. I knew all its idiosyncrasies, and all the copycats that were around when it was new were all replaced and it was just me driving it. Now, I am the same as all 8000 other boring 2018 Forester drivers around this exploding valley, and I gotta put stickers all over and and never wash it and drive it like a 16 year old with bald tyres so people don’t think I’m just copying every bougie white grandma around me. I mean, yeah, the new (well, not that new, now, kinda like Chair 2 at Bogus) car is more comfortable, hasn’t broken down once since I bought it in 2017, drives well–and importantly, smoothly–but it’s just, I don’t know, meh. The old Eagle was funky, uncomfortable, loud, wierd like Carissa (bonus points for knowing that one), fun, rad, interesting, a part of history from another time when BCC was empty and exciting. Now it’s just another blue terminal with EJ chairs in a canyon that is full of Ikon passes, Instagram accounts, and matchy top-to-bottom FlyLow with post-ironical Kinco glerves. Better for mosta y’all who like this sort of thing, but kinda sad. Like Stevo’s dad, Shooter McGavin, in SLC Punk!… “I didn’t sell out, son, I bought in.”
LikeLiked by 2 people
Although I’ve never skied here, I know it’s always a little sad to lose classic and rare lifts like the old Eagle, but as you mention the replacements bring many benefits. This new lift in particular is one of the better looking UNI-Gs in my opinion. The D-Line receives a lot of attention and praise as Doppelmayr’s premium detachable product, but I still think this 20-year-old terminal model is a great design in and of itself.
LikeLike
Agreed! That’s why the Forester is such an apt simile. I like mine. A lot. I think it’s a really good looking car, and it is reliable and does everything it’s supposed to, quite well at that. To paraphrase Jeremy Clarkson, it’s just a nice place to be. I’d like it more if it didn’t follow a 30th Anniversary Gold Legacy L wagon and a red 87 GL wagon, neither of which were as good, both of which left me stranded, both of which I miss like my old Kent hollowbody electric guitar I sold in ’04. Some things aren’t better just cos they’re better. I slept next to the White River at 3 in the morning when I ran out of gas on the way from a Radiohead show at the Gorge in the old GL back in ‘002. I remember one midnight in December of ‘001 spinning the tyres up to 35mph in 4 Low (MANUAL TRANSFER CASE WHEEEEEE!!!) and only managing 5 or 6 actual mph in true ground speed, hoping whomever had driven to the E Lodge before me hadn’t pulled a Joel Johnson and dumped it off the scree slope, only to wake to 32″ new and the realisation that I’d misheard Denny the week before and didn’t even need to be there, so I got to ski a 32″ day as a gift instead of working. I almost moved to Durango just cos the stock engine in my Legacy plumb blowed up driving up Camino del Rio toward Liza’s Ma’s house in ‘007. Now I just trundle safely about BoyCee in the Forester and have to content myself to kicking the tail out when there’s enough slickery snow on corners heading up to the Pioneer Lodge at Bogus. Safer, but not as fun.
LikeLike
Dang man, now that there post is some real art. Your poetry nearly brought me to tears.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you, even if your tongue is planted firmly in cheek.
LikeLike
Nah I legitimately really enjoyed reading that. Fully agree with you on most of it.
LikeLike
ShangRei – Fair enough. Thank you, without the caveats!
LikeLike
I have a 2002 WRX Wagon and I would never trade it for any new Subaru, I do think a lot of stuff has just been homogenized, at one point we had at least 10 lift manufactures in this country but now we really only have 2, its part of why I want to see a break to the duopoly but that will never happen.
LikeLike
At least, we technically have four main manufacturers in NA, Doppelmayr, HTI (LPA and Skytrac) plus MND and Partek.
LikeLike
I guess I mean successful manufactures (produce more than 5 lifts a year), if you count that its Dopp and LPA(Skytrac)
LikeLike
The other thing that is unfortunate about lifts like this is that lifts are public transit and in that they inherently build up tons of operating hours. We can see the UTA Trax trains on the Blue Line are reaching the end of their lifespan with tons of breakdowns and delays. In the case of trains and busses you can at least preserve them but you can’t do that with a lift. I only just wish we had actual diversity in designs so it wouldn’t feel like EVERY new lift install is either D-line, Uni-G, LPA. I was so excited when I saw the MND lift installed at Waterville thinking maybe we would get that but nope.
LikeLike
The opposite thing happened here to what happened over at Brighton. Crest had footrests as a quad but doesn’t as a six pack; with Eagle, it’s the opposite, as the quad lacked footrests while the current six pack has them.
You can also see that the lower half of the lift has been reprofiled to more closely follow the terrain, as there are now two combis below tower 9 (tower 10 on the original) where the quad had tall support towers. On the flipside, the upper section of the lift looks to be slightly higher off the ground than the quad had been.
LikeLike
This lift being built alongside Crest 6 allows one to compare a D-Line to a new UNI G. Plus one observes how Soltitude went in the opposite direction of Brighton: whereas the Crest quad had footrests, Crest 6 lacks them. With the Eagle Express, the quad didn’t have footrests, but the six pack does have them.
Of note, they also reprofiled the lift line from the bottom terminal up to tower 9 (former tower 10 on the quad) so that it follows the terrain more closely. As such, there are two combi towers on a segment where the quad had tall support towers.
LikeLike
beautiful lift!
LikeLike
Other than a darker shade of blue, Solitude’s UNI-Gs have the exact same color scheme as Vail’s Doppelmayr six packs.
LikeLike
Video of the lift:
The old lift, for comparison:
LikeLike
Why did Solitude go with VonRoll CTEC for the old Eagle Express, and not a more common manifacturer
LikeLike
It was because at the time Vonroll and Ctec were going to merge together. though this did not happen. It was one of the oddballs that did happen when they were planning to merge. Aside from that they also most likely wanted to continue with Ctec. rather than go with another company.
LikeLike
Make sense, Solitude already installed 4 Thiokols and 3 CTEC’s before Eagle, so they must have been happy to be buying CTEC’s first detach product.
LikeLike
What is the difference between American, Canadian, and European style lifting frames?
LikeLike
There is no ‘American’ lifting frame, unless you want to call it a ‘North American’. Towers manufactured in Ste-Jerome are the Canadian ones Peter mentions. They are standard pipe tubes for the structure, box-tube crossarms, and smaller box-tube for the lifting gantry. Euro towers are more manufacturing-intensive as everything is tapered. Since I’ve never been able to post any pictures here, refer to the above photos for context.
LikeLike